Thursday, November 30, 2006

Sea, Stone, Sand & Sky

Sea, Stone, Sand & Sky - Darwin Cliffs

Quilt above made by Ann Ferguson; from the exhibit "Culture of my Country" at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

I love this quilt. The colors are so wonderful. (Its full name is "Sea, Stone, Sand & Sky - Darwin Cliffs" - which might give you a little more of an idea where the color scheme came from.)

Friday, November 24, 2006

Global Warming

Global Warming

Quilt above made by Susan Goeddeke et al. of Harrison Township, Michigan; shown in the judged show (category: Group) at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Autumn Leaves II

Autumn leaves wallhanging

Taking a one-picture break from IQF quilts - this is my little autumn leaves wallhanging that I finally finished a month or so ago. (And here is one where you can see the back, which I really like.) I'm sorry you can't get a good look at the edges in these pictures, because I really think they came out nice, too. I am really pleased with myself about the whole thing, actually. I have said most of this before but to get it all in one place: it's 36 of the little 3" paper-pieced autumn leaf blocks (the pattern is on the small-expressions website and it's called "maple leaf" there, I think) and I did the same concentric sort of arrangement that I did on the bigger quilt that I made out of these blocks. Then I used a chinese-coin border that I started making for the big quilt and abandoned - I cut it in half lengthwise so that I had two identical 2-1/2" strips, and I used those for the border. Then I finished it by turning it, using Melody Johnson's technique from this month's Quilter's Newsletter. I have turned quilts before, but her technique of cutting the back open and then fusing it closed again makes it so much faster. (It only really works on quilts intended to be hung, though.)


We're always focused on IQF here in the Houston area, but the new Chicago Quilt Expo was also good, by all accounts. My friend Karen has two sets of pictures up, and dquilts also has some over on Webshots.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!!

Journal quilts

Journal quilts - Norma Schlager

Quilts above made by Norma Schlager; from the exhibit "Journal Quilt Project 2006: A Page From My Book" at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

I really got carried away taking pictures of journal quilts - although I really didn't even get as many as I intended to, because I ran out of room on my memory card before I finished. I particularly like these by Norma Schlager, which are made out of recycled materials.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Maze

Maze (detail)

Quilt above made by Keiko Hasegawa; from the exhibit "Prize Winning Quilts from International Quilt Week Yokohama 2005" at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

This picture is dizzying if you stare at it too long. (Click through to a bigger version to get the full effect!)

Blogger is changing over to Google - I guess Google has owned them for a while, actually. So this is partly a test to see if flickr (which is owned by Yahoo) will play nice with Blogger any more. -- And it failed. I had to manually post the picture. (The horror!)

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Tradition


For the Celests
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Quilt above made by Sandi McMillan; from the exhibit "In the American Tradition V" at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.


I am sort of amused at myself for saying I'm uninterested in traditional quilts when I had just said I love Hawaiian quilts - I mean, what's more "traditional" than that? But nobody has called me on it so I think maybe y'all understood what I meant. I am tired of the same old same old stuff - traditional quilts done in traditional ways. This quilt - which was on the cover of the IQF program this year - is pretty darn traditional, and yet it's gorgeous. It took me a while to realize that there is something non-traditional about it; take a second look at the placement of colors in the central lone star. I think that's what makes it so stunning, and yet it's subtle enough that it doesn't leap out at you. (Or it didn't at me, anyway. But sometimes I'm a bit unobservant.)

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Styles


Searching
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Quilt above made by Sherrie Spangler; shown in the exhibit "Celebrate Spring!" at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

I'm funny about what I like. I was talking about liking Hawaiian quilts the other day; I also love abstract quilts like this one. The thing I seem least interested in right now is traditional quilts, but I like some of those, too. I am nothing if not eclectic.

Just about all of my pictures from the judged show are up now - almost 200 of them. (I have got to quit taking so many pictures.) But I'm still working on the special exhibits. Lots more of those to come!

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Hawaiian Applique


An Expressive Breadfruit Tree
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Quilt above made by Kazue Saso of Kanagawa, Japan; shown in the judged show (category: Merit Quilting, Hand) at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Sometimes I forget how much I love a good applique quilt. (No, I still don't do applique. But I really do like looking at it!) There were several of these gorgeous Hawaiian-style quilts in the Merit Hand Quilting category. I think this one is my favorite - that green is so luscious.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Agent Orange


Orange Rain
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Quilt above made by Gayle McKay of Sandy Lake, PA; shown in the judged show (category: Art-Pictorial) at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Another quilt related to Veteran's Day. I believe the silhouettes were felt underneath mesh. It had a very interesting texture.

Friday, November 10, 2006

Poppies for Remembrance


Remembrance
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Quilt above made by Pat LaPierre-McAfee of Naples, Florida, and members of her quilt guild; winner of 1st prize in the category Group at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

This seemed like a good quilt to post for Veteran's Day. Besides, I think it's my very favorite of all the large-scale floral quilts that were around this year. My friend Columbine commented that he didn't really love the very photo-realistic floral quilts, and I do see his point about that. This one is fairly realistic, but you can also still see that it's a quilt.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Illuminations


Illuminations
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Made by Carol Taylor of Pittsford, New York; winner of 3rd prize in the category Art-Abstract, Large at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Gosh, Carol Taylor only won 3rd prize this year. She always seems to win 1st place every year, although that may just be my imagination! (Anyway, I love the colors in this one.)

I guess I ought to give you the links to all the pictures (which are still being added, by the way):
judged show
special exhibits

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Geraniums in Chinese Pot


Geraniums in Chinese Pot
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Made by Kathleen Campau; from the exhibit "In Full Bloom III" at the 2006 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Monday, November 06, 2006

Quilt festival preview


Friendship Web
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.

The quilt above was made by Harumi Asada; from the exhibit "Hands all Around XXII."

I'm starting to get quilt festival pictures up on flickr now - at the moment exactly 3 of the 400-odd I took are there, but they will be trickling up during the day today. I started taking pictures in the very back corner on Saturday and this was the first thing I came to. I think it's gorgeous.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Dia de Muertos


Dia de Muertos
Originally uploaded by Mellicious.


Quilt above made by Sharon Walton of Louisiana, and shown at the 2003 International Quilt Festival.


The quilt festival prize-winners are posted, by the way. I didn't look at the pictures since I'm going this weekend and I don't want to be "spoiled" - but there appear to be pictures of all the award-winners already there.