Month: March 2017

One of my goals this year was  to attend the Dallas Quilt show.   We arrived in Dallas on Thursday and the show was Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  I was so excited because I have always heard excellent comments regarding their show.  I joined the Guild (from afar – about 300 miles away from home) for the last 3 years.  I had considered entering the 2018 Show and wanted to have the experience of attending before I did that.

Today I am going to share pictures of a few of the quilts that were awarded ribbons at the show.  As a traditional quilter, it is apparent to me that the quilting world has gone nuts and about as far left as one could go!   Quilters who read my posts know that the last 3 years have not been the best as far as my quilting goes and it has put me out of the mainstream as far as shows.   What a shock I was in for at this show.  What a change!

First of all, I am a traditional and purist quilt maker.  I do not use glue, thangles, kits, jelly rolls, precut, laser cut, and the things where the math is not required to make a quilt.  I love to make quilts the old-fashioned way.  I love to work on quilts that are challenging and keep my brain sharp (LOL).  NOW, this is MY choice and preference and I am not trying to be negative to anyone who prefers using all the tools available for all quilters.  I also love the autumn colors, batiks and reproduction fabrics but not Kaffe Fassett fabrics as they are just too busy.  I have made one quilt using his fabric when they first came out and it is still waiting in line to be quilted!  Think I would go blind quilting that one.  But 3 months ago I decided if I was going to do scrappy and fussy cutting I probably needed some of his fabrics to include as a ‘zinger’ in my quilts.

I am trying to learn how to work with scrappy quilts, but for some reason it is really a challenge for me because my eyes focus on the pattern and not the colors. This is why I label myself as a Traditional Quilter.  It takes time to make my quilts because of the complexity and especially when appliquéing and because I am so the perfectionist.

During the last 3 years, the Modern Quilt movement started just as the “Contemporary” quilts became popular in 2004 where fabric designers like Kaffe crept into our quilt world, adding different fabrics to traditional ones.  For awhile, the traditional remained popular.  But now the Modern Quilt movement has appeared to take over at the quilt shows.  These quilts consist of very loud colors (very bright) and patterns that have no reason or rhyme to me.  They can be made in less than a week as color is the most important point in these quilts.  So now we have Artisans taking over the quilt world.

I am not being critical of those who love these quilts, it is just not my idea of a quilt. The Art quilt does not have a main focus color, thereby not drawing the eye to the theme of the quilt.  It is understand this would not apply to animals and/or people in quilts.

To conclude, I also understand that to stay in business (fabric and quilt shops) they must continue to bring new and innovative ideas in order to stay in business.  But I feel that they have forgotten the Traditionalists.  Missouri Quilt Company does seem to mix both and mostly with the “louder” fabrics.  Hats off to them.

So here we go – I will let you be the Judge of some of the quilts that won ribbons and the Best of Show.  What are your thoughts?  Are you a Traditional (purist), Modern Art, or Contemporary quilter?  Please no nasty comments – I respect individual preferences.  I am just wanted to share my experience with others.

I will start with the Modern/Artisan quilts that won ribbons.

This quilt could give  me a headache!  What is it all about anyway?  Color?

AND NOW THE BEST OF SHOW!  LOVELY

Nanette being Nanette I stopped and spoke with one of the Judges that was “traditional” and asked him what were the Judges thinking when they awarded this quilt Best of Show!  Mostly no response he just kept smiling, but did say that the appliqué quilts were not good this year!  You can be the judge of his statement as you look at some pictures of the appliqués quilts.  I forgot to mention that the Judges in this show were 100% bias in awarding ribbons.  Two of the Judges were Fiber Artist and the one gentleman was a Traditional quilter!  Easy to see who was in control of the Best of Show decision!

The quilt above was made by a woman who discovered her heritage through a DNA test and it took 2 years to make this quilt that represents her Heritage.  Here are a few close up of a few blocks.  There is some broidery purse within the quilt, but these flowers are done with individual petals – great gradation of color!  So beautiful!  I am not certain, but it appeared to be needle turn appliqués.

This is a quilt called Nearly Insane and received a Blue Ribbon and a ribbon for hand quilting (if my memory serves me correctly).  Gretchen is making this quilt in blue and yellow and is doing a fantastic job.  It is a very difficult quilt and takes a lot of time to make a block with all the pieces in each block!

 

Nice quilt.

This is a pretty red/green baltimore style quilt and it won the Past Show Chair’s ribbon.  If you look closely on Row 2, the vase block is not straight.  I spoke with the quilter and she indicated that she did not catch it in time to correct the problem, but has won a 2nd place ribbon at another show.  She also has a quilt entered in the Paducah Quilt Show.  Good for her!

This is a pretty quilt, but the scrappy distracts from the block centers.  Too busy for my pea brain to handle.

This quilt took some time to study the color and make those points on the stars come out perfect – no ribbon. It could have been the colors.

The last quilt (below) is a Di Ford pattern called ‘Phoebe’.  The lady had some problems with the quilt, but still received a blue ribbon.  This is a very difficult quilt to make and she did well!  She indicated on her card that she had a lot of problems with it and it easy to see how.  Every piece has to be squared in order for the quilt to work well.  If you study the picture carefully you can see she had problems on the right side along with the sashing between the stars.

Well, I have had just too much fun today.  TV problem resolved, and Lincoln is going to inspect the Navigator and hopefully they will realize it is a defect!  Fingers crossed.  Now I am ready to go sit in my chair and finish the binding on my Oh Glory.

Have a wonderful day and enjoy some stitching!