I never knew! I never knew that quilts could be so gorgeous, and tell such wonderful stories. I always thought of quilting as an old-fashioned necessity (to make blankets for warmth at night). The idea of all that hand work was frankly somewhat boring to me. Oh my, have I learned differently!
The first bit about quilting that I learned was just a year or two ago … from a very good friend of mine who creates the most gorgeous quilts on the planet. I figured she had to be one in a billion, as far as quilters were concerned. You should see the quilts and other fabric art in their home … all of it is stunningly gorgeous.
But then more recently this quilter friend of mine told me about a quilt show close to where I live. She had hoped to attend the show (not to enter any of her quilts, but just to come to the show to see the ideas and work of other quilters). But in the end this friend of mine couldn’t come to see the show. So I went to the show by myself in order to see the work of other quilters and to take photos so my friend could see photos of the quilts even if she couldn’t be there in person. Oh my, I thought I was simply going to wander through this quilt show quickly and be done with it. I didn’t have a clue what I was in for.
It was an art show … an art show of fabric art, most of which were quilts. I thought I would spend an hour or even less there, but I ended up staying almost four hours. I loved it.
Don’t get me wrong, my friend’s quilts are still my favorites, bar none. But I can see now that she has some (minimal) competition.
I took hundreds of photos at the show. I won’t share all of them here … ack no not hundreds of photos here in the blog! While writing this blog post, I’ve been trying to decide which few photos to share with you. Boy is that a difficult decision. Do I share only my favorites? All 50 of them?! Or do I include a mix of styles? Ok, it’s my blog … I’m sharing my favorites. 🙂 But I will limit the number of photos so you don’t get overwhelmed.
For the show, the quilts were hung vertically (not spread on horizontally on a table), so we could walk right up to them. We were asked not to touch them, but we certainly could have, they were that close to all of us who were looking at them.
In addition to the two photos already included above, here below are a few more of my favorites. None of the quilts below are small … most of them took many years to complete. Please understand that these are not a sampling of what was at the show, but just a sampling of my favorites.
As always, click on photos to enlarge them. Also keep in mind that the photos here are small versions of my original photos. If you want to see any of these photos full-size in order to see more detail, please let me know.
Art Deco Ammonite
Love and Friendship
Garden Party #2
Kapow!
Octavia’s Garden
And Yet a Warm Heart
Stars of the Fairy Queen
(title unknown)
1870-1890 Hanging diamonds with lace print border.
Tulip Fields Forever, Skagit Valley, Washington State
Whether you are interested in quilting as a hobby for yourself or not, I highly recommend that you attend a quilt show in your area, just to see the beauty of them.
I do have one more quilt to show you, and it is my favorite of my favorites, although it wasn’t in the show.
First off, here’s a photo of the interior of my trailer, just to remind you of the color scheme … red and black and white … and that the shapes of things are fairly square and geometric. The trailer was built in Canada, by a company whose employees come from many backgrounds from all around the world. I live in the USA and have added my own things and my own touches to the trailer from my own life. The trailer is an eclectic mix of many cultures and heritages.
And (below) is a photo of my very favoritest quilt in the universe, made by my dear quilting Canadian friend, specifically made by her to complement the interior of the trailer. I assure you, the trailer does not rotate one wheel in any direction without this quilt on board. It’s a perfect fit.
When all is said and done, quilting can be fantastically intricate or it can be very simple. At its very basic level, quilting is simply sewing two (or three) layers of fabric together. You can even take a leather jacket and quilt it … just the leather. Here’s a wikipedia article about quilting.
The skill and art of women and men all over the world is so amazing. The quilts shown above are but a very few examples of the beauty and wonder that we humans can conceive of and that we can create.
Which quilt above is your favorite?