Quilts from Quilt Market Houston 2013 #5

Posted on November 15, 2013 by Plaid Portico

More quilts from the International Quilt Market exhibitions. Be inspired this weekend!

Repeated Refrain by Peggy Brown

Autumn’s Early Light by Janey Argyle

Alike but Not the Same by Peggy Brown

Ninja by Yuko Murakami

Red Feathers by Claudia Clark Myers and Marilyn Badger

Celestial Splendor by Rachel Wetzler

A little help from my readers: my photo of the quilt credits didn’t come out. The first two words in the title are “Tie a” and the quilter is from Carefree Arizona. Can anybody shed any more light on the full title and name of the quilter?

Mountain Blossoms Pursue the Rising Sun by Nancy Bardach

Spring Spun by Luella Morgenthaler

Late Autumn by Hiromi Yokota

Stalagmites by Mitsuko Kinoshita

Cheers by Pat Kroth

Fire by Dianne Firth

Quilts from Quilt Market Houston 2013 #4

Posted on November 12, 2013 by Plaid Portico

Here we have a selection of more quilts from the exhibitions at Houston Quilt Market 2013. These are all a wide variety of styles and techniques which caught my eye for one reason or another… Enjoy!

Happy Spring by Bella Kaplan

Iris in My Garden by Marianne Williamson

Flowers of the Vine by Frances Holliday Alford

Catena by Timna Tarr

Extensions by Silvia Weir

Under Construction by Marjorie Post

Texas-Depths of Field Triptych by Barbara Kavermann

In the Moonlight – Triptych

Light of Rays by Michiyo Fukumoto

A Sunny Spell During Rainy Season by Akiko Kawata

Hana-bi (Flowers in the Night Sky) by Yoshiko Kobayashi

More booths from Quilt Market Houston 2013

Posted on November 6, 2013 by Plaid Portico

Nel Whatmore

Tula Pink

Heather Bailey

Monaluna

Alison Glass

Anna Maria Horner

Carolyn Friedlander

Ann Kelle

Kaffe Fassett Quilts in “Where Have All the Flowers gone?” exhibition at Quilt Market Houston 2013

Posted on November 5, 2013 by Plaid Portico

“Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”, an exhibition at Quilt Market 2013 in Houston, show quilts designed by Kaffe Fassett and Liza Prior Lucy from their book Shots and Stripes. The exhibition was sponsored by Rowan for Westminster Lifestyle Fabrics. The quilts use interesting palettes in shot cottons and stripes.

AFRICAN STRIPE, by Kaffe Fassett and Liza Prior Lucy, quilted by Judy Irish

LADY OF THE LAKE, by Kaffe Fassett and Liza Prior Lucy, quilted by Judy Irish

KOREAN LOG CABIN, by Kaffe Fassett and Liza Prior Lucy, quilted by Judy Irish

RAIL FENCE, by Kaffe Fassett and Liza Prior Lucy, quilted by Judy Irish

X EFFECT, by Kaffe Fassett and Liza Prior Lucy, quilted by Judy Irish

AMISH NINE PATCH, by Kaffe Fassett and Liza Prior Lucy, quilted by Donna Laing

CHIMNEY SWEEP, by Kaffe Fassett and Liza Prior Lucy, quilted by Judy Irish

OVERLAPPING TILES, by Kaffe Fassett, Liza Prior Lucy and Rebekah Lynch, quilted by Judy Irish

AFRICAN COLLAGE, by Kaffe Fassett and Liza Prior Lucy, quilted by Judy Irish

LONG DIAMONDS, by Kaffe Fassett, Liza Prior Lucy, Sally Davis and Julie Stockler, quilted by Judy Irish

SQUARE IN A SQUARE, by Kaffe Fassett and Pauline Smith, quilted by Pauline Smith

STRIPED BASKETS, by Kaffe Fassett and Liza Prior Lucy, quilted by Judy Irish

TWO TONED BOXES, by Kaffe Fassett and Liza Prior Lucy, quilted by Judy Irish

TWINKLE, by Corienne Kramer and Judy Baldwin, quilted by Bobbi Penniman

STRIPED RICE BOWLS, by Kaffe Fassett and Liza Prior Lucy, quilted by Judy Irish

The Modern Quilt Guild Showcase 2013 from Quilt Market Houston 2013

Posted on November 1, 2013 by Plaid Portico

Here are the quilts from the Modern Quilt Guild Showcase 2013 sponsored by Aurifil, one of the many quilt exhibits at Quilt Market International in Houston.

