Austin QuiltFest

Austin Quiltfest 

Sept 27 - 29, 2024

The quilt show in Austin this year was pretty amazing! There were some incredible quilts made by some very talented quilters. I had a great time visiting with friends and meeting new people, and seeing all the quilts. I also volunteered to help hang the show this year, which was a great physical accomplishment, because I have been afraid of ladders since one fell on my head a few years ago. Overcoming that fear was as equally rewarding as the ribbons my quilts earned.

This one, Currents, won a First place award in the Modern Category. This made my heart sing because this quilt was rejected from QuiltCon.

Complements did well too! It won a Second place, and a Color Award!! This was also in the modern category, and also rejected from QuiltCon. 

Ocean Blues....

and the other side, Oil and Water. 

I was super pleased that Austin was able to hang my two sided quilts with both sides showing!  A great job to be sure! This one won a Third Place Award in the Large Art Category. I feel very honored!!

I did raise an eyebrow though, when I read the judges comments. Apparently, Austin has added a criteria to their judging forms which includes a statement about interesting backs of quilts. It was NOT checked on my judging form (for this quilt, nor the one below) ... And, if ever there was a quilt that would fit that criteria, surely this would be one.  I have judged quilt shows before though, and I know the judges do not have much time for each quilt, so I'm chalking this up to a simple oversight. It's okay.

Turn the Dial...

and the other side, Diverging Distractions.

This one won an Honorable Mention and a Design Award! This lovely quilt has been to quite a few shows, including it's premier in my solo exhibit of two-sided quilts in Houston. But, this is the first time it has won an award, or better, two! Go yellow!!

And, my last quilt at the show, did not win an award. I never expect to get awards though, regardless of how much I love my quilts. I love this one, and am very happy that it got to get out and be seen, and hopefully spread some inspiration!

Charmed Remix, detail

Charmed Remix

And, I wanted to share some of the quilts that caught my eye.  Unfortunately, I left my cell phone (and thus, camera) at home on the last day of quilt viewing, so I missed getting photos of so many more very cool quilts. These quilts had been hung when I was helping hang quilts. 

Waves of Color by Donna Phelps

Here's a detail shot of one of the blocks near the bottom of the quilt. I spied a fabric from my fabric line back in 2010! Very very fun!

Starfish on the Beach by Maureen Moore Scheeval

I love the shapes, I love the colors, I love the design, I love the quilting.  All good!!

O' Sisters a Tribute, detail, by Renee Summers

Here's a detail shot to show the amazing hand stitching. Love the texture!

Manhole Art by Margery O Hedges

The fish are so wonderful, and that this one is of Austin manhole covers, brilliant! Sorry I did not get a photo of the entire quilt for this one, it's pretty interesting!

I also volunteered to take down the quilts. It is amazing how quickly the quilts come down and the room is emptied, especially compared with the time it takes to hang them all.  I left with an armload of quilts, and many good memories! 

Summer News

Some things have been happening, which is ever so lovely because the project I am currently working on is taking foreverrrrr!

I am honored to have won an Honorable Mention in the Lincoln Center new Legacies: Contemporary Art Quilts exhibit for my quilt Ocean Blues/Oil and Water! Phil D. Jones, one of the awards judges noted that my quilt was a "conceptual beauty!"  High praise indeed and remarkably validating!! 

My quilt, Turn the Dial/Diverging Distractions had been on display at the International Quilt Festival show in Long Beach, July 6 - 8 in the exhibit Celebration of Color. I believe it is going to Houston next for the fall Festival Market and Quilt Show, Nov 2 - 5. This one was also a two-sided quilt, but they only showed the front side (left). I am okay with that, because the feeling you get standing in front of this giant burst of yellow is pure joy! That works for me!

And, I entered and got juried into a special exhibit at the International Quilt Festival, called in Full Bloom, with my quilt, Mother Nature's All-Inclusive Flower Garden. 

As a special surprise, I found out a few weeks ago that it was selected by Nancy O'Bryant as the signature quilt for Quilt Market/Houston this year. What an incredible honor!!! This means that the image will be included on Quilt Market marketing materials.  Very cool!

And, last, I got a quilt juried into the judged show at the International Quilt Festival/Houston this year.  It is called Complements and is a special favorite of mine!  I didn't get to enter last year because I was a judge.  And the year before, my entry was not juried in. So it's been a few years.

I love the complexity of the tiny piecing of the print fabrics contrasted with the giant bold solid color swaths in complementary colors. It appeals to me on many levels. And, it is so bright, it will probably glow and light up the quilts around it! Ha ha ha ha ha! Fun!

