NW Quilting Expo Sampler

Although I am back from vacation, there is too much unpacking chaos for me to get back to quilting yet. However, that didn’t stop me from heading out to the annual NW Quilt Expo in Portland OR. I saw probably 3/4 of the 700 quilts hanging.

Three special exhibits caught my attention:Western Modern Quilt Guild’s Native American themed challenge, Cover to Cover’s interpretations from two novels, and Latimer Museum’s antique quilts. A couple photos from each.

From the Native American challenge, I appreciated most the quilts that though inspired by history didn’t closely reproduce traditional native images, rather creating new ones.

This one gave the traditional Crossed Canoe block a new meaning.

Fishing Hole by Nancy Schaefer

Schaefer described deriving her design while watching the fish ladders at the Bonneville Dam and thinking back to a time when salmon were so plentiful they could be speared from a canoe.

This quilt also referenced salmon.

Tails and Fins by Beverly Shoger

Shoger, noting that salmon linked the coastal tribes, chose to represent them by abstracted tails and naming the better known groups.

This quilt was based on a collaboration.

Shaman’s View by Kathy White

White’s granddaughter had done a senior project that included shamanism. She drew a sketch that White translated into fabric.

Cover to Cover Book Club Quilters is a group that designs quilts based on novels, usually doing two a year. One was Gone With the Wind. There were quilts showing Tara, quilts with abstractions in blue and gray, and quilts representing grand living and the Atlanta fire. This humorous one caught my fancy.

Flowered and Southern Fried by Patricia Goodwin Andrews

(Not so humorous from the chicken’s point of view.) Andrews says, “It’s Saturday and this chicken has another day till it is Sunday and southern fried chicken day.

The group’s second book was All the Light We Cannot See.

The Map in Her Head by Dianne Kane

Several of the quilts referenced Marie-Laure’s blindness; the fabric selection in this one appealed to me.

Last, but not least, are the antique quilts from the Latimer Museum collection.

Nine-Patch Medallion

This one was dated ~1840.  It looked to be double-bed size.

Here is a closer view of the trapunta and hand quilting. Notice some of the old fabrics are beginning to shred. Those early dyes were harsh.

The next one was dated ~1880 and looked to be twin size.

Ohio Star

The center square in the Ohio Star blocks looked to be about 3/4-inch on each side–the blocks about 4 inches.

If you live in the area, you have one more day to see the show. I hope the rest of you enjoyed the sampling.

 

 

 

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Golf Quilt Back Finished

Once I thought I was finished with the main work when I got the center of a quilt finished and threw on a border or two of plain fabric. Then I discovered pieced borders.  Once I thought I was finished when the top was completed, but now I have discovered pieced quilt  backs. (Here is a view of the quilt top in progress.)

Experimenting with designed quilt back

This was my first experience with a designed pieced back.  Oh, I have run out of fabric and thrown rectangles together before, but people in my guilds (local ones and online ones) are experimenting with designing pieced backs. I did need to do something as I didn’t have enough of the golf course fabric for the whole back.

I took some hints from the Craftsy free class, “Creative Quilt Backs,” taught by Elizabeth Hartman. (I can’t make the link go to the specific class; you will have to scroll.) The most important hint was to allow “blank” space in the design for the four inches that the back extends beyond the top. Second most important was to not expect the quilter to be able to place the top precisely, and to allow some leeway.  For example, those two principles explain the long plain gold strip above and below the flying geese. I also used the suggestion from Weeks Ringle’s Designing Modern Quilts to use a quilt back to make the transition from traditional to modern quilt design.

Some people are lucky enough to have blocks left over; other people make larger sized blocks from one of the patterns in their quilt top. I had no extra blocks. I did have left-over fabric. I decided to use two repeating motifs that turned out to be about the right size, then added strips to fill up the left over space. Now that it is finished, it was fun. While I was doing it, I wondred…

[ETA a newer (April 2014) linky party on backs] [ETA a linky party on pieced backs.]

While I was sewing the flying geese to each other, I was using leaders and enders between each seam because it seemed the best way to maintain the order I’d made on the design wall.  And suddenly the leaders and enders took over.  I’d been sewing two square pieces together thinking only enough to join a darker to a lighter one. But as soon as I wanted to add the third I had to start planning the nine-patch part of the block. So I made three blocks, then remembered  the primary project.

Here are the blocks.

Starter set of scrap blocks

I can see I am going to have to solve how to use large prints well and prints with light backgrounds.

The block comes from a tutorial by Michelle Foster–maybe you would like to try it too.

It’s still Friday (at least on Pacific Standard Time).  I’ll be linking with TGIFF; see the link to the side and see what others have finished.