Quilt Market #12: Alison Glass

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Plaid Portico

Well, amongst all the visual stimulation at Quilt Market one does stumble upon certain things that stand out. For me this year there were a couple designers out with their first fabric collections that I was very attracted to. One was Alison Glass with Andover Fabrics, Inc.

I saw projects made out of her new collection “Lucky Penny” at an Andover meeting before Quilt Market even started and I made a beeline right over there. I was entranced. It was different, with a unique palette and quality of linework. Totally appealing. Then I had the pleasure of meeting her and was delighted. By the end of Quilt Market, it still stood out for me, and so here are some shots of some projects using Lucky Penny by Alison Glass with Andover Fabrics, Inc.

: Lucky Penny by Alison Glass for Andover Fabrics

: Lucky Penny by Alison Glass for Andover Fabrics

: Lucky Penny by Alison Glass for Andover Fabrics

: Lucky Penny by Alison Glass for Andover Fabrics; Oh, and then there was …”the quilt”. Alison designed the quilt and Lisa Sipes did the machine quilting. Amazing! It made its way all over market. We all got a close look at it at the Andover sales meeting.

Lucky Penny by Alison Glass for Andover Fabrics, quilted by Lisa Sipes

Quilt Market #11: More Quilts

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Plaid Portico

And continuing our Quilt Market Houston 2012 coverage, more of my selections from the quilt exhibitions:

Alexandra’s Quilt by Tara Faughnan

Diamond Quilt by Tara Faughnan

Dream Fields by Janet Steadman

Jet Trails #10 by Marcia DeCamp

Crazy for Plaid by Allison Aller

My Flower Plates by Candyce Grisham

La Torre de Babel by Celilia Koppmann

Pane Reflections by Timna Tarr

Broken by Janet Steadman

A World by Many Colors by Georgeta Grama

Quilt Market #9: Modern Quilt Relish

Posted on November 13, 2012 by Plaid Portico

One of my favorite quilt designer booths at Quilt Market Houston 2012 was Modern Quilt Relish. Fresh and modern, I love their design sense. A little bit about them…

Jill and Marny have been in business just about 3 years. Friends for 20 years, they worked together at the Quilting Connection in Ames, Iowa. When their sons, who are best friends, married sisters, they decided they would have to be nice to one another forever. They share the same design aesthetic and since they weren’t seeing many modern designs, they decided to create them. Their patterns were first introduced at the AQS/DesMoines show the fall of 2010 and since then they have exhibited at two spring and two fall markets.

They say this about their design process:

“Our designs our collaborative. One of us will explore an idea and then we’ll tweak the design to production together. Having helped many quilt shop customers, we feel we have the knowledge to write an accurate and understandable pattern. It’s always our goal to make our patterns easy, fun, gender-friendly with just a little taste of the unexpected!”

Their new book Picnic, (available mid December) shares their understanding of design principles and elements along with thirteen projects. They will be vending at the upcoming Quiltcon in Austin (February). McCall’s Quilting, America Makes Fast Quilts will publish a baby quilt at the beginning of the year and Martingale will publish Modern Baby this April, with one of our designs.

Quilt Market #8: More Booths

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Plaid Portico

Continuing coverage of Quilt Market Houston 2012, here we have some of the popular fabric designer’s booths. May I also mention that these are also incredibly nice and wonderful people. There is not a single designer that I met in the last few years at Quilt Market that wasn’t friendly, genuine and open. Make no bones about it though, they are also all very hardworking. Such is the creative community!

Amy Butler Booth, Quilt Market Houston 2012

Amy Butler Booth Quilt Market Houston 2012

Tula Pink booth, Quilt Market Houston 2012

Kaffe Fassett Booth, Quilt Market Houston 2012

Laura Gunn’s booth, Quilt Market Houston 2012

Anna Maria Horner’s booth, Quilt Market Houston 2012

David Butler, Quilt Market Houston 2012

Joel Dewberry, Quilt Market Houston 2012

Valori Wells, Quilt Market Houston 2012

10 more Quilts from Quilt Market 2012 Houston

Posted on November 7, 2012 by Plaid Portico

I’m learning about my own aesthetic in the quilting medium just by observing which quilts I am drawn to when I cover quilt exhibitions. I just go around and take photos of the ones that draw me in and that I want to see more of and look at more closely. Most of the time what attracts me is the composition as a strong piece of abstract art (my first love). Other times it is the sparkling that happens in more traditional quilts that as I get closer seems like peeling an onion revealing layers of artistry and intrigue.

