Quilt shows are one of the most inspiring events a quilter can experience. Quilts, classes, special exhibits, vendors, seeing old friends and meeting new ones - it all comes together at a quilt show. For me recently it was the Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival that meets every two years at the Overland Park Convention Center in Overland Park Kansas.
This show is the result of the combined effort of the members of 18 guilds from the greater Kansas City area. It is organized and run by a board of volunteers from the 18 guilds - each guild having an area of responsibility. This year was the third show and they seem to get better and better every year. I'm already looking forward to 2021!
This year, I viewed (very closely in some cases) the approximately 450 quilts in the guild showcase area, 100 quilts in the judged area, 40 quilts in the special exhibits, and the 7 challenge quilts. I took 4 classes, attended 1 trunk show, entered 1 quilt in the judged portion of the show, had 1 quilt appraised, volunteered twice to be a "White Glove" ambassador, sold opportunity tickets for my guild's raffle quilt, volunteered to support the quilt appraiser, shopped the vendors, and enjoyed the company of 2 good friends at a nearby hotel. I had an awesome time! The only thing I wish I had done now was to attend the Ricky Tims Concert, as Ricky is one of my favorite people, as well as a favorite quilter.
I'll write about my classes in separate posts, suffice it to say, I learned a bunch and met some great and inspiring teachers.
There was inspiration at every turn. One of the most inspiring corners of the show was Cindy Parry's special exhibit.
Cindy's exhibit was called Tohoku Daishinsai which means Tohoku Disaster. Cindy, who was born in Japan, was especially touched by the 2011 Tsunami and decided to translate her anxiety, sorrow, love and worry for the people of Japan into a series of 15 wonderful wall hangings.
Cindy used multiple techniques in her wall hangings (which always makes my socks go up and down) as well as incorporating images from Japanese newspapers and her personal photographs.
Cindy's work inspired me in several ways - first of all is her technique and workmanship, secondly is that she was inspired by an event and turned her feeling into quilts, thirdly is that she worked in a series - with each wall hanging being different, but around a common theme.
Cindy says that her profound sadness and obsessive thoughts about the devastation have lessened somewhat since she has completed the quilts and traveled twice to the affected area (in addition to her annual trips to Japan). Other quilters have indicated to Cindy that they too have made meaningful quilts that helped them heal from their own private suffering.
A final thought (for now) from Cindy - "I think my best quilts are those that mean something to me. I think that most any subject when carefully considered, has many aspects and angles from which the story can be told. From those, a series can be born." Food for thought as I consider my quilting going forward. I see some series in my future.
Didn't see her exhibit at KC Regional Quilt Fest? No worries. Cindy's exhibit will be at the Starlight Quilters Guild on August 27th. Can't make that meeting? Check out the Japan Festival at Johnson County Community College on October 5th.
If you would like to bring Cindy to your guild or organization for a presentation on her quilts, please contact her at idyllways@aol.com. She spoke at our guild and I was riveted.
Keeping it Curious about my sister quilters and what inspires them.
I am so lucky to be on a cruise with sweetie Saul and 2 of his kids - Dan and Amy. It is a 15 day cruise through the Panama Canal, starting in Long Beach California and disembarking in Ft Lauderdale Florida. I won't bore or tease you with the relaxing in the 82 degree sunshine, the piles of delicious foods, the shopping and activities - suffice it to say I am loving it! What I do want to think and write about is all the quilting inspiration this trip has provided so far.
Our ports have been Puerta Vallarta and Huatulco in Mexico, San Juan Del Sur Nicaragua, and Putarenas Costa Rica. We are currently on our way to Panama, then on to Cartegena Columbia.
Lots of sights and images that inspire me to think about quilts. Here are a few of the images that I captured that are potential quilts.
First lets start with the ship itself. We are on the Coral Princess, a 2000 passenger ship (currently with only about 1400 passengers). It was built specifically to go through the canal locks. I don't know if the ship has a decor theme, but I have taken pictures of several items that I think would make a great quilt or quilting design.
