Alzheimer's Quilts at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Fest

I showed a photo before leaving for the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival that depicted the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative exhibit.  Many visitors to the show found this display to be very emotional.  Hardly any families are spared the tragedy of a loved one becoming afflicted with this disease that robs one of their memory and personality.

The names of victims written on purple strips are made into vertical quilts that are quilted beautifully and sometimes embellished.



So much love went into the small quilts that poignantly depict various aspects of Alzheimer's.  It seems I did not record all the quiltmakers' names, but will show some of these quilts that I photographed and the stories that go with them.

The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Iniative was begun by quilter, author, and teacher Ami Sims, who lost her mother to Alzheimer's.  You can read about this fund-raising project on the website, and can bid on the donated quilts on E-Bay.  Here are instructions for making and donating a quilt for the cause.

I'm Ba-a-a-ck!

Jack, Sandy Curran

It was an amazing, inspiring, and tiring day at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in Hampton Roads, Virginia.  I left home at 6:00AM in a dark foggy morning straight out of Hound of the Baskervilles. I picked up two other Wake Forest quilters and drove to Louisburg, NC where we met up with Sharon and Mary.  The weather improved to a beautiful day for travelling, especially as we crossed the coastal waters and arrived at the show. 


I looked at quilts non-stop from about 10:30 AM to 3:15 PM, took a little snack break, and then looked and "made donations," as Mary calls shopping at the vendor booths.


At 5:00 we left and had a delicious dinner at Chili's, complete with a few adult beverages for restorative purposes. The first picture is me and Donna Sontag.

The second is Mary, Sharon, and Christie.

I am so glad that I had a chance to attend this show and see the glorious work that today's quilters are producing.  I took lots of photos.  I remember telling the other girls that I must have taken at least 200.  When I transferred them to my computer this morning, I found that I had 888 pictures from the show!

Don't worry, I won't show you that many!  I will show a few categories of quilts per day.  I did not photograph every quilt, but there are a lot of them!

I will start with a special exhibit that I mentioned in my last post.  I absolutely loved the Linda Fiedler Retrospective.  Her work often features her technique of "thread-painting,"  in which she completely covers a flower, leaf, or other shape with harmonious colors of thread.  Most of her quilts are "Naturescapes."



Sampler Gone Awry, Linda Fiedler

In addition to her original designs and settings, I was enchanted with Linda's machine quilting of flowers, ferns, and other natural objects.

I showed a photo of Shell Island in my last post, but you have to see it up close to appreciate its loveliness.

Shell Island, Linda Fiedler

Shell Island, detail

Shell Island, detail

Linda's next quilt is one of the prettiest I have ever seen.  The Enchanted Pond is enchanting, indeed.

 

The Enchanted Pond, Linda Fiedler

The use of silver metallic thread for some of the features such as stars and dragonflies is very effective.

  

The Enchanted Pond, detail

The Enchanted Pond, detail

The Enchanted Pond, detail

Either my computer or Blogger is having a hard time inserting photos and text today, so I will end with just a few more photos of Linda's quilts.



The Day the Fog Froze, Linda Fiedler




   

The Colors of Earth, Linda Fiedler





The Colors of Earth, detail



Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival...Here I Come!

Heading out EARLY tomorrow morning for a quick day trip to Hampton Roads, Virginia, and the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival!  Should be a blast!  I think there are five of us carpooling this year.  Won't be back until late...but I should have plenty of pictures and quilty news the next time I post!

There will be many special exhibits in addition to the regular quilt show.

 

This traveling quilt exhibit about Alzheimer’s will be exhibited at venues throughout the United States through 2015. It features 236 quilts. Long, narrow "Name Quilts" are made from 55 purple patches, each marked with the name of a person who has/had Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia. The "wrong" side of the fabric patches are showing. The color looks faded. The bright side of the cloth, full of the color and pattern of life, has been turned to the inside of the quilt, never to be seen again. The Name Quilts create a wall more than 10,000 names, representing and honoring the 5.4 million people in the United States who have this horrid disease. Hanging among the Name Quilts are 54 small format art quilts that tell the story of Alzheimer’s from a variety of perspectives. Read more at www.alzquilts.org.

There will also be one of the traveling exhibits from The Hoffman Challenge, and a special tribute to quilter Linda Fiedler.  I have taken a couple of workshops with Linda, and she has been a guest speaker at my guild.  A lovely lady and fabulous quilter, Linda is retiring after twenty-five years on the teaching circuit.

Shell Isle, by Linda M. Fiedler

Another Elm Creek Novel Give-Away

Once, again, the publishers of Jennifer Chiaverini's Elm Creek Quilters series have offered my blog readers a chance to win a free copy of the latest book.  This one is titled Sonoma Rose, and will be on sale starting today, February 21.

The publisher provided this information about the book.  "Jennifer has always been praised for her ability to write historical and present-day fiction with equal skill. While her last novel was set in modern times, Sonoma Rose tells the story of a young mother's heroic journey in Prohibition-era America.

Rosa Diaz Barclay is touched by the criminality surrounding Prohibition when she discovers that her husband, John, has given over the duties of their Southern California rye farm in favor of bootlegging. Fearing the safety of her four children, Rosa flees, carrying only a case of John’s ill-begotten cash and her mother’s two quilts. Lars Jorgensen, her true love and the father of two of her children, aids in her escape, and together the six travel north to San Francisco. Under assumed names, they are hired to work at a Sonoma vineyard, where Rosa creates a personal and professional identity that she would never have dared imagine at the opening of her tale, and one that brings great honor-and beauty-to all who surround her."

