So… after years of attending quilt shows, I find that its the “miniatures” and the “art quilts” that I find the most fascinating. And this year’s group of “miniatures” and “art quilts” may quite possibly be the most inspiring to date!
As a matter of fact, I find them SO inspiring that as I contemplate that time of my life when I stop designing bag patterns and finally retire from the show circuit, I’d love to think that I could spend the rest of my life pouring my creative energy into projects like this! At any rate… I hope you find these projects as inspiring as I did!
Amy said she tried to give this quilt “window proportions” because she was inspired by old stained glass windows. There are 9780 pieces. (I was MOST impressed with the thin line of black fabric in between each color!)
For this quilt Amy decided to challenge herself to see exactly how small a pineapple block could be. These blocks finish at (an unbelievable) 1/2″ square and each block has 34 pieces, making these blocks DIFFICULT to piece and join.
This is the latest version of her own Matrix design. The clumns and rows of colors vary from light to dark and back again and follow a basic color wheel order. It is her most planned and complex Matrix to date!
This piece was foundation pieced on a 1947 Singer featherweight machine. There are 9696 pieces!
Akiko wanted to create a quilt with many girls on a pink background. Each of them have various faces with different hairstyles, clothes and bags. There are 640 of them. It took a lot of time and effort to arrange the fabrics to make the background a pink gradation. She hopes this will make you feel gorgeous, as if cherry blossoms are in full bloom or make you smile and be kind.
Some accomplishments are beyond reason and this quilt is the embodiment of a dream…
not of a finished product, but of the journey and completion of a process.
She believed she could, she thought she should and she said she would and DID.
The total piece count is 226,576!
BUT—when I first saw it from an overhead porthole in the Convention Center, I couldn’t understand what in the world was so special about it, but once I got close to it and realized how tiny these individual blocks were and the grand scale of the whole quilt I totally understood. I must say that this quilt stands in a class by itself and is quite possibly the most amazing quilt I have ever seen in person! And as we all know… that’s really saying something!
So do stay tuned for the next post in our Houston series
when I’ll share my favorite art quilts!
Do any of YOU like to sew in a miniature form? If so, do any of you have any tips for successfully sewing in such a tiny medium? And remember, we love reading your comments and answering your questions too, so please feel free to leave either or both in the space provided below.
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Wow. I can’t believe the number of pieces in these quilts. I like miniatures but don’t think I would have patience to do blocks that measure that small and have so many pieces. Beautiful quilts though.
I actually heard one of the quilt monitors say that the grand prize winning quilt weighed over 30 pounds.