Out of the Blue: Outstanding Blue-and-White Quilts

Quilters have long used the color blue to symbolize trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven. These new and antique blue-and-white quilts revisit the chosen gems that celebrated the 45th anniversary of the International Quilt Festival. 

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Blue Hawaii, IQF Corporate Collection. 

Blue Hawaii was hand appliquéd and machine quilted. The quilt top was donated to the Texas Quilt Museum in 2015 by Karen K. Buckley. The unknown hand appliquér was clearly an expert in her craft; check out the tiny, even stitches in the closeup photo, below.

The top was quilted by local Houston longarm quilter Ellen Happe Phillips. Echo quilting was selected to complete the quilt in the traditional Hawaiian method.

Early Indigo Trapunto, IQF Corporate Collection. 

This quilt is circa 1876, the 100th Anniversary of the American Independence. It was hand pieced and hand quilted. It is pieced in such a way that it looks more like a woven blanket than a quilt. The intricate hand piecing and outstanding hand quilting shows just what an expert needle artist the maker was. 

 

Carpenter’s Square, IQF Corporate Collection.

The indigo and white Carpenter’s Square is distinguished by an unusual diagonal block. Constructed by hand and machine, the quilt features double-line hand quilting in a windowpane pattern.

Indigo Sunburst, IQF Corporate Collection. 

This quilt block design is known by various names – Sunburst, Sunflower, Compass Rose, Mariner’s Compass, etc. The research shows that this 14-block point is unusual because of the number of points. Indigo Sunburst was hand pieced, hand appliquéd, and hand quilted. 

T-block variation, IQF Corporate Collection. 

This T-block variation is hand pieced, appliquéd, and quilted. The setting for this quilt is “T” blocks with an appliqué border. The appliquéd border is 11 inches wide with four cornerstones; we love the frilly motifs, which soften the angular shapes of the blocks. The appliqué motifs are a combination of a modified tulip or pomegranate with cutouts in the center of two large leaves. 

Image credits: Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2022 International Quilt Festival in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Highlights of the 2017 Houston International Quilt Festival - part 4

The Houston International Quilt Festival is an awe-inspiring event, with more than 1,600 quilts on display, and over 60,000 visitors!! It's hard to describe the scale and visual impact of this event. Here are more highlights of this fantastic show.

Note: We've listed lots of lovely items at very low prices at Quilt Inspiration's E-Bay store !

Sawyer by Gail E. Thomas (British Columbia, Canada)

Gail Thomas says, "Grandchildren are glorious gifts... I hand-painted [Sawyer's] portrait and the stenciled border on cotton batik fabric. Free-motion quilting and hand embroidery add a bit of depth. I used antique buttons on the jeans to bring the quilt to life."

Cum et Iris by Sandra Ruano Navarro (Madrid, Spain)

The Latin phrase "cum et iris" translates to "when a rainbow." This dramatic, original design uses a combination of geometric forms and optical effects to simulate the swirling motion of a twister, with rainbow color flashes, as seen through a window. The quilting extends the swirled lines to the very edge of the quilt. Machine applique was used to create the swirls.

Lichen by Betty Busby (New Mexico, USA)

Betty Busby says, "I was inspired by the endless variety of lichen a tough little family of plants that can grow even on bare rocks in the desert." Inspired by macro-scale images, she created Lichen with machine applique, fusing, and painting, using silk and non-woven materials.

Victorian Jungle by Barbara McCraw (Texas, USA)

This beautiful quilt won the Ina Stentiford Memorial Floral Quilt award. It was hand appliqued, embroidered and embellished, machine quilted, and hand beaded.

Barbara McCraw says, “My favorite old movies always showed women draped in beautiful fabrics, gathered, ruched and pleated. Fabric covered the walls, and urns were filled with opulent flowers and feathers. I used that inspiration to design my quilt and then used animal prints and African batiks to create the flowers.”

Gossiping Ducks and Hungry Tiger by Linda Anderson (Texas, USA)

This dramatic, photo-inspired quilt was entered in the Painted Surface category. Linda Anderson says, "I saw a Tang Dynasty percussion performance on a trip to China. These three men wear the clothing of that period. The background reflects the title, referring to conversations between “gossiping” ducks, while the large drum speaks of the hungry tiger waiting for his meal." This piece was machine appliqued and painted using cotton fabrics.