Then there is COLOR of course, the use of which is a big part of all quilts, but sometimes just by itself it acts like a magnet (color junkie that I am). And texture. Quilts are displayed at shows as 2D art, but by their nature they are sculptural and textural. The quilts I actually use are not only beautiful, but there is the comfort factor including the touch on my skin, and intimacy of proximity and the views from underneath and close-up. There is also always a sense that these have been made over a period of time by someone’s hands. The quilt becomes an object that has been formed by thousands of stitches, artistic decisions, and is imbued with all history of the fabric and material chosen to be part of it as well as all the hands that sew, cut, piece and quilt. I experience it all as very rich, sometime overwhelmingly so, but mostly its inspiring and comforting.

And without further ado, more quilts from the Quilt Exhibition at Quilt Market 2012 in Houston.

Whispering Silence by Laura Stauffer, Speiz, Switzerland
From Hands All Around 2012, Sponsored by Quilter’s Newsletter

Close-up of Whispering Silence by Laura Stauffer

Viva Quilt by Noriko Nozawa, Chiba-City, Chiba
Hands All Around 2012 Sponsored by Quilter’s Newsletter

Viva Quilt by Noriko Nozawa, Chiba-City, Chiba

Rost by Claudia Helmer, Bad Soden, Hesse,Germany
Hands All Around 2012 Sponsored by Quilter’s Newsletter

close-up of Rost by Claudia Helmer

Tuning Fork #6 by Heather Pregger
Hands All Around 2012 Sponsored by Quilter’s Newsletter

Close-up of Tuning Fork #6 by Heather Pregger

Wrath by Diane Firth, Turner, Australia
Hands All Around 2012 Sponsored by Quilter’s Newsletter

close-up of Wrath by Dianne Firth, Turner, Australia

Lotus Blossom by Cory Allender, ST. George, UT

Rambler Rose by Yoshiko Kobayashi, Katano-City, Osaka, Japan
Hands All Around 2012, Sponsored by Quilter’s Newletter

Rambler Rose by Yoshiko Kobayashi

I Know where the summer goes by Cathie Ugrin, Winnipeg, Manitoba

I Know where the summer goes by Cathie Ugrin, Winnepeg, Manitoba

Blue Lagoon by Marianne Williamson, Miami, FL
Festival Gallery of Quilt Art: Memories of My Childhood sponsored by Aurifil

Close-up of Blue Lagoon by Marianne Williamson

Tumbling Blocks by Philippa Naylor, UK
Tin LIzzie 18 presents Innovative Pieced

Tumbling Blocks by Philippa Naylor, UK

close-up of Tumbling Blocks by Philippa Naylor

Quilt Market #7: more booths

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Plaid Portico

Ok, let’s start this week at a look at more booths from Quilt Market 2012 Houston. A word about the booths. Some are open, some are closed on one or multiple sides. The fabric companies and larger distributors have huge booths that allow them to configure them in a variety of ways. A huge surprise for me the second time I came to Quilt Market is that people did entirely new booth designs and had entirely different locations year to year, and so it was again this year. Makes it a lot more fun looking around.

The large booths are hard to show because it is a show to sell to shop owners after all, and so many booths were set up in such a way that you really would be taking pics of the sales floor with people doing business, and the booth design would just show as background. But I have a few snippets here and there. Besides Surtex, this is one of the more visual shows I’ve attended in the last several years and I have gone to a variety of them. In addition to all the fabric design on display there are quilt designs on display, the huge quilt exhibition, and fashion and home furnishings in prints print prints. And color color color.

Let’s take a wander down the aisle…

Emily Herrick, quilt designer, author of Geared for Guys, and fabric designer for Michael Miller Fabrics with her latest quilt designs using cotton couture solids by Michael Miller