IQA Festival Houston, 2006–part 4: Around the world in quilts
This first quilt is from the “Culture of my Country” exhibit which debuted, I believe, at Quilt Expo in Lyon, France, this past June. This quilt, if I recall correctly, was by a group of women from Spain. It is five quilts stitched to the “roof” (in black) with a medallion at the top. I just loved the feel of their town!
My friend Lisa Walton was in town again…hooray! It is SO much fun to see her, and such a thrill that she can come all the way from Sydney, Australia, to visit the States. This time she and hubby came early for a bit of vacation on the West Coast, then she came along to Houston. Lisa is the creative soul behind “Dyed and Gone to Heaven,” and vends on-line as well as in Australia. She does beautiful hand-dyeds and patterns (some of which are available through Keepsake Quilting), and she made this quilt:
Her friend Nic Bridges, quilted it, and then Lisa added the beads. In the past couple of years she has aacquired a serious bead addiction, and every time I see Lisa’s blog photos of trips to Hong Kong and returning with (literally) kilos of beads and silks I get very jealous (grin!). Here’s a close up:
Coming a bit closer to the US, is this stunner from Ontario, Canada. Can you believe this didn’t win an award? Called The Zodiac by Martha Brown,
the use of fabrics is incredible. I love the four elements in the corners, the effective use of the rusty orange to divide the signs of the zodiac from the blue inner and outer circles…aw heck, I love the whole thing. I could have spent a verrrryyyy long time at this quilt, much longer than the time I had!
In a day or two I’ll post some more of the Japanese quilts that kept grabbing my attention…I’d walk up to an awesome and quilt and there it would be: “Japan” again! Made me go to the library and check out Japanese Detail: Architecture by Sadao Hibi. Talk about (a) eye-candy and (b) inspiration for quilting patterns and design! Someone brought this book to class when I took a workshop with Jane Sassaman in 2003 and I have lusted after it ever since. I may just have to order it finally!
November 14th, 2006 at 8:29 am
Beautiful…I love the bottom quilt. It is superb! Painting with fabric. YUMMM
November 14th, 2006 at 2:00 pm
I agree with you on wondering why the Zodiac quilt didn’t win any ribbons. I think I stood at that quilt for at least a half hour. I took a lot of photos of it. It really makes you wonder about these contests and the judging in them.
November 15th, 2006 at 3:35 am
Thanks for the nice words Sarah – it was wonderful to spend time (and Margaritas) with you too.