This week Eureka is having their annual Fair and Rodeo. I never go. Not a fan of rides that just go 'round and around. But I did volunteer to sit in the quilt display room for a couple of hours. There weren't an awful lot of entries maybe 50, but there were some good ones worth sharing.
I love how manly this one is. I mean; even a lumberjack wouldn't feel foofy having it around. Right down to the tied bits being made of jute! I also like that it's a form of recycling, using all the old suit jackets.
This one puzzles me for sure. How on earth did she sew it all together? One ginormous paper piece?
Pat Durbin is probably our most famous local talent.
The tree trunk and leaves are all done with what she calls "thread play". Boggles my mind. And it's hard to tell in my photo but there's twinkling crystals all over it.
I really enjoyed watching this quilt (also by Pat) reach out and GRAB people's attention. They just couldn't hardly believe it was a fabric quilt. And check out her machine quilting.
She teaches classes locally for both 'thread play' and machine quilting, but I know darned well I'd never be that good so I just don't even go there. But I sure can appreciate her work.
Here's a fun mini-group project. Four ladies took a photo of a pixelated rose and each created a small quilt of it.
Then they each cut their quilt into quadrants, and shared one piece with each other (each person has one 25% piece from each of four different quilts). Then they sewed the four blocks together to create a completely different quilt. Clever, creative, and captivating, for sure! That fifth one on the far right was done by one of the women 'just for fun'. Probably had the idea while she was working on the assigned quilt and just had to do it. You know how that goes, right?
Here's one more that I feel is very inventive--
Love the movement in this.
I had my somewhat crappy pocket camera that day. Next month at our guild's bi-annual show we will have 350+ quilts! I'm really looking forward to that. I'll get better photos with the good camera.
OH--the older lady I sat with for those two hours--I was somewhat complaining to her that my Bernina's been in the shop for a month (waiting for parts) and I was really getting concerned about time constraints as I still had to quilt my selvage quilt before the July 11 deadline to turn it in for our guild show. Even tho she'd never really met me before, she offered use of her quilting machine and brought it to my house the next morning! I was blown away by the trust and kindness. Really restored my faith in humankind, you know? Only trouble is, I LOVE that machine and now I think I need one! It's a Brother 1500 and ONLY does straight stitch. Not even zigzag. But man, the efficiency in which it performs that straight stitch. 1500 stitches per minute. I'm here to tell you; not many people could handle that kind of speed. I sure can't anyway. It has a nice long 'arm' and even a push button to nip your thread (so you don't have to look under all that quilt for where to cut your thread off). It's nifty, for sure.
Hope you have a great weekend! I'm heading back out to the studio for some more machine quilting now.