If you would like to win a copy of this book, just leave a comment on this blog post.  Make sure that I am able to get your e-mail address in case you are the winner.  I will announce the winner of the book on Monday, February 27.  Good luck!

Many thanks to Dutton, Penguin Group U.S.A for making this offer available to readers of All Things Quilty.

Some Colorful Art for a Gloomy Winter's Day

We have finally gotten a day of winter weather after many warm, balmy days in January and February.  My dad is here with us this weekend, and we took him to the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh this afternoon.

Here are some exhibits of interest to those of us who love textile art.

This fabulous African costume looks like a patchwork quilt.  Here is the front view.

And it is diplayed so that it can be viewed from the back as well.

This outfit covered the entire body, including the head, but the dancer could see through a mesh area.  Here is the label.

This stunning exhibit is also in the African art area.  It is beautifully woven Kente cloth on the wall, and draped as a robe as Akan royalty would wear it.

All of us who sew recognize what these are.

But who would have thought to create an image of the Mona Lisa with spools of thread?  The image appears to be upside down until you view the piece through a glass sphere that creates a prism effect.

Since we just celebrated Valentine's Day, here is the classic Rodin scupture, The Kiss.

And here are a couple of Thinkers.

My dad is doing great these days, but we borrowed a wheelchair from the museum to conserve his strength as we toured the museum.

Here is the Valentine card that he gave me with some original abstract art.

And for a last bit of color on this gray day, here is the bouquet from my sweetie on the colorful quilt that I made for Dad years ago. 

Stay safe out there if it is snowing where you are.  So far we have just had rain and some sleet, but they say it is coming.

Some Valentine's-y Quilts

Happy Valentine's Day!  I thought I might show you a few quilts I have made over the years that might fit today's theme.

First up, Something Girly, one of my most successful quilts.  It is actually a wholecloth quilt from a rather sheer fabric.  Batting is trapuntoed and cut away to form the hearts and feathers.  Then, a layer of bright red is layered behind the white to create the pink background color.  After quilting, I added more color with Tsukinko inks.



Something Girly



Next is a smaller version made the same way.  It was donated to an auction to benefit one of my favorite charities, SAFEChild of North Carolina.



Heart's Delight



The next one was made the same way, but has couched fibers around the edges instead of binding.   This one was auctioned at Heritage Days for the Capital Quilters Guild.

Ring of Peace

The next one is a fabric collage that is quilted and mounted on a painted gallery-wrapped canvas.  This one sold for $45.00 at another charity auction.

Sweet

Anna's Quilt has lots of hearts and other girly things.  I made it for Anna when my nephew Jason married her mama and her little sister Lacy was born. 



Anna's Quilt



Second-Hand Rose was part of the Breaking Traditions traveling exhibit for over a year.  This one is really different.  I used an embroidered linen skirt from Good Will as the border.  The very shiny background is Textiva fabric, which is what Angelina fibers are before they are shredded.  Then it got some fabric, silk flowers, ribbons, applique, Swarovski crystals, and what-have-you.  The beads on the outer border are hand-made by wrapping fabric and fiber around a pencil and gluing them.  I still have this quilt.

The next one is sort of Valentine-ish.  I made this for the Capital Quilter's Guild's annual Quilts for Kids challenge.  I believe this won Second Place.  U used various patterns to make lots of things that little girls would love.  The border fabric was the challenge fabric, and I used lots of hand-dyes to coordinate.  These quilts are donated to Neo-Natal Intensive Care Units at local hospitals.



Garden Party



I hope you have a day filled with love...or that you love what you are doing today!

One Palette, Two Quilts

Here they are, two finished projects!  All bound and ready to hang.

I started both quilts in November during an online class with artist Pamela Allen called Four Quilts.  In Lesson One, we chose a painting and tried to reproduce the palette or color  scheme in fabric.  I chose this lovely painting by American Impressionist Mary Cassatt.



Portrait of Mlle. C. Lydia Cassatt, Mary Cassatt, 1880



  Usually, this color study is a quick mock-up to see if the fabrics we select really work.  In other words, are the colors in the same values?    The fabrics are cut free-hand with scissors and glue-basted to batting.



Miss Lydia, Jeanne Turner McBrayer, 2012


It was fairly easy to cut all the rather loose blobby shapes except for the face.  It took about four tries to cut a head that was the right size and had a pleasing profile.  In fact, I liked my color study so well that I decided to hand-embroider the raw-edge shapes, and then quilt it.  I also added gold and other colors of Shiva Paint Sticks to try to replicate the light and reflections of the painting. I quilted it with a variegated orange-yellow-green thread, a pear green, and black.

The other project is my original composition using the same palette.  My chosen subject for the class was landscapes.  I worked from a photo of a barn in the North Carolina mountains.  It is actually a horse stable that we pass every time we descend from the top of "our" mountain on our Gator rides.



Glen's Barn in Autumn, Jeanne Turner McBrayer, 2012



In the late afternoon, the sun is rapidly blocked by the mountain.  The last rays of the sun really light up the goldenrod and the beautiful autumn foliage.  Usually, our dog Kasey is running ahead of us, so I thought about putting her in the picture with her golden glowing coat.  Maybe next time!