This first pic is of the non-slip flooring product on our balcony. Pretty cool, huh?
Number 2 is a marble tile floor. There are several compass shapes around the decks.
The third one is a tiled area at the entrance to one of the bars on board. This particular bar also has a tile design above the bar.
Of course, a quilter should always observe the carpet! My friend Kelly Cline uses a patterns similar to this when she does edge to edge long arming for people.
Our excursions have been filled with color, textures, and patterns. The water, green vegetation, colorful markets, flowers - its seems like it was all staged to inspire quilters.
In Puerta Vallarta:
Tile flooring at disembarkation.
Side walk near the beach front.
Colorful Flags in the pedestrian zone near the church.
A mural near the tequilla tasting.
In Huatulco:
Flowers in a community garden.
Weavings. Gorgeous weavings!
In Nicaragua:
Concrete embossed with leaves.
Volcanic geology.
If you want to make friends on a cruise, just sit out on deck with some hand work and people from all over the world will stop and ask what you are making. Our ship also has a "Knitters and Knatters" group which meets every at sea day. There are quilters in that group as well and we've shared photos of our quilts and exchanged contact info so we can keep in touch. Kindred spirits indeed!
Speaking of cruising and quilting - THAT is on my quilting bucket list - to go on a quilt cruise. I've been keeping my eye out for the perfect combination of itinerary, teacher, and project. I was signed up for one last year, but it was cancelled. If I'm being honest, teaching quilting on a cruise is a secret ambition of mine - if that ever happens I'll know I've arrived in the quilting/teaching world. So if you know of a quilt cruise company that needs a teacher - send them my way. I'll start preparing my workshop (grin).
Keeping it Curious on the Coral Princess!
I met Noriko Endo at an ASQ quilt week class in Phoenix AZ in 2014. The result of that class was a small wall hanging I called Autumn Path. I blogged about that quilt early last year. I sold Autumn Path and I have been missing my baby. So I decided to make another one. Oh, and I'm also talking about the technique at Sassy Sewists at Mea tomorrow - so gotta have a sample!
For several months I have been saving photos on Pinterest to my board called confetti quilt. The best photos (IMHO) for this technique are impressionistic looking landscapes - scenes that don't have a lot of sharp, crisp edges. After our trip through Colorado, Idaho and Montana last fall, I had been thinking about doing an aspen quilt. So while looking for aspens, I found this picture of this birch which I thought was beautiful. It had all the right aspects - good lines, multiple colors, some details to thread paint. Perfect!
I dug through my stash and found some batting that would do. To tell the truth, I hadn't labeled this piece, so I have not idea what brand it is. Then I found some batiks that would work for the basic background - light blue for the top third, and dark green for the bottom 2 thirds. As you can see, I didn't even press the fabrics. There is going to be so many layers on top of this that a few wrinkles don't matter.
A few days ago, at my guild small group meeting, I whacked some batiks strips into little pieces - confetti, and saved them - first in a muffin tin, and then I found a perfect storage bin at JoAnn. I felt like I had a palette of paints ready to use to make a masterpiece!
I imagine layering the fabric like a painter would layer paints - starting with the farthest bake layer and then moving forward. I sprinkled my "paint" down on the background using the picture as my guide. Then I added the tree trunks that stand "in front" of some of the leaves. Next came the first layer of tulle.
I found the tulle at Hobby Lobby. They had probably over 20 colors. I was tempted to try a dark red or green, but settled on my standby black. It doesn't add color, but tones down colors that are too bright. So now I have a layer of tulle over all the little pieces of confetti. I pinned it together and brought it carefully to the machine. Even though I was careful, I still spilled bits of fabric all over my studio.
Using the Bernina Stitch Regulator, I stitched down the tulle/confetti/background/batting/backing sandwich to keep most of the confetti in place. Now I added the top layer of confetti - the leaves that are in front of the tree trunks.
