Best of the Road to California - Day 2

More than 39,000 visitors from all 50 U.S. states and several foreign countries come each January to visit the Road to California show in Ontario, California.. This quilt show features traditional, art and modern quilts. Here are some of the award winners and our own favorites from the 2018 show !

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Fifteen by Joyce L. Carrier (Bluemont, Virginia)

Joyce explains, "This photo, taken 8 years ago, was recognized by the zoo attendant on another recent visit. 'Oh, that's Fifteen !', she said. The birds were originally numbered, and Fifteen came to recognize his name, so he remains Fifteen."  Color and the pose of this Lorikeet inspired me to bring him to life in a quilt."

Close-up, Fifteen

Joyce continues, "I used collage, free motion embroidery, and thread painting, with a tiny bit of fabric inks."  It's easy to tell that this gorgeous bird has a lively and intelligent personality.

When My Spirit Is Set Free by Teri L. Cherne (Henniker, New Hampshire)

Third place winner in Mixed Techniques Wall Quilts, Teri comments about her original design,  "[This quilt] was designed so I could have fun with metallic threads. I also enjoyed using my beautiful heavy threads for hand couching and bobbin work."

Close-up, When My Spirit Is Set Free

Teri adds, "Wonderfil's metallic threads were a pleasure to work with on my Innova. A layer of  Hobbs Silk and  Hobbs wool were used for the battings, plus a layer of  Hobbs Polydown was used for trapunto."  Teri has made an excellent choice of metallic threads for this vibrantly colored contemporary work. 

Polish Pottery by Chieko Shiraishi (Saitama, Japan)

Chieko states,  "I got inspiration from Polish pottery and made it a quilt. The appliqued flowers are handcrafted crochet lace. I made a quilt that has a new sense [of technique] by combining quilting and crocheted lace."

Close-up, Polish Pottery

Look at these exquisitely crocheted flowers around the inner border,  which is also surrounded by more hand crochet work.  We admire the amount of time and patience it takes to produce this lovely needlework.

Rainbow Star by Elsie M. Campbell (Ponca City, Oklahoma)

Elsie notes, "The rainbow of colorful fabrics I used for this quilt make me happy. Inspired by a tree I passed on my daily walks, I plucked one of the very large sycamore leaves and used it as the pattern for the rainbow of appliqued leaves on this quilt."

Close-up, Rainbow Star

Elsie continues, "The machine quilting was done on a small domestic sewing machine ( Bernina 730), hand guided, with no aid of ruler or stitch regulator."  Elsie's elegant quilting motifs are perfect for embellishing the white space on this multi-hued work.

Spot On by Gail Stepanek, quilted by Jan Hutchison (Sedgwick, Kansas)

Third place winners in the Mixed Techniques category, Gail and Jan write of their original design,  "Gail hand appliqued the blocks and set them surrounded by a pieced background. Jan used colorful cotton thread and silver metallic thread to create the quilted design. "

Close-up, Spot On

We really admire the delicate intricacy of these snowflake-like designs, enhanced by excellent workmanship in hand applique. Jan's award-winning quilting is evident throughout this piece.

Stepping Out by Patsy Kittredge (Sedona, Arizona)

Patsy says, " As a first-time mother at 40 years old, I took a lot of photos of my twin daughters. With
my husband's gentle presence behind them, they took some of those first steps on a grassy lawn. There may be a lot of difficulties in being a parent, but watching them here was nothing but wonderful."

Close-up, Stepping Out

Patsy's has very realistically depicted the determined look on the faces of toddlers who are learning new skills every day. She has captured the bliss and innocence of childhood extremely well.

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2018 Road to California quilt show.

Highlights of the 2016 AQS QuiltWeek in Phoenix, Arizona / 1

The 2016 AQS QuiltWeek in Phoenix, Arizona was one of the best shows ever!  With hundreds of beautiful quilts and some very special exhibits, there was plenty of eye candy to fill our memory sticks.  Over the next few weeks we'll be sharing photos of our favorite quilts from the show.
Please note: We're continually posting free patterns on Twitter ! Check us out @quiltinspire.