Seems like a good year to get back to Houston.  I am truly hoping that I can make it! Cheers!

Austin Area Quilt Guild Biennial QuiltFest

Austin Area Quilt Guild Biennial QuiltFest

Sept 23 - 25, 2022

I meant to post about this last year, but I have gotten a bit lost in home repair projects that were not supposed to take so long. I am hoping to start posting more regularly again this year, as most of the projects and the related stress are now behind me. 

My entries, folded and stacked, waiting to be delivered in person to the show!

I submitted 3 quilts. The show is not juried, so if they have room, then all 3 will be shown.  I requested to have both sides shown of my two-sided quilts, hoping that they would have the space, but not expecting it.  I was incredibly pleased that they were able to honor my request! I mean over-the-moon happy about seeing both sides of my two-sided quilts displayed! Fantastic!!!

I was delighted to be able to attend the awards ceremony.  I did not help hang the quilts this year, as I was having some problems with my back, so I was anxious to see all the quilts. And after the awards ceremony, the show is open to members to get to see all the quilts before the crowds come in during normal show hours. Irresistable! 

I saw a lot of great quilts, very inspiring. And, I was planning to share them here, but I cannot for the life of me find them on my camera. Nuts!

seeing the show with friends: Andrea Brokenshire, Sherri McCauley, me, Pat Romohr

Even more surprising, I won a LOT of awards.  I never know what to expect of my quilts in this regard. Sometimes I look at them for so long, I get tired of them, and then I am surprised when someone else enjoys them. So, I am usually authentically surprised when a judge likes my quilts enough to select it for an award.

The following photos of the show were taken by Pat Romohr, and I am so grateful that she shared them with me. 

Plenty to Go Around/Scarcity won a 3rd place and the Quilt Show Chair's Award! Here I am with my super squinty smile, and in the second one, mouth open surprise, perhaps about the color of the ribbon both matching my quilt, and looking good with my outfit! Almost as if, it was made for me!

Plenty to Go Around

Scarcity (the other side)

A note about this quilt. It got extremely high marks on my judging sheet. I got one negative comment: "dark shadows show through light fabric".  It was intentional.  It needed to be that way to illustrate the contrast of the story of the two sides.  The quilt NEEDED some transparency, as it is about the relationship to white privilege and racism. Because the quilt is hanging at a quilt show, and has back lighting, you can see hints of the other side regardless of the side you are standing on. It was a conceptual choice that did not go over well with the judges, or perhaps was misunderstood? 

Another note: this quilt is currently on display at AQS Paducah.  It did not win any awards there and it will not be displayed with both sides showing. I was very content to have it juried into the show and have an opportunity for it to be seen. And though I have not been to that show, I suspect the competition is fierce. I had also planned to enter it into the Houston Quilt Show this year, but sadly it is now too old.  I missed my chance to enter it last year because I was a judge.  And so it goes...

 

Next up my quilt Caterpillars/Butterflies. It also won two awards! It got a 1st Place and a Design Award. The Design Award is extra special to me.  It is one of the things that I value most about a great quilt.

Caterpillars

The two awards, and a close up of my super dense matchstick quilting with every line sewn with a different color of thread.

Last up, my quilt Seeds/Bloom.  It did not win an award. Although, I have to laugh at myself because of my three entries, this one is perhaps my favorite.

Seeds

Bloom

Honorable Mention at Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival!

 Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival

Conversations

Wow! I won an Honorable Mention for my quilt, Conversations, at Visuals #3 National Quilt Competition! I entered in the Mid-Century Modern Quilt category. I am a little in shock because the Mancuso Brothers quilt festivals are very competitive and I didn't think my quilts would do well there. It is so funny because I always love my quilts A LOT, but the judges do not always agree with me.  So, a very humble and special thank you to Sue Nickels and Marjan Kluepfel (the judges)! The online show is from Feb 24 to Feb 27.  

I also have three other quilts in this festival. The next one was also in the Mid-Century Modern Quilt Category.

Let Your Hair Down

And the next two were in the Full Size Innovative category:

Turn the Dial

Seeds

I have taken a few minutes to check out the other quilts and they are stunning! And they made the images really large, easy to see, and easy to scroll through with the arrow keys on my keyboard.  I am grateful for the close-ups, but mostly the big images look really good. A nice platform for viewing quilts if you can't be there in person!

I would also like to give a big thank you to the show's sponsors: the Hampton Convention and Visitors Bureau, BERNINA of America, A Different Touch, Cottonwood Quilt Shop, Cherrywood Hand Dyed Fabrics, Zappy Dots and The Grace Company. 