Archicoop by Jenna Brand using The Painted Pebbles Quilt by Rossie Hutchinson and Architextures fabric by Carolyn Friedlander

Rhythm + Blues by Anne Deister

Solid Love by Kelly Smith using New Wave pattern by Elizabeth Hartman of Oh Fransson

Fireworks Quilt by Tara Faughnan

Box of Rain Quilt by Karen Anderson-Abraham

Sparkler by Lee Heinrich, quilted by Jeny Pedigo

Oddballs by Alissa Carlton from her book Modern Minimal

Scattered by Katie Pedersen

Bulls-Eye 1 by Colleen Wootton

Indie Vibrations by Amy Friend

Trapezoids at Work by Jenna Brand

Lines in Linen by Irelle Beatie

Fifty Shades of Groovy by Leslie Tucker Jenison

You + Me by Heather Jones, quilted by Angela Walters, inspired by a four block strip quilt by Loretta Pettway from Gee’s Bend Alabama

Untitled By Lindsay Stead

Is This Love? by Clawne Kimber, quilted by Pamela J. Cole

Quilt Market Houston 2013

Posted on October 30, 2013 by Plaid Portico

Phew! That was a fun ride, but I am just a little exhausted. It was my fourth time at Houston Quilt Market, and some of the fun in going back is that I get to see people that I have met before, or collaborated with on fabric/project trades, AND meet new people. Well, and you just notice new things every time. Of course there ARE many new things every time, as every exhibit is different market to market.

It all started out with the Quilt Market sign-up catalog..and what is that on the cover? Hey that’s Tara‘s quilt! I know her! How did her quilt get on the cover? She submitted it to the exhibit. It was accepted and the powers that be chose it for the quilt image of the show for all their materials. Pretty exciting. It was part of the “Modern Quilt Guild Showcase 2013”. A fabric designer by day working directly for Michael Miller Fabrics, Tara‘s avocation has long been quilting. She started quilting when none of her peers were. These days she primarily uses solids and is known for her original designs and modern yet detailed compositions, and use of metallic threads.

Tara Faughnan and her Fireworks Quilt

So what were the trends this year? I remember last year seeing such a large amount of white everywhere. This year everyone was touting their color ranges. There are so many companies now with new lines of solids, blenders, tonals and batiks and there were swatch installations everywhere showing the ranges in colors in these lines.

There were also a couple big splashes made at Quilt Market. One was at schoolhouse with the Andover Fabrics Downton Abbey presentation. More on that later on this blog. The other thing was the debut of Cotton + Steel, a new division of RJR Fabrics. From a small corner booth the 5 women making this happen made a surprise intro into the market –their collections will debut at spring Quilt Market. The big intro to their company is this absolutely stunning video. You MUST see it. Nothing like it in this industry. It is… dreamy. Everyone from the designer community is excited for them and looking to see what comes next. Cotton + Steel video

The designers of Cotton + Steel: Kim Kight, Rashida Coleman-Hale and Melody Miller. Not shown: Sarah Watts and Alexia Abegg

What was fun for me this year is having friends at the show to meet up with in between our respective events and tasks. Fabric designers Kim Andersson and Caitley Symons were running the gauntlet meeting with fabric companies to discuss licensing opportunities. They both do great work, and I look forward to seeing their designs on fabric in the future.

Kim Andersson, Tara Faughnan and Caitley Symons

And then I find Becky from Patchwork Posse and Heather from The Sewing Loft. Yahoo! I met these two in Salt Lake City at The Creative Connection Event in 2011 and then again at The Sewing Summit in 2012. They both have great blogs and sew fantastic original projects, and its been fun doing some collaborations with them. And in the middle is Caroline from SEWCANSHE, another great blog and I can’t wait to collaborate with her too.

Becky from Patchwork Posse, Caroline from SEWCANSHE, and Heather from The Sewing Loft

Oh, oh, oh, and there I see Diana McClun and Laura Nownes new edition of Quilts, Quilts, Quilts, hot off the press! I met Diana in my class at fabric design school and she has become a friend and mentor. Commonly known as “The Quilting Bible”, the previous versions of the book have sold a quarter of a million copies and they continued to write several more books. Breckling Press worked with them to create a new edition using more modern fabrics and palettes, so they redid the entire book with new quilts. I got to see most of the quilts in person and they are stunning. (Those are a couple of them on the table)

Ok, so this is a little about my personal experience at Quilt Market, but I have is a TON of photos and will be posting photos of cool booths, fabric designer booths and lots of photos of the quilts from the exhibits. It will be just the facts ma’am from now on with Quilt Market Houston 2013 coverage. So stay tuned…

sore feet….