Yellow Sky, 58 x 42", by Shirley Gisi (Colorado Springs, Colorado)

Since the show was in Arizona, it seems perfect to lead off with this Southwestern abstract landscape with its angular cliffs and art deco clouds.  Visually and technically stunning, Yellow Sky was awarded the blue ribbon in the Wall Quilts-Landscape category.  The description says, "The Southwest theme offers an opportunity to use vivid colors which Shirley loves." The angular cliffs reminds us very much of the style of the renowned Arizona painter, Ed Mell.

A Passion for Purple, 37 x 32", by Andrea Brokenshire (Round Rock, Texas)

A Passion for Purple was the second-place winner in the Wall Quilts - Landscape category. Andrea Brokenshire specializes in appliquéd botanical quilts, and her work is photorealistic, larger-than-life, and simply luminous.  It is nearly impossible to tell that this flower is made with pieces of fabric.  We took several close-up photos to show the way in which Andrea creates texture through quilting. 

Look to the West, 41 x 51", by Leah Gravells (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada)

The colors of the sunset inspired Look to the West, which  drew a crowd of admirers, all debating how the quilt was made.  It turns out that Leah blended two hundred 3/4" strips to create this original design.  She used the quilt-as-you-go technique to piece the strips, which were absolutely, perfectly, straight.

Leah says, "The prairie earth is reflecting the colors in dot batik fabrics... look closely to see all the dots." The dots make the quilt almost shimmer from a distance.

My Brunette Whig, 87 x 87", by Gail Stepanek and Jan Hutchison (New Lenox, Illinois)

My Brunette Whig, which was entered in the Large Quilts - Longarm Machine Quilted category, won BEST OF SHOW.  This quilt is made of Whig Rose blocks on a brown background, so Gail named it, 'My Brunette Whig'.  As you might expect, this quilt is perfectly executed in every way - design, applique, and quilting. Thanks to some excellent lighting at the show, Jan Hutchison's award-winning quilting really stands out on the dark background.

On her blog, Jan Hutchison explains that My Brunette Whig was quilted with several colors of Wonderfil metallic thread; dark brown, copper and red. She also used Superior So Fine and Aurifil threads.

Kiku, 53 x 67",  by Sandy Clark (Fresno, California)

Kiku was awarded Third Place in the Wall Quilts - Longarm Machine Quilted category. Sandy Clark found this technique in the book Tile Quilt Revival: Reinventing a Forgotton Form by Carol Gilham Jones and Bobbi Finley.  The scalloped border echoes the rounded shapes of the applique pieces.

Sandy quilted this beauty with overlapping circles reminiscent of a double wedding ring, then filled the circles with feathers, bubbles and arcs. Even the small spaces between the applique pieces were quilted, and crystals were added for sparkle.

September, 34 x 44", by Cindy Seitz-Krug

Cindy Seitz-Krug was the featured artist at the show, and the extent of her mastery was evident in the many quilts shown in the special exhibit.  This quilt really drew our eye with its realistic depiction of an elk.  Cindy says, "Anyone who knows me knows that I am passionate about elk. I used Melinda Bula's fusible applique technique to create this magnificent bull. There are approximately 100 different fabrics in this quilt."

On her website, Quintessential Quilting, Cindy explains that making the quilt even more beautiful through quilting is the part she enjoys most. "I quilt all of my quilts on a Bernina 440 QE."

Come a little closer, and you can see that the thread painting on the elk was done in various shades of brown and beige that both matched and blended the underlying applique shapes with each other...

Quilted spirals in the sky remind us of the September winds that herald the coming autumn...

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration.  Stay tuned for more quilts from the 2016 AQS Quilt Week!