Now comes the fun part - the thread painting. I used Isacord thread in several colors and stitched bubbles, leaves, and squiggles over the leaves. I added the highlights on the tree trunks with a light grey.
I have a few more highlights and shadows to add and then I get to figure out how to finish it - binding? facing? staple to an art canvas?
Check out Noriko's book and try your hand at painting a confetti quilt. It's fun, uses scraps, and lets you practice your free motion quilting. Just a note of caution - put something over it or keep the cat out of the studio while you are working on it - also don't leave the windows open. Ask me how I know!
Inspiration - It's everywhere! Nature, architecture, other textiles, and of course other quilts.
My Pinterest board "Photos that Inspire Quilts" is jam packed with pins of ideas or subjects that I think would make great quilts. Pics of flowers, animals, landscapes, or abstract lovelies.
Everytime I travel, I see carpets, tiles, paintings, vistas from an airplane window that would make great quilts. Vacations are great opportunities to explore and experience landscapes and colors that would make great quilts. Our trip 4 years ago to the Galapagos Islands provided lots of ideas. Lava flows, birds, tortoises, sand, water - they were all gorgeous and all worthy of a cool quilt.
Of course other quilters are a huge source of inspiration. Before Pinterest, I used to comb through quilting magazines, tearing out pages of gorgeous quilts. I had files of pages - traditional, modern, colors I liked, applique quilts. Now, I don't need paper pages anymore to get and organize inspiration. Don't you just luuuuuvvvv Pinterest?
I have boards related to modern quilts, HST quilts, jelly roll quilts, applique quilts, landscape quilts, circle quilts, spiral quilts, crazy quilts, and a general category for "quilts I like". There are so many - I will NEVER want for inspiration. Not only do I have stash beyond life expectancy, I have ideas beyond life expectancy. I'll have to live to be 200!
There are so many quilts out there waiting to be born. Big sigh . . .
Where do you find your quilting inspiration?
I jabbered all through dinner with my family about Ricky Tims' Luminarium that I just got home from. I'm full of wonder and speechless too. Full of ideas and inspiration. Full of gratitude for Ricky's generosity - he is willing to share all he has learned. His story, his music, and his quilts.
In addition to yards of gorgeous hand-dyed fabric and music CDs, I came home with a complete and useful syllabus of all Ricky's techniques. I'm psyched. I want to try it all - and Ricky knew I would. His last words to the 175 of us in the audience (although I was in the front row and I thought he was talking just to me), was to go home and before we start something new, we should finish something. I've got some binding to finish, so that should fit the bill.
OK, so why is Ricky one of my favorite designers? Let me count the ways!
- The Quilt Show - I've been a subscriber for many years and I love it. I've started/done 4 BOMs and I really enjoy the shows.
- Patterns - or rather I should say techniques, that lead the quilter through a process to design beautiful one of a kind quilts.
- Hand-dyed fabrics that look like suede and have a wonderful hand to them.
- Music that both soothes and elevates the soul.
- He is nice, generous, talented. Oh, and by the way, soooo cute.
I've made one of Ricky's Convergence Quilts. I call it Kaffe Fassett meets Ricky Tims. I used Kaffe's fabric with Ricky's Convergence Pattern. It really is an easy pattern with lots of impact. I can see lots more of these in my future. I bought some of Ricky's hand-dyed fabrics that will look great in this pattern.
My next Ricky technique will be the Kool Kaleidoscope. I'm going to start this one in April when things slow down a bit and I finish a few things. I'm also getting on the list to go to LaVeta in 2019 for a small group retreat with Ricky. Can't wait!
The quilts, fabrics, and music are spectacular. But the real impact comes from his inspirational words and ideas: time is precious, carpe diem, quilting should be fun, know yourself, if you want to be a quilter - then get out there and just do it.
If you have a chance to go to one of Ricky's workshops, lectures or retreats, run, do not walk, to sign up. It will be well worth it.