Pua Haka (Anthurium flower) by Misa Murofushi and friends (Tokyo, Japan)

The anthurium is also called “pua haka” in the Hawaiian language. This quilt was entirely hand pieced and hand appliqued by Misa Murofushi and friends.  The block design is by Kathy Nakajima,  who has authored many Hawaiian quilt books. You can see another Kathy Nakajima-inspired quilt on our 2015 post, Hawaiian quilts by Japanese Masters.

The dark applique shapes really stand out on the bright floral blocks, pieced from floral and Kaffe Fassett fabrics, making the flowers and baskets appear to be lit from behind.

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration.

Best of Utah: The 44th annual Springville Quilt Show (1)

This annual Springville quilt show is a juried exhibition that features quilts of all styles and sizes created by some of Utah's finest quilters. This is our third year attending the show and the quality of the work is outstanding. Here are some of our favorites!
NOTE:We are now a "Top Rated Seller" on eBay... check out the great bargains on quilt books and fabrics at our eBay store!

Kaleidoscope Walk by Kathi Shunn, Quilted by Ami Krenzel. Award of Excellence.

This quilt took our breath away. It was hand pieced and contains over 2900 pieces and 200 different fabrics. Kathi Shunn says the piecing alone took over a year. The design was based on the the La Passacaglia Quilt from the book Millefiori Quilts by Willyne Hammerstein.

Kathi Shunn says, “My favorite thing about making the La Passacaglia quilt was the ability to treat each rosette as an individual. I didn’t think about how the rosettes would look together until I was at the end just looking at what colors were lacking. I enjoyed the process of one rosette at a time so much that I am making four more of them for each of my children to inherit."

Blessed by Rhonda Montgomery, quilted by Charlene Nelson. Best of Show.

It's no wonder this fantastic quilt received Best of Show.  We loved the creative design and beautiful applique work.  Rhonda Montgomery says the quilt depicts her five children at one of the family's favorite beaches.

Rhonda says, “I have always wanted to make a beach quilt. After many years and several attempts at making an ocean, I decided I could live with this “storm at sea” one. I hand dyed the sky and decided an old mariner’s compass block would be perfect for my sun. I was born in Hawaii and have loved Hawaiian quilts, so I added a beach boardwalk border with appliqued flowers to resemble their style."

Round the Garden by Katherine Porter, quilted by Virginia Gore

The applique and embroidery details on this quilt were absolutely stunning. Katherine Porter says, “When I saw the picture of Wendy Williams’ Round the Garden [quilt pattern] it spoke to my heart and became my personal obsession. I started it in November and considered skipping Christmas to continue my 10-12 hour days. Wendy’s design called for wool applique but I chose to use needle-turned applique."

Katherine continues, “I love embroidery and after making three million, five hundred and sixty two French knots (not an exact number – there may be more!), I still love it. I have absolutely loved making this quilt.”

Woven Rainbow by Kira Carter, quilted by Marion McClellan.

Kira Carter says, “I wanted to push myself and make an illusion quilt in a modern way. The spectrum of colors in this was a challenge to get right but I love the way it turned out.

Kira continues, “Marion [McClellan] and I brainstormed on how to make the quilting pop. We decided on the straight lines to imitate a basket weave with the bold graphic flowers popping out as if in the basket.”

Sweet Millefiori Meadow by Karin Crawford, quilted by Kim Peterson. Award of Excellence.

This quilt reminds us of Spring in all its glory. You can see just about every technique of quilting in this quilt. It is hand pieced, machine pieced, hand appliqued, machine appliqued and hand embroidered. Karin Crawford says she wanted to portray a meadow with everything you can find: flowers, birds, insets, greenery and a beautiful sky.

Karin says Sweet Millefiori Meadow was made of Riley Blake fabric for a challenge in May 2017. She used every fabric in the Meadow Sweets line, and the theme was taken from the fabric line’s name.

Farm Quilt, made and quilted by Joan Hardman

Joan Hartman says, “As a quilter, I like to try new techniques. This art form comes from Marilyn Bedford’s book, Portraits for Fabric Lovers. Bonnie Keller used this technique to take stock photos of animals from the internet and posterize them [for the Farm Quilt pattern]. My quilt includes my three cats, Jimmy, Chloe, and Paddington."  The photo below shows some of the embroidery details.

Joan continues, "I used soft country colors from my stash and searched the Internet for material that looked like barn wood that I could quilt wood grain on. I used Steam-a-Seam to piece the animals and Quilted Treasures to print flowers and such. Each of my farm friends has hand-embroidered details and very little quilting to keep them dimensional.”

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration.

