Show Quilts ~ Part 3

Carol here ~

Continuing on with our show quilts, the next three are mine.

SHOW ME THE WAY HOME ~ designed, pieced and quilted by me. This one received a Purple Ribbon (excellence) and Best of Show at Maine Quilts, was displayed at Innovations and Machine Quilter's Expo.

The Mariner's Compass blocks were constructed with Brenda Henning's paper piecing technique.  I then surrounded it with flying geese heading north, south, east and west, set on point.  I added the partial compass blocks and bordered the quilt with a favorite block, Rangeley Stars.  The quilting is all freehand using a variegated thread.  (what was I thinking?) 

Judges comments ~ superior workmanship, quilting motifs well thought out, quilt doesn't hang quite straight. (yup, agree with that. No matter what I did it didn't hang straight. grr)

STARBURST GALAXY ~ designed, pieced and quilted by me.  It received a Blue Ribbon at Maine Quilts, a Faculty award at Machine Quilter's Expo and a Quilting Excellence Ribbon at A Quilters's Gathering.

I was playing with Studio 180's V-Block tool using it to piece the star points and the pieced border. I left lots of open space for quilting filling it with feathers and backfill.  I used curved crosshatching on the outer border that shows up best on the back side. I like to use plain-ish fabric for backing because sometimes the back ends up being nicer than the front!

Judges comments ~ excellent piecing throughout, machine quilting patterns are absolutely beautiful, well placed and well executed, pieced and quilted inner border adds a dynamic touch, spire of feathers could be more consistent in width. (hmmm, not sure on that one as I wanted the feathers to be different widths)

A WALK ON THE RIDGE  ~ designed, pieced and quilted by me.  This was only displayed at Maine Quilts where it received a Red Ribbon.

This one hangs on the slant wall up in the quilting loft so will show the picture of it hanging in the show.

Color inspiration for this one came from a photo my niece Kelsi had taken "up on the ridge".

When a quilt is entered in a show to be judged the label with your name on it and any story you have included on the label must be covered up so the judges will not know who the quilt belongs to.

This quilt did not “show” well. The judges were not impressed with the colors. Comments included “too drab, not enough color contrast, no pop in color” to name a few. I don’t know if it would have made a difference if they could of seen the photo my inspiration came from, but they couldn’t so…..whatever. I love the quilt, it is one of my favorites and that is all that matters to me. They did like the quilting though.

That's all for today, check back with Dan on Friday as he continues.

Have a great last week of October!