Houston Quilt Festival - the Experience

Houston Quilt Festival - the Experience

Between the election and the after convention "hang-over", it has taken me a few days to put this post together.  I have been recovering from intense lack of sleep and my annual post-Houston illness which involves the respiratory crud (that in all fairness started in Austin), and losing my voice.  I had a difficult time sleeping while at the quilt festival because of the huge amounts of adrenaline, powered by a year of hard work alone in my studio (or mostly alone) and then a giant onslaught of good times with old friends and new and then winning awards and my special exhibit!!!!! To say that it is too much, is an understatement; but like a moth to the flame, I am drawn there.

Highlights of the show include winning two awards this year:

i Quilt wins an Honorable Mention!!

One Earth wins a Second Place!!

Dinner@Eight exhibit, Patterns:

Cover girl! Mistyfuse has added my face to the cover of the package for 10 yards of Mistyfuse!  Thanks Iris!

Iris and I at the Dinner@Eight dinner

Posing with Jamie Fingal and our cover girl packages on Mistyfuse!

The opening of Turmoil & Tranquility, a new exhibit from SAQA.

The Deep End

My special exhibit:

My hand made guest book with the color pens.  My sweet wonderful amazing guests filled 20 blank pages full of wonderful comments and messages to me.  Absolutely fabulous!  Thank you so much!!!!

Falling, Vertigo, Doors Across Austin, Park Place

Park Place, Planned Obsolescence, Windows

Windows, A Few of My Favorite Things, Urban Tree

Out of the Box, Just Around the Corner, Bridge

Bridge, Dot, Suburbs

Central Park, Home

Self Portrait '08, Blue Towers

Community Gardens, Winter to Spring, Gift

Urban Daisy, Building UP

Duck and Cover, High Rise

High Rise, You Are What You Eat

And, one of my biggest highlights was having my mother come to see my exhibit!

After I got home, a dear friend forwarded me a newsletter from The Quilt Show.  Surprise!! They made a beautiful slide show of my exhibit and you can see it here.

I also found out on the last day of the show, that my exhibit, Inspired by Color will be traveling to
INTERNATIONAL QUILT FESTIVAL/CHICAGO, April 6-8, 2017.  Whoo hoo!!

And, if that is not enough, there were a total of 49 different quilt exhibits in Houston this year.  Only one of them is the World of Beauty.  I could spend weeks looking at all the quilts, but I didn't have that much time!  My favorites were the Modern Quilt Exhibit (sorry I didn't get photos!), Quilt National, Viewpoints 9, Dinner@Eight Patterns, SAQA Turmoil and Tranquility, and the Susan Carlson exhibit.  There was also a number of other fascinating exhibits like the quilts made to honor the moon and the missions to the moon, the Dear Jane exhibit, and Tactile Architecture.  

Many, many, wonderful times with friends, and so happy to have gotten photos of some of them, and sad I forgot to get photos with others....such is the nature of a highly distracted and adrenaline fueled experience!

Deborah Boschert, Suzan Engler

Kristen La Flamme, Deborah Boschert

Heather Pregger

Jamie Fingal

Becky Navarro and me

Selfie with Helen Godden and her quilt!

Selfie with Judy Coates Perez

Me and Paula Kovarik

Me and Sue Bleiweiss

Selfie with Lisa Chin

Me and Mikyung Jang

Sherri McCauley and me

Heidi Proffetty and Victoria Findlay Wolfe

The beautiful view from the Hilton:

A rather frequent view from the escalators at the George Brown Convention Center:

Behind the scenes, take down of the exhibits.  Love the tables.  Love the attention to detail in quality care of our quilts!! Look at all those white gloves! Thanks!

At home, cherishing my guest book!

The most frequently asked question:
How long did it take you to make all of these quilts?
I still don't know.  It took a lifetime to find my artist voice and get the skills I needed.  I am a professional artist.  I work full time at making my art, just like other people who work their full time jobs.  If you think these art quilts take a long time to make, you are right, but hey, it's what I do. And, I would like to thank those of you who make it possible by supporting the arts!  Whether you donate to our organizations or buy our work directly, we couldn't do it without you!!!

Outtakes:
Getting a little silly with no food, exhaustion, and adrenaline, the night I dropped and fatally cracked the screen of my iphone.  Waiting, waiting, and more waiting, but the techs at the Apple Store came to my rescue and finished the repair even though they worked past closing time!  Kudos! 

Spending a very brief amount of time each night doodling with watercolors to amuse with texts to my daughter back at home:

dedicated to the raccoon (or other animal of the night) who made a tasty meal from her Jack-O-Lantern