Highlights of the 2015 Pacific International Quilt Festival - part 1

We had a fabulous time at the 2015 Pacific International Quilt Festival, the largest quilt show on the Pacific coast of the U.S.  Beautiful quilts were displayed from around the world. All the quilts were designed and constructed at a very high level of talent. We are showing some prize winners, but we also will be showing you some real gems that did not win prizes. For a complete list of prize winners in the World Quilt category, please click here.
Today, we're featuring Part I  of our highlights !

The Globe -Hayabusa Shot, 105 x105", by Kimiko Ukai, Japan

Kimiko explains, ...."In 2003, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency launched a planet probe, Hayabusa 1. Hayabusa 1's destination is to the asteroid Itokawa. The journey took two years. On the way there, Hayabusa 1 came close to Earth. From that point, Hayabusa 1 took some photos of  Earth. One of the photos inspired my quilt." Therefore, this spectacular quilt depicts Planet Earth as seen from outer space. We were fascinated by this quilt and in awe of all the interesting new information we learn about the world at quilt shows.

Close-up, The Globe-Hayabusa Shot, by Kimiko Ukai

Kimiko continues, "I worked with the cathedral windows method." Kimiko's original design is all done in small cathedral windows blocks, sometimes embellished with lace overlays, as shown here. This huge quilt is completely quilted by hand. We were very impressed with Kimiko's most significant creation.

Frame of Mind, 35 x 32", by Flora Joy, Tennessee

Frame of Mind won Honorable Mention for wall quilts. Flora explains about her original design, "My attempt to make a three-in-one quilt that clearly showed the images of three different women definitely left me on pins and needles! I'm hoping that viewers will also be on pins and needles as they walk by and see the images magically change from Jackie Kennedy to Oprah Winfrey (shown here) to Mother Teresa!"

Close-up, Frame of Mind by Flora Joy

In this amazing quilt, the photo in the frame changes from one person to another, depending upon where you stand in front of the photo.  In this close-up above, we are standing on the left hand side, so the photo shows First Lady Jackie Kennedy (wife of U.S. President John F. Kennedy).

Close-up Frame of Mind by Flora Joy

If you stand on the right side of Flora Joy's quilt, the louvered strips of fabric will display the visage of Mother Teresa.  We were really intrigued with this quilt, as were a large group of admiring viewers standing around it. The technique is described in Flora Joy's October 2015 book, Trispective: The 3-N-1 Quilt, published by AQS.

Blue Hawaii, 99 x 74", by Sue Green, California

Sue states, "The inspiration for this quilt was one pillow-size traditional Hawaiian leaf pattern. I kept gathering patterns and ended up drawing 4 block patterns myself. Using the same (white) batik fabric for the block and sashing gives it a sparkle. It took my small quilt group to help me decide on the 'on point' layout."

Close-up, Blue Hawaii by Sue Green

Sue notes, " This quilt hangs in my bedroom, and every morning it reminds me of my wonderful vacation in Hawaii." These gorgeous blue batik Hawaiian motifs were all appliqued by hand, then Sue's lovely work was long arm machine quilted. Winner of a Judge's Choice award, "Blue Hawaii" was one of the prettiest quilts we saw at this year's P.I.Q.F.

The Color of Honey, 25 x 29", by Valerie Sauban, California

Valerie notes, "I like to work on challenge quilts because it forces me to work outside my comfort zone. My Guild of Quilters of Contra Costa County issued a challenge for our 2015 show to combine black and white fabrics with one other colorway.... I also volunteer at the Lindsay Wildlife Museum and was asked to do a program on bees for kids. I became fascinated with bees and wanted to combine what I learned about them with the quilt challenge. So, I chose the color of honey as my third colorway, and made 'Beatrice' [above] as the queen bee of the...hive. " We love Beatrice's expressive little face, the wonderful background fabric, and the hexagon shape of a beehive cell that Valerie has chosen for this delightful quilt, which is hand appliqued.

Close-up, The Color of Honey by Valerie Sauban

Valerie adds, " I realize that I [humanized] Beatrice, but it was my way of trying to soften the stinging images of bees for kids..... This is an original design that came to me in a flash when I saw the  [tiny silver] metal crown and scepter at a hobby store."

Autumn  Baltimore, 71 x 71", by Sue Green, California

Sue writes, " A friend and I purchased this Baltimore Autumn pattern by Pearl Pereira together at PIQF in October 2013 from one of the many wonderful vendors. I love needle-turn applique and prefer working with batiks, as they don't fray when trimming and clipping."

