Part 2, here we go! Selections of quilts from Quilt 2017, put on by the San Francisco Quilt Guild. Enjoy!
Category Archives: Quilt Shows
Quilt 2017 by the San Francisco Quilter’s Guild part 1
Here we have a selection of the more modern quilts from Quilt 2017 put on by the San Francisco Quilter’s Guild. Many of the quilts are from the Bee Modern group within the guild, an active modern quilting group. This is part 1 of 3, enjoy!
Time for Stitch Modern 2017
It’s time again!!
Stitch Modern is a modern quilt show put on by the East Bay Modern Quilters at The Piedmont Center for the Arts. This will be our 6th annual show. It’s a good one!
In conjunction with the show there are also several events. The opening night, Friday, April 7th, starting at 7PM, is always a good time AND a good time to see the quilts and meet the artists while enjoying refreshments.
There is also a workshop, Making Prints out of Solids: Lines and Shapes with Maria Shell Saturday April 22nd. I think at this writing there are still a few places left. Details below! And a community day SUNDAY, April 9th (mistype on the invite; it’s Sunday, not Friday). Plus presentations by Kathryn Clark and Sara Trail on Friday, April 21st. More details and photos below!
The gallery will be open Noon – 3:00 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from April 7-April 25.
We’ve also got several amazing events throughout the month. Please join us!
Community Sewing Day
Sunday, April 9 from noon-3:00 p.m.
Join The East Bay Modern Quilters and the East Bay Heritage Quilters for an afternoon of making charity quilts for The Children’s Quilt Project. Fabric kits will be provided, bring your sewing machine or just bring yourself for an afternoon of sewing and good company. People new to sewing are welcome!
Lecture: Kathryn Clark and Sara Trail
Friday, April 21, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
$10 suggested donation
The East Bay Modern Quilters are excited to present an evening with artist Kathryn Clark (http://www.kathrynclark.com) and Founder and CEO of “Social Justice Sewing Academy” Sara Trail (http://www.sjsacademy.com) as they each discuss their work and the intersection of quilting with social justice issues.
Workshop: Making Prints out of Solids: Lines and Shapes with Maria Shell
Saturday, April 22, 12:00-6:00 p.m.
This year Stitch Modern is pleased to offer Maria Shell’s workshop, Making Prints Out of Solids: Line & Shapes. From her website (http://mariashell.com/classes/) the description is: Using solid colored quilters cotton, students will learn how to stitch an assortment of pieced prints including stripes, chevrons, polka dots, and pointy shapes. While learning these new techniques students will also be given information about selecting a color palette, improvisational piecing techniques, and ideas for taking these techniques and creating original quilts.
If you are interested in joining us, tickets are $85. Tickets are non-refundable, however, we will do our best to refund you if there is someone to take your spot. Click here for tickets.
The workshop starts at noon, so we suggest eating an early lunch beforehand; water, coffee, tea, and light snacks will be provided. Irons and ironing boards will be provided. You will need to bring your own sewing machine and a list of class supplies will be provided closer to the date of the workshop.
We think this will be an informative, inspiring class and look forward to seeing you there.
Quilter Spotlight: Darci Alexis
Darci Alexis has been active in the East Bay Modern Quilters, teaches, and is a new (and amazing) long arm quilter. A graphic designer and art director by trade, she sews, she pieces and she quilts. You can also find her on her site Darci Sews.
We all saw Darci take to longarming so easily and are pretty excited to have another modern longarmer in our midst. Though truth be told Darci traverses through modern, traditional and just about ever style seamlessly. We’ll show some extra close-ups of her quilting along with sharing some of her quilts.
Enjoy!
Many of you have probably already seen her beautiful “Feminist Quilt”, which by the way, has a pattern now, here.
The Power of 12 Exhibition at Bay Quilts
The December exhibition at Bay Quilts in Richmond, CA featured “Artwork from Five Years of Creative Expression” by “The 12×12 Challenge” alumnae. The premise: 12 Women commit to creating 12 works of art in 12 months each measuring 12’x12″. The 12×12 groups meet monthly at Textile Dream Studio in Berkeley.
Here we have a selection of the pieces in the show (there were a total of 150 works!), followed by a little look-see into Bay Quilts, so scroll down for that!
Enjoy!
For those of you who live anywhere near the San Francisco Bay Area or who travel here, there is a new fabric shop in town! I had heard about Bay Quilts, but didn’t really get it until I visited in person. Their huge selection of solids of so many varieties is a dream for the modern quilter. Located right off Central Ave from either 80 or 580 in Richmond but on the edge of Albany, this new fabric store has an astounding selection of fabrics with lots of room to move, a gallery wall and Angie Woolman’s long arm services upstairs.
They have every single kona cotton color ($6.50 range/yd) color a variety of shots, peppered cotton, hand-dyed muslin, chambrays and yarn dyes. There is hand-dyed wool, hand-dyed silk-cotton, Azure Blue Textiles, Kasuri Dyeworks, Dyesmith Gradations. There are batiks, Japanese prints from Kokka, Echino, Lecien, Kona Bay and Daiwabo. There are organics from Mona Luna, Cloud 9, Birch and Art Gallery. And then prints from the usual suspects: Alexander Henry, Kaufman, Westminster, Riley Blake, Andover, In The Beginning, Art Gallery, Hoffman, Clothworks, etc etc etc.