The Quilt is done!

Posted on September 28, 2013 by Plaid Portico

Well, finally it is done. My second quilt, a queen size, (never again) came back from being quilted by Krista Withers (thank you!) and I sewed the binding on a little bit every night. Now it is ready to send off to its new owners. It incorporates some fabric strips from someone special amongst a palette of neutrals. Ok, and a couple of my own fabrics are mixed in with some other current fabrics. What’s the big deal? Well it was a big deal for me, and I learned so much doing this. It truly was a labor of love, and I told you all I would share my journey so here it is!

Quilt design by Carol Van Zandt, quilting by Krista Withers

The Quilt front

front detail

Back

Quilt back detail

Quilt in Action

Quilt in Action 2

Hexagons Made Easy

Posted on September 9, 2013 by Plaid Portico

I love hexagons. My first give away piece 3 years ago was designed around hexagons and I even imagined for a while to make my first Surtex booth in 2011 all hexagons like a honeycomb, then the logistics of it all got the better of me. And lo and behold, hexagons are back in style now in a big way.

So fun to see a book all about sewing with hexagons in a myriad of ways in Hexagons Made Easy by Jen Eskridge with Martingale Press. I met Jen in 2011 at Quilt Market. She is the person behind the popular Reanna Lily Designs and Deploy That Fabric with C&T Publishing. So fun to see her books keep coming out.

The techniques section answered a lot of questions for me and I particularly like the quilting and finishing chapter, with tons of great examples of motifs to machine quilt atop your hexagons. There are 18 different blocks and then 9 whole cloth quilt patterns with detailed instructions and then a section on home decor projects. What is unusual is that it really speaks to both the traditional and the modern quilter. AND of course she used some of my Tokyo Rococo fabric collection for a couple of projects and I like that too! She also used fabric by Kate Spain, Anna Marie Horner, Tula Pink, Kaffe Fasset, Denyse Schmidt, so these ended up being some beautiful quilts. Lots of solids too.

These days I am reluctant to show too much inside a quilting book as it tends to give it all away and I know these authors work so hard putting these together. Just trust me, if you like hexies, you’ll like this book. But here are a few shots anyway of the covers and the table of contents to give you an idea.

Final reveal of the silk quilt

Posted on August 19, 2013 by Plaid Portico

Well I think I showed you all the quilt top when I first finished it. Here are photos of the finished piece, with the quilting and multi-colored binding done. It’s an improvisational quilt, and things are a little wonky, but it was a great learning experience especially working with some different weights of silk that I got in different places. It wasn’t meant to have curves in it, but I had to use my apparel tailoring skills to flatten it out, and I actually like how it created curved lines on things so when I quilted it I did it with big curves. Has to stop at some point in the fixin’ process, and in the end I kept it all wabi sabi for posterity.

While I’m showing “bright colored things”, might as well show you a line of ten designs coming out on gift wrap with Studio-Seneca Fine Art, sold through gift stores. There are paisleys from my Paisley Sea and Woodland collections, and some designs from my holiday collection “merry, merry” and Patty-O. Will be selling these myself also in my Etsy store in a few weeks.

Got my second quilt back and after binding will be taking some photos, AND have my third quilt top about halfway finished. Moseying along on my “Sew Sundays”!

“Pi” Circle Quilt and Connections

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Plaid Portico

Well there is a pleasant bi product of having your art and design in the commercial marketplace–people who you used to know might see it and look you up!

My next door neighbor from childhood, Jeanne Gorton, contacted me after seeing my fabric through Andover Fabrics. What fun!! She has been a “hard core quilter for the last twenty years and is obsessed with fabric, fabric design and modern quilting design”. She belongs to the Genesee Valley Quilt Club which was founded in 1936!!

I sent her some Licorice Fizz to play with and LOVE what she came up with. This quilt was shown at the Genesee Valley Quilt Club’s “Magical Threads–Inspired Stitches” Biennial Quilt show in June at the RIT field house. There were 400 members involved in the show and 600 quilts on display. It was a three day show organized totally by volunteers. Yay Rochesterians! If you can make it through the winters, you can do anything.

She also sent me some photos of a couple of her other quilts. Love love. Take a look at Jeanne’s great quilts…