Strata Garden

Strata Garden, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Quilt above made by Scott Murkin of North Carolina; winner of third prize in the category Mixed Technique in the judged show at the 2007 Houston International Quilt Festival.

The Calico Cat brought home a picture of a (very) different quilt by this same guy from the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show a couple of weeks ago - this one. Man, oh, man. (I like the one above better, though.)

Web of Life

Web of Life, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Made by Ann Horton of California; entered in the judged show (category: Computer-Aided Machine Embroidery) at the 2007 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Seagrapes - and quilt shows

"Seagrapes" (above) made by Sarah Louise McClean of Fort Lauderdale; entered in the judged show (category: Art-Naturescapes) at the 2007 Houston International Quilt Festival.


I was thinking about making a list of upcoming big quilt shows, and I haven't really gotten very far yet (and you don't know with me whether I ever will!), but FYI, here's the ones for this year from the quiltfest.com people:

Feb 21-24: Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival, Hampton, Virginia
Feb 28-Mar 2: Quilt Festival of New Jersey, Somerset, NJ
May 1-4: Denver National Quilt Festival, Denver, CO
Sept 4-7: Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza, Harrisburg, PA
Sept 18-21: World Quilt and Textile on Tour, Manchester, NH
Oct 16-19: Pacific International Quilt Festival, Santa Clara, CA
Nov 13-16: Greater Chicago Quilt Expo, Schaumberg, IL

I seem to have the jones to go to a quilt show. I actually went so far as to look up how much the fare would be to fly to Norfolk on the 22nd. (The cheapest on Southwest was $357 round-trip, which isn't TOO too horrible, but I'm not sure how my husband would react if I decided just to fly halfway across the country all suddenly like that!) What I think I'd really like to do is to plan something for this summer. Then I'm like, do I want to ask my aunt to come with me? Do I want to go by myself? I don't really mind doing stuff like that by myself. Sometimes it's easier - you can just do what you want to do and not worry about pleasing anybody else, you know?

Anyway, that decision can come later, if I ever even get that far. I came up with summer because we're going to Ohio in April already and I don't want to schedule myself too heavily. What quilt shows are in the summer? I know Columbus is, but my mother-in-law would kill me if I came to Columbus and didn't go see her. What else? Sisters, but that would be awfully expensive. And I guess there's that new Quilts Inc one in California, too. Is there anything else I'm forgetting? (Is there someplace where there's already a calendar?) I may have to do some more research!

Transformation

I know some people are getting more winter weather than they'd like - even here on the South Coast it's pretty darn chilly - but just the same, here is a nice winter landscape to admire.

Quilt above made by Pamela Druhen of Vermont; entered in the judged show (category: Art-Naturescapes) at the 2007 Houston International Quilt Festival.


(Hmm, I seem to have unconsciously had a water theme going the last few days, so maybe I'll continue with that!)

River Walk

This is a test to see if you've ever been to San Antonio - if you have, you probably don't need to ask where this is!

Quilt above made by Nancy Sterett Martin of Kentucky; entered in the judged show (category: Art-Pictorial) at the 2007 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Owatatsumi (and friends)

Owatatsumi, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

I love Japanese woodcuts, so naturally when I see quilts made using those kind of designs I gravitate towards them - like a bee to honey and all that. :)

Quilt above made by Marie Karickhoff of Michigan; entered in the judged show (category: Art-Naturescapes) at the 2007 Houston International Quilt Festival.

This quilt with the same design source was at IQF way back about 2002. I don't know the quilter's name, but clearly it is made a bit differently than the other one. They are both lovely, though. (It's only the picture quality that is lacking in this one!)

Cosmati Stars

Cosmati Stars, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

I am not by nature a maker of extremely complicated things, and thus I have trouble understanding the psyche of people who make things like this quilt. However, there's no denying that the results, in this case, are really nice!

Quilt above made by Judy Mathieson of California; winner of second prize in the category Innovative Pieced, Large in the judged show at the 2007 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Little Flower Urchins

Another quilt that I remembered the existence of because somebody marked it as a favorite. I think this is as good a use as any of last year's Hoffman Challenge fabric, which I wasn't crazy about. (Next year's looks a bit more promising.) (And I don't mean to imply by that that I don't like this quilt, I do! It looks like something my mother might've made, actually, if she'd taken up crazy quilting. And that's a compliment.)

Quilt above made by Debra Spincic of Montgomery, Texas; from the Hoffman Challenge exhibit at the 2007 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Renaissance Revival

Renaissance Revival - detail, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

I had dinner with Anjea last night, and in the course of conversation this quilt came up. I had practically forgotten about it (I said, "Oh, yeah, the one that looked like a tapestry!"), but I always did like it a lot, myself. (Here's the whole thing.)

"Renaissance Revival" (above) made by Mariya Waters of Melbourne, Australia; winner of a Founder's Award (along with a $7500 prize!) at the 2007 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Totems

Totems, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

"Totems" made by Pat Doyle Mikrut of Illinois; entered in the judged show (category: Art-Pictorial) at the 2007 Houston International Quilt Festival.

Exercises in perspective

"Roman Patience" (above) made by Dena Bauer of Indiana; entered in the judged show (category: Art-Pictorial) at IQF 2007.

Not quite as dizzying as that one, but still interesting:


"Up Up and Away" (above) made by David Taylor of Colorado; winner of an Honorable Mention in the category Art-Pictorial at IQF 2007.

Shadowland

I love black and white quilts.

"Shadowland" (above) made by Liz Jones of Herefordshire, UK; entered in the judged show (category: Miniature) at IQF 2007.