Here is a partial visual tour–
Modern/Minimal, The Quilts of Cathy Miranker
There is a dedicated gallery space at the new Bay Quilts in Richmond, CA at which I was lucky enough to see Cathy Miranker‘s exhibition Modern/Minimal. A member of the San Francisco Quilters Guild, and Bee Modern (an SFQG sewing circle), Cathy is also an individual member of the Modern Quilt Guild and the Studio Art Quilt Associates.
I’ve run across Cathy Miranker’s quilts in other California shows and they always make it on the blog – they are modern, original, thoughtful and with an attention to detail that doesn’t compromise any improvisation. A wonderful body of work is represented in this show, and I hope to see more shows from modern quilters in this space!
Enjoy!
Quilter Spotlight: Fern Royce
At the Sweet Adeline Bakeshop in Berkeley, California, a selection of Fern Royce‘s quilts were on display throughout the month of August. I’m a fan.
Fern Royce started sewing at age 10 and began quilting in 1995. Self-taught without the use of patterns, she studied books on Amish quilts, African American quilts, and antique quilts, among others. She cites the influence of Gwen Marston‘s “liberated quilting” improvisational movement, and she now teaches students to make their own quilts in the Bay Area.
Stitch Modern 2016: Part 2
Here is have the second half of the quilts from the 5th annual Stitch Modern show put on by the East Bay Modern Quilters. Though my photos leave something to be desired, The Piedmont Center for the Arts is a beautiful place to see the quilts in person.
Enjoy!

Microcosm, round robin quilt pieced by Carol Van Zandt, Kim Buteau, Fern Royce, Kristen Hosemann, Terri Carpenter; quilted by Terri Carpenter (thequiltedfox.com)
Stitch Modern 2016: Part 1
Finally we have the coverage of the 5th annual Stitch Modern exhibit at the Piedmont Center of the Arts. An uncurated group show by members of the East Bay Modern Quilters, the 4 week long exhibition also had a number of events and special guest speakers and teachers we will be spotlighting after we get through all the quilts. Here is the first batch.
Enjoy!

Handcrafted Round Robin, pieced by Rita Nguyen, Anna Carloni, Terri Carpenter, Birgit Hottenrott, and Kristen Takakuwa, quilted by Terri Carpenter
QuiltCon 2016: Awards
Well, in winding up the coverage of the Quiltcon West 2016 exhibitions, here we have some of the award-winning quilts. The charity quilts are all that is left, but I am going to leave that for a bit so we can cover some other exhibitions and spotlight some quilters.
First up after this will be coverage of the fifth annual Stitch Modern put on by the East Bay Modern Quilters.
But enjoy these acclaimed quilts first!
BEST IN SHOW (Sponsored by Northcott): my brother’s jeans by Melissa Averinos
“The denim in this quilt is from my brother Michael’s work jeans, which I rescued from the dumpster after his suicide in 2009. I improvisational pieced the crosses, which resemble a variation on the traditional nine patch. The pale ground includes subtle gold and white crosses. Grid quilting creates echoes of the cross motif, as well as references my brother’s work as a tile installer. I tucked vintage gold ribbon behind some of the tears in the denim. This quilt was a joy to work on, as I love worn materials and find beauty in forgotten and discarded things.”
FREESPIRIT QUILTING EXCELLENCE, sponsored by Free Spirit
The Other Side by Carson Converse
“I was thinking lot about why we work so hard to get “somewhere” while making this quilt. Life can feel like an uphill battle, yet we don’t always pause to think about what is on the other side. Is it worth the climb? I must have been optimistic at the time because a steep climb leads to a gentle slope with increased visual interest and hand-painted fabric. The children’s song “The Bear Went Over the Mountain” was stuck in my head for weeks as I worked on this quilt.”
BEST MACHINE QUILTING, frameless, needle moves,
sponsored by APQS-American Professional Quilting Systems
No Value Does Not Equal Free by Molli Sparkles, quilted by Jane Davidson with design direction by Molli Sparkles
Design Source: “The scrappy, Trip Around the World quilt block tutorial comes from Bonnie Hunter at http://www.quiltville.com. The intellectual concept is of my own design.”
“I specifically made this scrappy Trip Around the World quilt to track the entire cost of making a quilt in Australia. When I published my findings at MolliSparkles.com suggesting $2252.40 USD, it set the blogosphere on fire. The corresponding posts have generated nearly 50,000 page views, and are often widely linked when discussing the cost of quilting. The quilt has become one of my favorites because of how it has changed my blog readership, has made me think about the intellectual responsibility of quilting, and has given others a foundation to find and value their self-worth.”
BEST MACHINE QUILTING, frameless, needle stationary
Sponsored by Baby Lock
ABQMQG by Renee Hoffman
Quilted by Renee Hoffman, Pieced by Lois Warwick, Logo designed by Bob Lowe, appliqué by Sally Williams and Laurie Moodie
“This quilt is based off of the new Albuquerque Modern Quilt Guild logo. The quilting is inspired by things associated with Albuquerque, New Mexico: abundant sunshine, the international Balloon Fiesta, the Sandia mountains, the Sandia Peak Tramway (it is the longest tramway in North America and has the third largest span in the world). Hidden in the quilting are 10 tiny snails, see if you can find them all!
This may look familiar! This was the QuiltCon West 2016 Giveaway quilt, and was used in many of the promotional materials for QuiltCon West 2016.
Eidos, designed by Agatha June of Austin, Texas, pieced by Elizabeth Dackson of Tampa, Florida, quilted by Gina Pina of Austin, Texas. The pattern is available HERE.