Close-up, Autumn Baltimore by Sue Green

Sue continues, "This was my first ever Baltimore album style quilt and a real challenge to get it completed for this year. It hangs in my dining room from September through Thanksgiving. " We can only imagine the hours of loving work that went into this stunning quilt, a true heirloom. Color saturated batiks fabrics work perfectly to convey the intensity of autumn hues.  Just like her "Blue Hawaii" quilt shown above, Sue's work here is hand-appliqued, machine pieced, and long arm machine quilted.

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration

Best of the 2015 Springville (Utah) Quilt Show (part 1)

We enjoyed our fun trip to the 42nd annual quilt show at the Museum of Art in Springville, Utah. It was very professionally staged and contained some outstanding works of quilting art. Here are our favorites and award winners from top quilters in the state of Utah.

Midnight Wedding Star by Josephine Keasler, quilted by Carole L. Sturgis

A blue ribbon Award of Excellence winner, Josephine states, "Several years ago, I purchased two jelly rolls (strips of fabric that are 2.5" wide), a bright and pastel version of the same colors. When I saw this  pattern, I decided that it was... perfect for my treasured jelly rolls." We loved Josephine's breathtaking quilt, whose cohesive look is achieved by her careful positioning of fabric colors in each block. This is the Bali Wedding Star quilt pattern by Judy Niemeyer. Josephine specializes in paper foundation piecing by this designer.

Close up, Midnight Wedding Star by Josephine Keasler

Jospehine continues, " My friend [Carole Sturgis]  offered to quilt if for me on her home sewing machine and asked me what I wanted quilted on it. "  Each wedge of the double wedding ring was quilted with a small heart and feathers.  The black background was quilted in royal blue thread.with feathers that curve around, ending in hearts.

Dresden of the Sea by Diane E. Miller

Winner of a Judge's Choice and Viewer's Choice award, Diane says, "Quilt teacher Kaye Evans' 'Kaffe and Friends' class made Dresden plate blocks, and we then had to design a quilt using the blocks we had made. It was my idea to incorporate them into a sea scene. "

Close up, Dresden of the Sea by Diane E. Miller

Diane achieved spectacular effects by cleverly displaying her Dresden plate blocks as shells and  sea ornaments in a very decorative underwater world.

Close-up, Dresden of the Sea, by Diane E. Miller

Batik turtles peacefully drift through the seaweed above. The "echo" quilting pattern which follows the outline of the seaweed, enhances the languid, dreamy sensations that are exuded by this fascinating scene.

Worlds Without End by Sharon Aposhian Wright

Another blue ribbon Award of Excellence winner, Sharon notes, "While at the Houston International Quilt Festival, I saw a quilt made by sisters Sue Nickels and Pat Holly  for the Libby Lehman  Benefit Auction. I was captivated by the richness of Dupioni silk, the challenge of making the circles appear as lighter versions of the background fabrics, and the exercise of designing twenty-five different quilting motifs."

Close up, Worlds Without End by Sharon Aposhian Wright

Sharon continues, "I quilted this on my Bernina 440 machine, using silk thread and wool batting." This gorgeous color-saturated silk background reflects the light with a soft glow and shows off Sharon's stunning workmanship.  

Paokalani African Tulips by Karin Crawford, quilted by Pat Gorelangton

Karen writes, "The African Tulip tree has beautiful large blossoms and is one of my favorite motifs in traditional Hawaiian-style quilting.  The pattern was commissioned of John Serrao of the Paokalani School of Hawaiian Quilting in Honolulu. [I] modified the pattern by adding more blossoms and opening the center.  An open center symbolizes a connection with heaven. The batik and ombre fabric was selected for uniqueness and color. It was quilted in the traditional Hawaiian style of echo quilting."  We really admired the graceful,  elegant design of this lovely pattern.

For a close-up photo of this quilt, and more Hawaiian designs, see our Hawaiian Quilts board at Pinterest.

Melissa Wedding Quilt by Katherine Porter, quilted by Virginia Gore

Katherine exclaims, "This girl loves color!"  All [my] grandchildren receive a wedding quilt. For Melissa, I knew it must have vibrant color."  This quilter has certainly been successful in selecting colorful  split-complementary tones of orange, blue, green, and purple, then creating vibrant, eye-catching borders.

Close up, Melissa Wedding Quilt by Katherine Porter, quilted by Virginia Gore

Katherine adds, "The medallion is from the book Material Obsession 2, the rest is original design, and the applique is needle-turn."  We love this cheerful little folk-art bird among the flowers, whose wing contains the same intriguing paisley fabric as the border.

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration.