More from Empire Quilters' Show

Here are four more photos from the Empire Quilters Guild show last weekend. As before these are not always my favorites but ones that I liked for a specific reason. All four here will be seen to better advantage if you click to enlarge them and then click again to see details. The above is In the Spotlight by Renee Fleuranges-Valdes. Its dramatic impact speaks for itself. She had a second quilt with other African figures that was equally impactful.
This is Forms by Judith Plows. It is an interpretation of a photograph of her house. I love the clean planes and I especially love the square leaves that cover the tree [a "trick" I might use some day] These leaves echo the modern angularity of the house.

I took quite a few other photos but some caught the back of a viewer's head or were shot at a bad angle or had a shadow on them -- that is the hazard of a very successful show when many people crowd around the exhibits and also try to photograph them. Happily at this show the lighting was mostly few satisfactory. Bad lighting at quilt shows makes me very crotchetty.

A leaf again--only a partial view of a 4-part quilt called Vivaldi, the Four Seasons. In this case all were these large leaves but appropriate colors for the seasons. I loved especially the very close quilting and, in this which is summer [I think] the fabrics were very beautiful colors.

Finally below is a favorite, partial view of Jane Broadus's Rats Recycle for New York. [you must double enlarge this] For readers who are not New Yorkers, I will assure you this is an exaggeration although I was rarely walking the streets in the wee hours so might have missed a sight like this. I saw Jane and she told me there are 108 rats on the quilt and she "loved sewing on every one." Nobody is crazy about rats but as she shows, they have their niche in the ecology.

Inspiration

I went down to New York largely to see the Empire Quilters' biannual show which is always a very good one -- and it was once again. There were many wonderful quilts but I took photos largely of ones that were not in every case my favorites but ones that inspire me to try some aspect of what the quilter did. The above is "Eucalyptus" by Babara Hull. I love her colors and fabric choices but what I want to try is the reverse applique that she did. She did very fine embroidery around some of the leaves.
"Starry Batik Path" by Sylvia Hughes seems a very traditional quilt with the alternating plain squares and the star squares but I really love that kind of quilt and I've loved that star pattern for years. The quilt offers an opportunity to use a variety of batiks from my stash and would give me a much delight to make. I probably will do so ... but I can't even imagine at this point how I'd fit it into the many things I want to do.
"Solar Burst" by Laurenda Liang is especially interesting because the light colored points are three dimensional -- she made all of them separately. They are sewn down by the central circle which I believe was appliqued after the background stars were sewn, and then the very tips of the light stars' points was just tacked so the points seem to float atop the rest. I love that look. Something that would be time consuming but fun to do.
Not really last, because I have some other inspirations I may show in a few days, "Bamboo" by Susan Kraster was a queen size quilt. In just a minute one can see how simple the block is, but how very effective it is. This can be a scrap quilt with even more fabrics than the palette Susan used. I think the red stripping is very effective. I am fairly certainly I will try this block ... when I get a chance.

The frustration is that there are so many good ideas, especially for someone who already has a large stash and loves make stash/scrap quilts. I'll write a bit more about the show in a few days. I'm very, very happy I was able to see it.

All in a Day's Work

I come across all kinds of interviews in the transcription work I do. Here's today's example: Interviewe to Actress/Model: Tell me about your brow maintenance routine. Are you a daily plucker? -- Believe it or not, of cousre you believe it -- she got a straight answer, Not every day, but whenever I think about it.

Another memorable interview was an imprisoned Nelson Mandela's daughter reading a letter in which her father told her to always remove the skin from cooked chicken to avoid getting fat. I well remember a very smooth talking Ken Lay who made Enron sound like America's greatest company. In the '80 rock musicians were not just potty mouthed, they were inarticulate. But lately musicians seem to have become smarter. I'm especially impressed with Bela Fleck and Karen Crow. Anyway, I get an education ranging from hedge funds to mascara.

I've picked out twenty of my 40 or so butterfly postcards to sell at the boutique of the Empire Quilters Show this weekend. Here's a scattering of them. Plus the nine butterflies [not postcards] that are matted and ready to be framed. And a dozen attic window wall quilts. I hauled all those plus my two show quilts down to FIT this morning and was amazed that when the Migrating Monarchs were being photographed for the CD of the show, the color of the background was so much nicer than it seemed on my wall. What a difference some decent light makes! I'm eager to see the whole show tomorrow. I expect it to be very nice and generally very high quality. Of course there will be venders to visit as well. More about that soon.