Arctic Shadows

It's a wonderful time of year to appreciate cool color palettes that feature blue, gray, and white.  Here are some stunning quilts from a 2024 show! The open spaces showcase outstanding machine quilting.

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Arctic Shadows, made and quilted by Allyson Naud

The striking contrasts help emphasize the undulating flying geese and the spiky points in this design. Allyson Naud says, "[It is the] definition of "crazy brave": to choose your own fabric color in a Judy Niemeyer quilt pattern."  The outcome is truly stunning.

Kiss Me in the Garden, made and quilted by Candice Sanders.

Winner of Best Solitaire Machine Quilting, Candice Sanders says, "With this quilt I combined my two passions: quilting and gardening.  The center of the quilt is like a small bud, dark and ready to burst.  then there is the beauty of a full flower and finally the fade of beauty past... I used many different types of "Irish Chains" to lead you through the garden."

Candice continues, "I love longarming freemotion [quilting] and developing intricate secondary patterns... I invite you to walk through my garden."

Blues Part 2, made and quilted by Julie Saville

Julie explains that Blues, Part 2 - a track from the Blood, Sweat, and Tears album is one of her and her husband's favorite music pieces. This quilt has a range of blue colors and fabrics.  The pieced quilt is framed by a beautiful appliqued vine.  Note: We're still searching for the pattern source; the vine reminds us of some designs by Edyta Sitar.

Image credits: Photos shown above were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2024 Springville (Utah) quilt show.  If you enjoyed this post you may like our Free Pattern Days for Winter White Quilts (CLICK HERE) and Blue Quilts (CLICK HERE).

Free patterns for Winter White quilts

Free patterns for Blue quilts

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.