Whirlpool

I don't think I ever said that the exhibit photos are finally all up. Here's a sample:



As near as I can tell, it looks like this is all Fossil Ferns, except for the black solid. "Whirlpool" (above) made by Virginia A. Walton and quilted by Sue Patton; from the Faculty Showcase at IQF 2007.


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By the way, all this fabric I keep talking about? I totalled it up and it was just about 50 yards even. So here's more of it.

This is the little bit I bought at quilt festival:

(Bear in mind that I clearly made up for this restraint in other places.)
The beautiful silk yarn came from Treenway Silks, btw.

I do really love these Kaufman paisleys, but was it really necessary for me to buy them in three colors?


I put up a picture of some of these months ago, but the pinks have grown in the interim:


Clearly I will have enough pink left over, even after I make a whole pink quilt, to put in a pink and green one based around these two fabrics:

I really like this idea - I have no idea what I'm doing with it pattern-wise but I really love the colors.

A Decade of Doing My Block

A Decade of Doing My Block, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Quilt above made by Jan Mullen of Fremantle, Australia; from the Faculty Showcase at IQF 2007.


So I washed a ton of fabric, yesterday - everything I've bought for practically the last year. It took 4 loads in the washer and 3 in the dryer (big commercial machines, too). I sorted everything light to dark and put the reds in with the darks because I was afraid something would run. If anything did I can't tell it. By the time I did that I was exhausted so I just smoothed everything out and stacked it up instead of trying to iron and/or fold it. Actually I made two stacks, one for FQs and one for bigger pieces, which was mostly half-yards. (If it was bigger than a half yard then I folded it down to that size.) I am not ironing anything right now, instead it's all on the couch and I'm working on folding it all nicely. I figure quilt fabric gets ironed so much later that it doesn't matter if it's perfectly ironed to begin with. If it seems to need it when I get ready to cut it, I'll iron it then. Because this is such a huge amount of fabric I'll never finish otherwise.

I'll have to take pictures when I'm done. You just would not believe the fabric. (Actually I'm sure there are people who bought this much just at quilt festival, although if they did they'd have to buy another whole suitcase just to get it home! anyway, it's a lot of fabric.)

Rhapsody in orange?

This is not a Ricky Tims quilt. It does look like one, which makes sense because it was made in one of his classes, the "Rhapsody" class, which is also what his new book is about. I doubt that this is entirely a coincidence. (I took a different class of his - it was called "Caveman-Style Quilting" or something to that effect - a few years back. If you ever get the chance to take one of his classes, go. Not only is he a good quilter, and a good teacher, he's just a hoot to be around.) The Rhapsody book was all over the place at quilt festival - I guess it's newly released. I flipped through it, but applique is not really my thing so I can't say I looked terribly closely. I'm not planning on making one, after all. But they're very pretty quilts, anyway.

"Regalia" (above) made by Susan Webster of Minnesota; entered in the judged show (category: Innovative Applique, Large) at IQF 2007.

The last breath of autumn

After Thanksgiving, we're not going to be in the mood for autumn-y quilts so much (even if it's still technically autumn for another month), so here's a sampling.



"Autumn Orchard" (above) made by Kathie Briggs; from the exhibit "Small Wonders VIII" at IQF 2006.




"Fall Into Spring" (above) made by Cheryl See of Virginia; winner of first prize in the category Innovative Applique, Small in the judged show at IQF 2007.




"New England Stream" (above) made by Linda Creagh. From the 2004 Dallas Quilt Celebration.



"Country Roads" (above) made by Nancy Prince; from the Faculty Showcase at IQF 2006.


And possibly my very favorite:


"Autumn" (above) made by Noriko Endo of Chiba, Japan; entered in the judged show (category: Art-Naturescapes) at IQF 2007.

The Eyes Have It

These two make me giggle.



"Black Eyed Susans with Fruit" (above) made by Pamela Allen of Canada; from the exhibit "In Full Bloom".



"Flowers of Curiosity" (above) made by Akiko Shiraishi; from the exhibit "Prize Winning Quilts from Quilt Week Yokohama".

Losses

Losses, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

Quilt above made by Elaine Quehl of Canada; from the exhibit "Sacred Threads" at IQF 2007.

This is really beautiful.

Colorplay II

I'll find the name to this one later!, originally uploaded by Mellicious.

I am putting this one up without a name because I really like it, and I "need" to post before midnight! (I think the list is out in the car, I'll run out there before I go to bed.) I have posted daily for over half the month, and I don't want to ruin my string now.

I guess I like the mosaic look because I seem to gravitate towards quilts that use it. And it has beautiful colors.

Quilt above by Anne Lullie of Illinois; from the exhibit "Celebrate Spring!" (It didn't occur to me that this was the same person as the other mosaic quilt until I saw the name.)

Hundertwasser

The judged show pictures are all up - 302 of them. I'm still working on the exhibits. I didn't take near as many exhibit pictures this year - I did the judged show first and I was tired and cranky by the time I got to the exhibits. I take many fewer pictures when I'm cranky.

OK, now here's something where I'm not sure if it's really a quilt:


It's a pretty thing, whatever it is. Actually if you click over to flickr and click on "all sizes" to get the big version, it appears to be quilted. So I guess that answers that question. (There were some things called "art cloths" in one exhibit that are definitely not quilts, for what's that worth. They were cool, though. I will get those pictures up soon.)

"If Hundertwasser Did the Northern Lights" (above) made by Carol J. Moore of Toronto; from the exhibit "The Sky's the Limit" at IQF 2007.



(Actually, the rest of the pictures are already up on flickr; they are just hidden because they're not labeled yet. I am unhiding them as I label them. If I have you marked as a "friend" as well as a contact you can sneak over early and see them.)