2007 Quilt Nat'l Opening 05-22-09

Since I had to cancel my road trip to Kansas and Ohio and won't be at the opening of Quilt National, I thought I would look back at 2007 and remember that great trip. That year I discovered that the night before the opening there is a special evening for supporters of The Dairy Barn, Quilt National and also collectors of note. So, by the time of the opening a number were already sold. It is a bit off-putting that if one buys a quilt they won't have it in their hands for several years as the exhibit goes touring across the country - in three sections. The two quilts that I purchased in May 2007 arrived on April 30, 2009 (the week I came home from my Empty Spools 2009 session with Pamela Allen). Talk about a high! All that creative input from the class, topped by two fabulous quilts I own, but hadn't seen for two years. I couldn't wait to get them up on the walls.

"Red Wave" Dianne Firth - 2005 - Turner, Canberra, Australia

Cotton fabric, polyester batting, torn-strip appliqued, machine quilted.

No apparent website or blog.

This quilt is four separate pieces (which are conveniently marked 1 through 4 on the backs. It was inspired by a spicy vegetable root named galangal, closely related to ginger and turmeric.

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I didn't buy this next quilt, I didn't have the funds, even if I hadn't bought the other two! But I think it is spectacular and it is two sided, so I suppose it could be considered two quilts.

"Peach, Pear, Plum" w/artist Elizabeth Brimelow - 2006 - Macclesfield, Cheshire, UK

55"W x 60"L

Silk whole-cloth double-sided quilt; hand and machine stitched, direct and reverse applique, fused, slashed, knotted.

I wasn't able in engage Elizabeth in a lengthy conversation about her techniques, but as I recall the little diagonal lines on the colorful side are slits, while those on the B&W side are hand stitches. There are two tree shapes that are aligned diagonally on each side. This is just the kind of quilt that fascinates me - the more one looks the more one sees.

I appreciate Elizabeth's statement, it seems so apt for her work. "Landscape is where I live, what I look at, what I draw, and what I stitch. My subject is marks made on the land by planting, plowing, and harvesting. Through my hands I have a story to tell, and this connects me to other times, places and cultures." http://www.quiltart.org.uk/elizabethbrimelo.html

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"Structured Chaos #14" with the artist Beth Carney - Yonkers, NY - 2006

64"W x 53"L Cotton fabric; gradation and low-immersion dyed, machine pieced and quilted.

http://www.bethcarneystudio.com/gallery.htm

If you have seen this quilt in the Quilt National 2007 book, you have almost seen a completely different quilt - the color in the book is waaay off. The problem has to do with the pigments used, they are different for dyeing, printing and photographing. We used to use Ecktachome film for blue-violet objects because the color was more true. I imagine that if the picture above was printed in a book the blue-violet would come out red-violet, as in the book. Guess the moral would be that if you make a quilt in these colors, don't expect it to print in true color!
Beth was charming and so excited that her quilt sold so quickly, but perhaps not as excited as her friends who seemed almost delirious. If I were ever to be in her position I would hope my friends would be as supportive. It was an exciting weekend.

The quilt is very closely machine quilted with vertical lines which have just enough variation to create a texture and movement on the back of the quilt. The hand dyed fabric on both sides adds much to my enjoyment of this piece.