A Pretty Customer Quilt...and Art Quilts from the Mid-Atlantic

Here is a quilt I just finished for Ann.  She made it in a class sponsored by Capital Quilters Guild of Raleigh a couple of years ago.  Neither of us could remember the name of the instructor, but she figured out a way to incorporate fancy borders into the piecing of the blocks.  I think she called this inner border "Salt Water Taffy."  The long skinny shadows are from my windowpanes!  (Thanks to CQG friend Katie Greenwood for supplying the teacher's name- Sally Schneider!)

I quilted it with leafy, twirly vines all over.  Some of the fabrics had the same motif.  I love to use curving quilting designs to soften the strong points of star quilts.

On to the Mid-Atlantic again.  There were many special exhibits with very original quilts, in addition to the Art Quilt category and Innovative category.  Here are a few that I loved.

The first one is from the SAQA special exhibit, Layers of Memory.  It is called The Fern Flower, by Valentina Maximova.  Such a joyous combination of colors and scenes from nature.

Look at this exuberant pieced bloom!

From tropical foliage, let's go to snowy winter hillsides.  In The Bleak Mid-Winter is by well-known art quilter Ruth Powers.  Look at all the colors and hues that actually are used to create what the eye perceives as white snow.



In the Bleak Mid-Winter, by Ruth S. Powers





Here is a lovely mermaid napping on the ocean floor.  The maker is Eileen Williams, whose work was inspired by another fabulous art quilter named Ruth McDowell.



Shell Study #1 by Eileen Williams



In addition to the fabulous pieced seashells, there are real shells attached as embellishment (and perhaps some shell buttons?)

I love the colors and images in the next quilt.  It makes me happy just to look at it.  Not sure if it is actually an art quilt, but it certainly compels the viewer to come in for a closer look.



Traveling Sunshine, by Becky Guinn

In addition to the whimsical images, there is some very fine quilting in this piece.



I absolutely adore the next one, a very realistic rendition of an ocean wave.  It is in my favorite color.  I pulled up a chair and sat under this quilt when my friend Mary was white-gloving and I was too tired to walk any farther.  Very relaxing quilt!



The Wave, by Sandy Curran



Just one more for today.  Unusual shapes really catch the eye at a big show.  This group quilt has a series of floral quilts hung almost like banners, or perhaps a valance.



Floral Promise, by Fiber Art Friends



It is interesting how each quilter worked with the same basic daisy shape to make their own unique quilt in different colorways.

I will leave you among this bevy of blossoms, but don't worry, there are many more quilts to show another time!