Beautiful Quilts on Exhibit at Spring International Quilt Market, Portland, Part 1

I spent several days in Portland, OR last week for the Spring International Quilt Market. I love the Portland area. Its so beautiful with the flowers and the green, green landscape everywhere. Inside the convention center, it was beautiful as well with the quilts and fabrics which were all quite colorful.

I will start my review of market with some of the spectacular quilts that were displayed in the exhibits. I don’t have them all, unfortunately, but am sure that you will love these.

Dreamtime quilt by Antonia Hering of The Netherlands

This first quilt will knock your socks off if you could see it in person.  Its called “Dreamtime” and was created by Antonia Hering of  Noorn, Noord-Holland, The Netherlands. It won first place for the “Innovative Applique” category. It is based on Antonia’s love of  the country of Australia. It is telling a dreamtime Aboriginal story and the legend of the three sisters in the blue mountains and the beautiful colors of Australia. Below are some close-ups of the hand applique and hand quilting. The techniques used were hand quilted, hand appliqued and hand embroidered. The applique circles covering the quilt were approximately 1/2 inch wide.

Dreamtime Quilt International Quilt Market close-up

Close-up of first place award quilt Dreamtime

 

The quilt below, “Make You Happy”, is by Brigit Aubeso Bell-Lloch of Girona, Catalunya, Spain. This was another winner, winning first place in the “Art-People, Portraits and Figures” category. You can see why it was a winner – its spectacular! The techniques used are machine pieced and appliqued, free motion machine embroidered and machine quilted. Brigit based the quilt on a photo of her mother found in a box of old family photos. Her mother was 20 years old in the picture. Brigit made the quilt as a present to her mother.

Make You Happy Quilt by Brigit Aubeso Bell-Lloch at Spring International Quilt Market

 

“Weezie’s Wildflowerd #17” won Honorable Mention in the “Arts-Miniature” category. Created by Laura Wasilowski of Elgin, IL, the quilt is based on a rare wildflower that is only found in Laura’s backyard and imagination. The techniques used are fused applique, hand embroidered, and machine quilted. I love the colors.

Weezies Wildflowers #17 quilt at International Quilt Market

 

The colorful and whimsy “Tutti Frutti Village”, by Susan Bleiweiss of Upton, MA, won Honorable Mention in the “Art-Whimsical” category. Sue was inspired to create the quilt by a digital sketch that she did on her iPad. She used her hand-dyed sandwashed cotton fabrics in the quilt. The techniques used are fused, raw-edge appliqued with machine stitching, and machine quilted. Sue has also created more “Tutti Frutti” quilts in a series that you can see on her blog.

Tutti Frutti Village at International Quilt Market

 

Susan Cane created “Mabel – 1952 REO” from a photo taken by her husband of the first antique truck they bought together. It won second place in the “Art-Pictorial” category. The techniques used are machine appliqued, machine quilted, and painted. I love the layout with the trucks superimposed on each other.

Mabel 1952 REO quilt by Susan Cane

 

Lynn Czaban of Vancouver, WA, was inspired to create this quilt “Raven Blanet” (with permission) from a photograph by Edward Curtis, who devoted his life to documenting the traditional lifestyle of the American Indian. This 1910 photograph of the Nez Perce Chief, Raven Blanket is one of his many images in the Library of Congress. Techniques used are machine appliqued, fused, thread painted, and machine quilted. “Raven Blanket” won Honorable Mention in the “Art-People, Portraits and Figures” categories.

Raven Blanket quilt at Spring International Quilt Market

 

Betty New of Naples, FL created “A Luthier’s Dream” using the techniques of turned-edge appliqued and free-motion machine quilted. Betty’s husband and son both play guitar thus inspiring her to use guitar bodies as the basis of design, focusing the design on line and value. Another winner, this quilt won first place in the “Art-Abstract, Small” category.

A Luthier's Dream quilt at International Quilt Market

 

A new slant on the Log Cabin block, “Around the Clock” by Karen Echmeier of Kent, CT, won Honorable Mention in the “Art-Whimsical” category. Karen substituted the center square of the Log Cabin block with a village, which was also used in the border, so that it would be like walking around the block of several different towns. The techniques used are fabric collaged under tulle, topstitched, and machine quilted.

Around the Block Quilt by Karen Echmeier

 

“Fantasy Seedpods”, by Elizabeth Camping of McLaren Vale, South Australia, Australia, won Honorable Mention in the “Art-Abstract, Small” category. The design process started with the words, then followed with drawings of imaginary seedpods. The background colorwash effect is shaded to enhance and draw the eye to the seedpods. The techniques used are needleturn hand appliqued, hand embroidered, and machine quilted.

Fantasy Seedpods quilt at Spring International Quilt Market

I hope you enjoyed seeing these amazing quilts. Its always such a treat to walk the aisles of  The International Quilt Market. Please check back as I will post a Part 2 soon, featuring some of the photos I took of the show itself.

