Best of Show

The Pacific International Quilt Festival was held in October in Santa Clara, California. This year's show included over 400 quilts. We're featuring some of our favorite works of art from the show!

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Sweet Madame Blue, 75 x 75", by Margaret Solomon Gunn (Maine)

This original hand appliqued design by Margaret Solomon Gunn won the Yuko Watanabe Best of Show award.  Margaret says, "[The design] was created around the lace doilies I ordered from Istanbul.  The remaining design features many shades of my hand-dyed silks in floral and geometric patterns commonly seen in Turkish pottery." 

Many precise and intricate details can be seen on every surface of this lovely quilt.

Image credits: Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2022 Pacific International Quilt Festival.

Highlights of the Road to California Quilt Show! part 1

Welcome to the Road to California Quilter's Conference and Showcase! The Road to California, as it is called, takes place in Ontario (Southern California), and features over 1,000 quilts by artists from all over the world. Around 40,000 people gather to see the show, take classes, and shop. Join us in admiring some of the stunning quilts from this year's show.

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Persephone by Deb Hyde (Michigan, USA)

This stunning piece drew in hordes of fascinated viewers at the show. The figure in the quilt is created with tiny (1") fabric squares while maintaining an underlying quilt block structure (sunshine and shadow, a traditional Amish pattern, set on point). Deb Hyde explains, "The quilt consists of one-inch fabric squares (many individually cut) that conform to both the demands of the human and landscape image as well as the embedded block pattern, forming concentric diamonds in specific color values."

Deb Hyde explains that all the pieces are placed and then sewn together with a quarter-inch seam allowance and quilted. The facial features, including the eyebrows and eyelashes, were defined by quilting with black thread, as shown in the closeup photo above.  You can read more about Deb Hyde's work at her Facebook page at Deb Hyde Fiber Art.

Little Artists by Hiroko Miyama and Masanobu Miyama (Azumino City, Japan)

One of the most charming and realistic portrait quilts we've seen (and winner of a Third Place ribbon at this show), Hiroko Miyama says this quilt was inspired by pictures of her granddaughters, Natsumi and Fuyuka. Just look at their happy, smiling faces, as they proudly display their artworks! Also check out the adorable dog peering over the sofa.

The girls' butterflies and flowers were also embroidered and popped into the wall paper behind the girls. Hiroko Miyama creates photorealistic quilts by starting with a computerized image (drawing), which is deconstructed into an applique diagram. For more information, see her Facebook page at Hiroko Miyama Quilt.

Triple Threat by Debra Crine (Florida, USA)

A gorgeous combination of fabric painting and thread painting, Triple Threat was inspired by a photograph by Nancy Joiner Harmon. Debra Crine says, "I saw a photograph of these three little faces and knew I had to paint them.  After getting permission from the photographer, I laid out my design, and decided to add some flowers to bring some color to the piece. What fun painting these tiny little faces and bringing them to life."

The precision thread painting on the faces really brings these furry creatures to life.  Check out more of Deb Crine's work at her Facebook page, Deb Crine - Artist.

The Value of Violet by Margaret Solomon Gunn (Maine, USA)

Winner of the $5000 award for Outstanding Wall Quilt, Margaret Solomon Gunn says, "All my life I have had a love affair with the color purple -- lavender, fuchsia, plum...love them all. This quilt explores creating depth, texture and design with just one color."

This beauty is made from commercial cottons and hand-dyed silk Radiance fabrics. It features turned-edge hand applique, embroidery, hand-guided longarm quilting and a scalloped edge created on the longarm. The edge scallops were quilted on the longarm, then finished on the domestic machine; they also were edged with a silk piping as shown below.

You can find more of Margaret Solomon Gunn's award-winning quilts at her website, Mainely Quilts of Love.

Boogie Brass Band by Sharon Casey (California, USA)

We loved this contemporary art quilt, with its bright solid colors and dramatic shapes. Winner of the Director's Choice Award of $5,000, Sharon Casey says, "Boogie Brass Band owes its creation to the big band music my parents played when I was a kid.  I also loved marching bands!  What a thrill it is when the light gleams off the trumpets, trombones, and sousaphones as they break from strict formation and sway into full-tilt boogie-woogie."

The musical instruments, keyboards, notes, and other elements in the quilt were cut in a freeform manner which adds to the improvisational contemporary feel of this quilt.  You can see more of Sharon's work at her website, Sharon Casey Quilts.

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2020 Road to California show.

Happy Thanksgiving To All

Happy Thanksgiving from Quilt Inspiration! We're very grateful for all our wonderful followers who have joined us during these past eight years ! We'll be spending a few weeks entertaining family and friends, then we will return to this blog and to eBay. Please stay tuned, and we'll see you soon. 

We hope you will enjoy this photo of Margaret Solomon Gunn's award-winning quilt from the recent Pacific International Quilt Festival.

Persistence, 40 x 40", by Margaret Solomon Gunn

Persistence, by Margaret Solomon Gunn, was chosen as Best Wall Quilt at the Pacific International Quilt Festival 2018. She writes, "This original design was an act of persistence from the quilting with contrasting threads to the funky binding. Sometimes the quilter needs to play!"

