February 22, 2013

QuiltCon

Three quilts entered.
Two quilts accepted !
One quilt wins an award ! ! !

Rhythm & Blues won 3rd Place in the Use of Negative Space category sponsored by Michael Miller Fabrics!  I can't begin to tell you how excited I am.

I've seen lots of pictures on Instgram and there are some amazing quilts in the show. I don't really have a lot of quilt show credentials under my belt so this is all rather new and most definitely an honor considering all the great talent out there.   : )


If only I was in Austin right now to see them in person.  : (  

I didn't even know which quilt won what award until just now when the winners were finally posted online. For a complete listing of the winners go here.

I made 2 new quilts to enter in QuilCon. Both were based on concepts that had been in my sketchbook for ages. Seemed like a great opportunity to finally bring those concepts to life.


The first quilt was "Rhythm & Blues".
The inspiration for this quilt initially came from studying the design elements in woven interior decorating fabrics. I was interested in the interweave of colors that occur within the strong horizontal format of the weave. As the idea progressed, I became more intrigued with the vertical movement that could be created as different colored groups of lines interact with each other. The quilt morphed into a graphic representation of the sound bars that move up and down on digital recording equipment and "Rhythm & Blues" was born. I have plans to explore other versions of this basic design later this year.



I quilted it with horizontal lines. A single line in the white bars, double lines in most of the blues and triple lines in the darkest blue. It made for a lot of starting and stopping, which is an area where my skills need improvement.




The second quilt I made was "Mondrian Unleashed".
"Mondrian Unleashed" was inspired by the paintings of Piet Mondrian, an important contributor to the De Stijl art movement of the early 1900's. He simplified compositions into vertical and horizontal lines and used primary colors plus black and white. I was intrigued by his compositions and the limited placement of color and initially planned to reproduce this structure using print fabrics in place of solid colors. As the concept evolved though, I broke free of the rigid horizontal and vertical structure in favor of diagonal lines. The placement of color within the spaces created by the intersection of lines falls in a way that intentionally leads your eye through the quilt.  I have other color options I'd like to explore with this one as well.




I quilted random diagonal lines all over the surface that echo the randomness of the quilt design.





The third quilt I entered was "Zebras in My Garden" made using my Facets pattern. While this quilt wasn't accepted, it's actually my favorite in many ways simply because of the use of color and Kaffe prints.



Making these quilts was a great learning experience. One of the main things I realized about my personal quilt journey is that the design process is what I love the most. Guess that's why I have so many sketches and so many "yet to be made" quilts. I really enjoy the compositional aspect of designing and working with color. And while it was a lot of fun to work with mostly solids, I realize my first love is prints and riots of color. I'll still design and use solids frequently because there are just so many delicious colors available, but I'll never give up on prints . . . especially Kaffe.

I encourage all of you to go out on a limb and enter a competition this year. If you aren't accepted into one show it certainly doesn't mean you won't be accepted into a different show. Sometimes it just means finding the right fit for your work. Be confident in your ideas, improve the skills that need work and let the rest of the world see what you do.

I hope QuiltCon is a grand success. I can't imagine that it won't be. 
To all of you lucky enough to go, I'm quite jealous but hope you had a blast!!

12 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your win at Quilt Con!! The quilt is wonderful and so are the others.

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  2. Anne, congrats on the win. The quilt is beautiful.

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  3. Congratulations! All three quilts are fab - especially love "Rhythm and Blues"

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  4. Congratulations!!! How wonderful. Your quilts are spectacular, Anne!

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  5. Your quilts are wonderful! Love the Rhythm and Blues, in particular. How great that you gathered your courage to submit these quilts, then have two accepted, and one win! You design beautifully, a skill I do not have. Congratulations to you. The win is well-deserved.

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  6. Congrats on your win...the quilt is fabulous, I love it. It's even lovelier in real life.

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  7. I've tried three times to leave a comment using my iPad, so I switched over to my laptop, determined to get this done! I, of course, am in love with your quilts, so it's nice to get their backstory in this post. I'm so glad that you had them accepted and really really glad that you won an award! You are so deserving!

    Thanks for all your inspiration--so glad Cindy started this group!

    Elizabeth E.

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  8. Congratulations on winning - love all three of your quilts. I got to see them in person and they are marvelous! I enjoyed QuiltCon and can't wait until the next one and viewing quilts such as yours.

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  9. the blue quilt is absolutely wonderful....congratulations

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  10. I need to stay here! you're a great inspiration!

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  11. I think these quilts are just fabulous, all three of them, and definitely worthy of an award. Congratulations!

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WaHoo!!! You're leaving me a comment. Thanks for stopping by and do come back again. Quilt on, Anne.