Phyllis

More from Houston Quilt Market – Quilt Works of Art

I have more photos to share with you of the beautiful and amazing quilts at the Houston International Quilt Market. I showed half of my photos of these fabulous quilts from the exhibits in my prior post. The quilts are fun, imaginative, colorful and unique in their original designs.

Word Gets Around Quilt by Louisa L. Smith at Houston Quilt Market

Word Gets Around was created by Louisa L. Smith, Loveland, Colorado. She had collected fabrics with text and manipulated all the fabrics by hand painting, dying and over dying to obtain the color she wanted. She created the curved movement of the quilt which is a play of “words” to create the title.

 

Memories Stick Quilt by Charlotte Noll at Houston Quilt Market

Memories Stick, created by Charlotte Noll, Lauderhill, Florida, is created using the quilt pins she collected. She wanted a quilt design that can be rearranged and appended as she continues to collect pins. Each pin has an embellished pillow and is connected to the others with safey pins. Each pin reminds her of the wonderful times when she collected them. Techniques used were fused and raw edge machine applique, machine quilted, digitally machine embroidered and hand beaded.

 

Fantasy in Paradise Quilt by Laura Steiniger at Houston Quilt Market

Fantasy in Paradise was created by Laura Steiniger, Tucson, Arizona to depict fantastical birds-of-paradise flowers. I love birds-of-paradise. The techniques used were machine applique, machine decorative stitches, machine quilted and hand embellished. The black background really makes the flowers pop.

 

New York City Lights Quilt by Ellen Yamaguchi at Houston Quilt Market

New York City Lights, created by Ellen Yamaguchi, New York, NY, is heavily embellished with beads and charms. The beads were used to emphasize the swirls. She also added old New York City subway and bridge tokens and landmark charms to add interest. Techniques used include cut and assembled blocks using One-Block Wonder technique.

 

Twelve by Twelve Pink Colorplay Quilt at Houston Quilt Market

Colorplay 1: Pink, created by Twelve by Twelve. This was one of the quilts in an exhibit showcasing quilts by Twelve by Twelve, a group of 12 quilt artists who embarked on an art challenge together. For 4 years, each made 12 x 12 inch quilted art pieces on a particular theme. Each of the quilts displayed featered the 12 art quilts on that theme. Check out their website to see all of the collections they created as well as learn more about their challenges.

 

Woody Quilt by Bonnie Ouellette at Houston Quilt Market

Woody by Bonnie Ouellette, Seneca, South Carolina, is embellished with glass beads. The tecnhiques inclue hand quilting and hand beading.

 

Garden Pool Quilt by Sandra Marietta at Houston Quilt Market

Garden Pool was created by Sandra Marietta, Palmetto Bay, Florida and is inspred by her Friday trips to Fairchild Tropical Garden. Techniques include fused and machine applique, fabric painting and machine quilting. Materials include various threads, batik and other fabrics, tetile paints, and was crayons.

 

Austin tatious quilt by Barb Forrister at Houston Quilt Market

“Austin tatious” by Barb Forrister of Austin, Texas features beautiful dimensional flowers. Techniques include dyed, painted and applique.

 

Saturday Market Delectables quilt at Houston Quilt Market

 

Saturday Market Delectables quilt closeup

Saturday Market Delectables by Tina McCann, Depoe Bay, Oregan, was inspired by a trip to the farmers’ market and watching people carry various bags and baskets stuffed with food. The techniques include Nuno, needle and wet felted, machine pieced, free motion quilted, hand stitched and beaded.  This quilt is very dimensional so I wanted to show a closeup of one section to show all the detail.

 

A Starlit Night Quilt by Soon-Joong Kim at Houston Quilt Market

A Starlit Night was created by Soon-Joong Kim, Seoul, South Korea, using the compass and kaleidoscope techniques. The quilt  was inspired by the earch and the rest of the planets.

 

In an Orderly World Quilt by Linda R Guild at Houston Quilt Market

In an Orderly World was created by Linda R. Syverson Guild, Bethesda, Maryland, and was inspired by an Art Deco design.  The techniques used were pieced, needle punched, hand and machine appliqued, machine quilted and hand beaded.

 

Ancient Weaver Quilt at Houston Quilt Market

Ancient Weaver was created by Ann Horton, Redwood Valley, California. The inspiration was the Mayan weaving traditions that are honored with Spider, the industrious weaver as the center of the wheel of life. Techniques are machine piecing and quilting, and commercial and original digitized machine embroidery.

I hope that you enjoyed seeing a few of the many quilts on exhibit. You can see part of the exhibit hall below, and this picture was taken less than halfway down the main hall of the exhibit.

Quilt exhibits at Houston Quilt Market

I am already looking forward to my next trip to Quilt Market.

Phyllis