We think that "Persistence" is spectacular, with a stunning radiant glow. Margaret explains that she started with a piece of silk from her collection, intending to do a wholecloth design on the longarm machine. She  named her quilt "Persistence" partly because one of her challenges involved changing the center medallion, which you can see above. Margaret mentions that she quilted it and unpicked it several times.

Finally, she appliqued a small circle to the very center, then embellished it with crystals around the outside of the circle. If you look at the very center, you can see the crystals. Margaret further enhanced her work by using black thread to emphasize the individual sections of the quilt.  We congratulate Margaret on her breathtakingly successful work. 

For more information on her work, see Margaret Solomon Gunn's blog at Quilts of Love.

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Bonita McFadden at the 2018 Pacific International Quilt Festival.

Road to California 2014: Part 2

For Day 2 of our Road to California recap, we've carefully selected some quilts we hope you will enjoy.  They did not all win awards at this show, but they were at the top of our list of show-stopping quilts.

Rainbow Nouveau, 78 x 78",  by Margaret Solomon Gunn

We appreciated all of the elements that went into Rainbow Nouveau by Margaret Solomon Gunn:  spectacular quilting, feathered stars, 8-pointed stars, Art Nouveau applique, and colorful, twining vines. This quilt has won numerous awards, including Best of Show at the 2012 Lowell Quilt Festival. The quilting combines structured feather forms with more free-form background fillers including pebbling, feathering, parallel lines, curved cross-hatching, and other designs.

close up, Rainbow Nouveau by Margaret Solomon Gunn

We are always interested in the construction of complex quilts, so we were riveted by Margaret's blog post called Lightning Strikes Twice, in which she discusses Rainbow Nouveau.  It is a fascinating story of patience, persistence, and skill.

Panning for Gold by Lea McComas

This original design was inspired by a historical photo of a gold miner working the river, this quilt was created using fused raw-edge applique and heavy thread painting. Lea McComas says: "It embodies the entrepreneurial spirit and determination of those who settled the West in search of a better life."

The thread painting was so subtle, it was difficult to distinguish between the thread and the applique work.  We had to zoom in to see how it was done. Can you see the stitches in the photo below? 

We've often thought of thread painting as going back and forth with lines that are close together, as on the man's hand in the above photo. On the man's sleeve, however, Lea McComas has used a jumble of large jagged stitches that mimic the texture one might see on a worn old shirt.  Can you see the jagged stitches on the man's sleeve? One more zoom...

Shape Shifter by Nancy C. Arsenault

In this dynamic quilt, Nancy Arsenault created an unusual setting for New York Beauty blocks and sawtooth sashing; the "X" shapes that are formed are capped with little stars. Nancy called the quilt Shape Shifter because every time you look at it, you notice different shapes in the patchwork. In her artist statement, Nancy says: "Why Shape Shifter? Well, what shape did you notice first? The big X? The center diamond? The undulating curves, or all those points?"

close up, Shape Shifter by Nancy C. Arsenault

Nancy Arsenault's original setting incorporates New York Beauty blocks and sashing from Sue Garman’s Sleeping Beauty pattern . The unusual design and the perfectly complementary chartreuse and red-violet color scheme color scheme really stood out at this show. 

Sushi III by Mary Kay Price

Sushi III is a fascinating quilt made with reverse applique batiks and hand dyed fabrics, which were used to create asymmetric overlapping shapes within each block.  The unusual effect reminded us of the gridded abstractions of artist Chuck Close. This quilt won a major award of $1000 for Best Quilt from a First Time Entrant, sponsored by Square Within Square; it previously received Best of Show at the 2013 AQS Show in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Here is a close up photo...

In this close up you can see that decorative machine embroidery was used to finish the edges of each of the the shapes. Further machine quilting was done within and around the pieces, using various designs.  The embroidery and quilting was done with rayon and polyester threads on a domestic machine.

Valley Snapshots, 36.5 x 32", by Timna Tarr

This colorful quilt, with its pleasing rhythmic curves, won the Best Modern Piecing award, sponsored by Stash Books.   We liked the clever way in which Timna Tarr created a trapunto-like effect by using dense quilting on some of the pieces, while letting others protrude from the surface of the quilt, giving the appearance of hills and valleys.  The light and dark hues also lend to the impression of sunshine and shadows.  Here is a close-up photo that shows the quilting:

In describing the inspiration for this quilt, Timna says:  "My house is located between the Connecticut River and the Holyoke Mountain Range. I look at these landscapes each day and their shapes are etched in my subconscious."  For an even better close-up, see Timna Tarr's website at Q Tailored Quilts.

My Blue Log Cabin by Chris Taylor (Lincoln, Nebraska)

Chris Taylor won honorable mention for this contemporary/traditional quilt, which merged log cabin blocks with hand-dyed fabrics in warm and cool colors. Chris says that she played with color and value in making this quilt. Note that the blocks used in the center cross are 1.5 times larger than the blocks in the four corners of the quilt; the large size blocks, along with the light colors in the cross, make the cross really stand out from the rest of the quilt.  Chris says: "Notice the plus sign... positive." My Blue Log Cabin was beautifully hand quilted, as shown below.

In this close up you can see the rich colors of the hand-dyed fabrics, along with Chris Taylor's hand quilting, which was done in circular designs with multiple colors of thread.

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration.