And, then I stepped it up a notch

Yesterday, I helped hang quilts at the show for about 4 hours.  I worked in a team with an old friend, a new friend, and near the end, a brand new quilter.  There was an ongoing discussion about the direction of quilting and how quilting had changed from an emphasis on piecing accuracy to emphasize fancy, dense quilting and whether that's a good thing.  Of course, we were hanging in the two person, large size category, so we were looking at quilts pieced by one person and quilted by a professional, so it hardly seemed the place to be having this conversation because I'm not sure quilting has so much changed as the tools we quilt with have changed. 

My thought is that it is going to always cycle between the two.  One year, quilting will be the emphasis, but as more quilts end up being densely quilted, people will start to look for perfect piecing again.  So, in a few years, piecing is going to be all the rage.  And, when everybody is submitting perfectly pieced quilts, the emphasis will go back to quilting. 

I try to do both, so if I succeed at either one, I end up with a pretty darn nice quilt.  And, I predict that soon, the emphasis is going to be on one person quilts that don't involve the work of a professional. 

The conversation I'd like to have is this one...a kit quilt can't win best of show because the fabrics weren't chosen by the quilt maker.  If that stays true, then how can a professionally quilted quilt win best of show?  It wasn't quilted by the quilt maker.  Hardly seems fair, right?  And, that feedback is probably going to be submitted after the show to the quilt show committee. 

Okay, back to my early quilts.  We're up to about 2010.  My piecing is very precise.  And, I'm learning to do dense machine quilting.  So, I took my first class.  This is called Apple Pie because of the apple blossom fabric and the appliqued circles.  I took the class because I wanted to learn to piece the drunkards path blocks in the lower left corner. 

 

This quilt is densely quilted and I do wish I could show it to you.  I drew beautiful cornucopias of apples for the setting triangles and branches of densely packed  apples and leaves fill the borders.  But, I was so afraid that my mistakes would show up that I did it all in exactly matching color thread, green in the green, red in the red, brown in the brown, so you can't see any of the good stuff because I was afraid you'd see the errors.  I have to stop being so afraid of not being perfect. 

This next quilt came soon after.  This one is called Storm in my Garden.  This is me playing with color.  Could I use color to make a statement.  And, the answer is a resounding yes.  This one is also quilted very densely and it makes it heavy.

And, then I wanted to start working in whole cloth.  I love a beautifully quilted whole cloth quilt and at one time, thought I would give up piecing and only work in whole cloth.  I'm so glad I re-thought that. 

This is made of a plastic template that I bought in a fabric store.  I traced it on the fabric and then quilted it, and then filled in the areas around it. 

I love quilting and am looking forward to the show.  Someone else made Radiate in the same size and it's in the same category; one person small.  But, it's in darker civil war fabrics.  It's also beautiful and perfectly pieced.  I hope that the quilting gives Radiate an advantage. 

The judges are going through the show today.  Wish I was a fly on the wall.

Everybody have a great Wednesday!  Lane