Quilts Galore

I took a break from gardening, sewing and enjoying Colorado in the late summer to head to Manchester, NH to visit my BFF and attend the World Quilt New England Show. What fun! There were quilts of every description, every color and every size. 

The smallest quilts were a mere 15" square. The quilting on some involved lots of little bits. I enjoyed seeing the craftsmanship, but don't know that I would enjoy sewing and pressing such tiny scraps of cloth. 

All of this in 15"!!!

Wow! Another example of a 15" quilt.

And, one more 15" quilt.

The tiny quilts were part of a challenge. There were several other displays of challenge quilts in the exhibit. Some focused on the cloth used in the quilt. The Tiny Quilt Challenge quilts had to use American Made Brand solid cottons, and the Hoffman Challenge included quilts, apparel and dolls incorporating specific fabric from the Hoffman line, for example.  Some challenges were topical. One included quilts depicting the theme of "Let it Grow".  Another challenged quilters to create a piece that commemorates their birth year.  There were other challenges as well. Some of the exhibited quilts represented art guilds from across the U.S., included quilts from the Savannah, GA area and others from Santa Fe, for example. 

Other quilts were fabricated in far off lands like Germany and Israel. The quilts spanned all manner from traditional designs with pieced fabric to modern quilts with elaborate quilting, to quilts that were painted and those that used thread as paint. Quilts were judged for best use of color, or innovative use of materials or for design. Viewing hundreds of quilts of different colors, sizes and quilting designs was amazing. Just when I thought I had found my favorite, I'd turn a corner and find another favorite quilt. I am truly inspired and have lots of ideas to explore. 

Here are just a few of the hundreds of quilts on display:

This scene is a quilt using fabric and "thread painting"

Here's a closer view

 This is reminiscent of a Mongolian Monk's shawl.

Each scallop had a bright batik fabric on the back.

 You can barely see the reflected color in this shot.

Some of the quilts were whimsical:

Here's another thread painted quilt.

This one used 75,000 yards of thread and 7 million stitches.

The quilt required 2000 hours of work by two seamstresses

over 7 years! Wow!

This is not your traditional quilt!

I was intrigued by this quilt. 

Layers of solid colors were quilted 

and then cut in different ways.

Fascinating!

Here are another few quilts that played with color:

I was intrigued by the quilting and took quite a few close up shots.

I was in awe of the workmanship.