Special Exhibits - International Quilt Festival

The International Quilt Festival in Houston opens today. I have three pieces juried into special exhibits at the show. For more information and to see images of some of the special exhibits follow this link.

"Color Burst" was juried into the "In the American Tradition" Exhibit.

80 x 60"

This was the first quilt I made entirely of fabric I dyed myself. The border fabric was the inspiration, because it was too beautiful to cut up. I pulled colors from it to make the arcs - which were foundation pieced. It took me nearly a year to decide how to do the machine quilting.

"Goodness Gracious, Great Balls of Fire" was juried into The Sky's the Limit Special Exhibit.

“Goodness Gracious, Great Balls of Fire!” evokes a feeling of flaming balls or nebula. The foundation of this piece is discharged black cotton which was overdyed with shades of red to yellow, creating a fiery impression on cloth. Machine quilting was done with a variety of metallic, polyester, and rayon threads. This quilt has been heavily beaded to the point that it is practically a piece of jewelry! The beads add even more fire and sparkle.

It has been previously shown in the following venues:

Spring Festival 2005

Sacred Threads 2007

Published in Quilters Newsletter Magazine June/July 2007

39 x 41”

"City Lights" was juried into the Tactile Architecture Exhibit.

This piece was inspired by the unique style of artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. His use of color and line influenced the development of this image depicting the bright lights of a spring evening in New York City. A plasticized wrapping material called Tyvek® was painted with pigments, cut into shapes and placed on top of the fabric sandwich of hand dyed cotton, and cotton batting. After the building details were stitched by machine with bright polyester and cotton thread, the Tyvek® was melted slightly with an iron to create texture and depth. Fused tulle creates lights beaming across the sky, while hand stamping with metallic paint creates the softly reflective East River in the foreground.

Size: 38.5 inches width x 56.5 inches height

Completed: July 2006