California Dreaming, 28 x 61, by Patsy Kittredge
Patsy Kittredge was inspired to make this quilt based on a late summer visit to the beaches of California with her teenage daughter and friends. She captured them as they relaxed on the sand after playing in the surf. Notice the careful placement of shadows on the sun-washed beach, which increases the sense of realism in this quilt. For the shore break, Patsy used a piece of what appears to be silvery mylar, which added extra sparkle. She received a yellow ribbon, for Honorable mention in the pictorial quilts category.
Paper Star, 61 x 61, by Carol Caplan (Quilted by Maria O'Haver)
Carol Caplan says that she created this quilt, based on a pattern by Karen K. Stone, out of bali batiks that she has collected for many years We're always so happy to see quilts with beautiful symmetry and precise piecing like this. Sometimes it's challenging to create enough contrast when using batiks, but Carol overcame that by using a deep colored background fabric, which allowed the light-valued balis to really "pop" into the foreground.
About Trout, 30 x 50, by Angie Steveson, at Lunch Box Quilts ( Quilted by Jessica Jones)
Angie says, "My husband gave me the inspiration for this original quilt design. Five different trout were appliqued using an embroidery machine from top to bottom." Angie did a superb job, and this quilt was the first place winner in the machine embroidery category.
Above, here is a close-up of the dry flies which were embroidered in the quilt border. In fly fishing, an artificial fly is constructed by hand to closely resemble a real insect. Angie has done very careful work to re-create this life-like fly, even to the extent of embroidering the fish hook.
Angie found wonderful fabric to realistically portray the water, the riverbed, and the scales of the trout. Even the small eye of the fish is perfectly rendered with beautiful workmanship. The pattern for About Trout can be obtained at Angie Steveson's Lunch Box Quilts.
To Russia With Love, 37 x 30, by Carol Miller
Carol and her group came up with an interesting way to depict St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, Russia. She writes, " After being handed a portion of a photograph, my friends embroidered each individual turret. I hand-appliqued their work back together and added the domes." The domes were constructed with a trapunto technique. "To Russia With Love" won the Honorable Mention for Group Quilt.
Colored Squares Set in Stones, 94 x 82, by Christy Schliesmann
This stunning rainbow quilt won first place in the pieced (non-professional, large) category as well as the special award for exemplary machine quilting. The pattern was designed by Liz Schwartz and Stephen Seifert; it originally appeared in Quilts with Style as a design called Armenian Tiles. We think this looks like the very pretty traditional Amish card trick pattern. What do you think? We'd love to read your comments below.