Carpe Diem and Keep Curious!
Last year I had the privilege of designing the BOM for the Kaw Valley Quilters Guild. Our guild offers a BOM every year and I had always wanted to write a pattern . . . so I volunteered. Occasionally I like to challenge myself, and man oh man, this was a challenge.
I don't remember when and how the idea came to me, but I wanted to do a quilt with Kansas named blocks. These blocks usually have a traditional feel, which is not really my style. So, I decided to give them a bit of a twist by using modern fabric - Grunge by Moda - and a non-traditional layout. Hence the name - Kansas Goes Modern (KGM).
I also wanted to learn a little more about the quilting history of my adopted state of Kansas. I am not a quilt historian, but it was fun to learn about the history of each of the blocks. Much of the information came from Barbara Brackman, a member of our guild and a nationally known quilt historian.
Since I get really enjoyment from learning and teaching, I decided to throw some interesting and varied techniques into KGM. So I included pieced blocks, English Paper Pieced blocks, foundation paper pieced blocks, and applique blocks.
So, the blocks - all with Kansas in the name:
Kansas Star
Kansas Troubles
Kansas Dugout
Kansas Beauty
Kansas Twister
Kansas Dust Storm
Rocky Road to Kansas
Kansas Sunflower
Hearth and Home's Kansas
After getting it all assembled, I asked the wonderfully talented Sandra Morgan-Cockrum to quilt KGM. She did a terrific job with lots of custom designs, ruler work, and swirls.
Now, after releasing one block a month and three months of assembly instructions, I am putting everything together in a pattern that will be available for purchase in the next few months (one of my goals for 2018). I am so excited about this. I have to get some good pictures taken and put the finishing touches on the pattern - but I'm almost there!
My next steps are to take KGM on the road as a workshop or series of classes. So, if you are interested in making KGM in class, please let me know. Hopefully it will be coming to a shop or guild near you!
Curious about Kansas quilt blocks? Check out Kansas Goes Modern!
I have imagined a project - epic in scope, my Magnum Opus, my masterpiece. I have even started collecting fabric and writing notes.
50 Quilts from 50 States.
This project combines my love of quilting, color, techniques, travel and designing. Inspired by the landscape, culture, historical tradition, colors and people of each state. Each one featuring a different technique - well maybe not each one, cause that's 50 different techniques, but lots of different techniques.
One of my goals this year is to start getting these ideas to come to life - getting them out of my head and onto paper and fabric. So I thought my blog would be a great place to start.
So my commitment is to get at least 3 state quilts designed, written and made this year. I'm not sure exactly where to start as I have notes and ideas for about 12 state quilts.
I will probably start with Washington - I've already written about my visit and my favorite shop there. Unfortunately my favorite place is no longer there. Island Quilter on Vashon Island is now only an internet store. You can still order great fabrics from them and see them occasionally at shows and expos, but the ferry trip to Vashon to visit in person is sadly not the same. I am planning a cityscape of Seattle from the perspective of the ferry coming in from Bainbridge Island at sunset. Breathtaking!
I'm thinking I should also do New Hampshire. Saul and I traveled there in 2015 and I have in mind to do a bargello quilt with all the beautiful autumn colors. I just learned how to do bargello quilts this year and I think it would be a great technique to include.
The third state I think will be either Arizona or New Mexico. I've driven there several times to visit my Mom and experienced some beautiful scenery along the way. One area that is particularly striking is Antelope Canyon. I haven't seen it in person, but love, love, love the pictures. Can't you just envision small strips of rich batiks, embellished with yarns and other materials?
OK, I've got to get crackin'. Its April already!
Cindy says that her profound sadness and obsessive thoughts about the devastation have lessened somewhat since she has completed the quilts and traveled twice to the affected area (in addition to her annual trips to Japan). Other quilters have indicated to Cindy that they too have made meaningful quilts that helped them heal from their own private suffering.
