I'm busy trying to find time to work on my whole-cloth quilt this Memorial Day weekend. So far, I haven't had any luck. My husband is home from Indianapolis, and we are having company practically every day. I do have some more Paducah photos for you, though, and I'm planning on having a picture of me and "Quilt Man" in my next blog entry if I can find it! Hopefully, I'll have more of my work to show you soon--at least I keep hoping I'll get something done...
As I walked by this quilt, I caught Patricia Delaney (the quilt maker) and took her picture by her quilt “Inspiration Draws from Nature’s Art.” She is from Abington, MA. She said that a morning walk inspired drawings of ferns and fiddleheads. Depth and texture in the quilt come from trapunto, thread color, and over 35 different red-and-white fabrics. Hand-applied cording and handmade bias cord edging are features of this quilt. 
“Heavy Lifting” by Kay Preston from Deep Gap, NC, is a foundation pieced pineapple quilt. Now, I have made a small pineapple quilt, and I know how hard it is. This quilt is spectacular; the colors are stunning.
I have been working on my whole-cloth quilt for the last few days. At last count, I had approximately 291 hours in it. It will take lots more hours before it is finished. In the last few months I hadn't done much hand quilting; I do find that I have missed the direct connection to the cloth that hand quilting brings to a project. Hand quilting is a great investment in time and love.
Now, for more Paducach quilts...Judith Larzelere from Westerly, RI, created "August" on a 50-year-old machine. The quilt is strip-pieced and strip-quilted. It is an original piece made from hand-dyed cotton by Heide Stoll-Weber. The colors were SO vibrant they truly made me feel the August heat.
On the other side of the coin is this quilt made by Akiko Torii from Tokushima, Japan. The way "August" could convey the heat of the summer, this quilt (called "Blue Water") conveys the coolness of water. Shining waves appear to reflect the sunshine in Akiko's pieced original design, inspired by a Kyoko Oguri workshop. The quilt was quilted on a home sewing machine.
"Feathered Geese in Autumn Splendor" by Joanie Wyatt and Helen Rode from Fredricksburg, TX, is a striking quilt. I think I was really attracted to the colors. I LOVE autumn colors. (I painted my kitchen orange, my living room red, and my dining room yellow!) Joanie paper pieced Judy Niemeyer's Autumn Splendor design and gave artistic freedom to Helen to longarm quilt with microfeathering, meandering, and pebbles. The next quilt is a miniature. You wouldn't believe how tiny the pieces of this quilt are. Each tiny piece is machine button-hole appliqued to the quilt using thread to match the color of the piece. The workmanship on this quilt is awesome. The quilt is called "Himalayan Garden" and was made by Pat Holly from Ann Arbor, MI. An old embroidery from India inspired Pat to design this completely machine-appliqued and quilted miniature to honor amazing textiles from around the world. The quilt won Benartex's Best Miniature Quilt Award. All I can say is WOW!
The house work is progressing nicely. I can finally see an end to the mess! I have actually settled down enough to resume hand quilting on a whole-cloth quilt started long ago. Hand quilting tends to calm me down, and God knows I need that!
Some miscellaneous quilt stuff...The UFO (from the UFO Challenge) is due in about two weeks. I'll have pics of that up in the next week or so (so watch for it).
...and now, more from the 2009 AQS Show in Paducah..."Fandango" by Judy Peterson from Pinehurst, NC, was inspired by Alice Arnette's ORIENTAL SPIRAL quilt incorporating Bethany Reynolds "Stack-n-What" Fan blocks and Lone Star Quilts & Beyond by Jan Krentz. It is longarm quilted. I just thought the color combination was very striking.
"Color Me High on Life" is an original design by Karlyn Bue Lohrenz from Billings, MT. It was quilted on a home sewing machine. I just loved the vibrant colors and the movement in this quilt. 
I've included a close up picture too. It gives you a better look at the details of the design.
Kirsten Johnston from Ontario, Canada, made the quilt below. It is called "Rosewindow." Magnificent stained glass windows from Europe's medieval cathedrals prompted Kirsten to use Paula Nadelstern's fabrics and template technique to facilitate the creative process. It was home sewing machine quilted. This quilt truly looked like you were looking into a stained glass window with light behind it. It was breathtaking. 
The closeup gives you an idea of the work involved in a quilt like this. Wow!
Rosewindow won an Honorable Mention Award.
I am having problems uploading pictures into my blog. I have tried to upload Paducah pictures five times today. They look like they load, but they aren't there. I'll keep working on it. I'm frustrated! Can you tell?Let me just say up front that this picture doesn't do justice to the mess I have lived in for the past couple of weeks. This picture shows the furniture from my living room and dining room crammed into my sunroom. My sewing room looked pretty much like that too (maybe that is why I haven't gotten any sewing done lately). My living room and dining room had paper on the floor, plastic over the ceiling fans, and no piece of furniture to sit on. Thankfully, some of the mess has been cleared out, and things are slowly returning to "normal." The funny thing is that the painters just finished up yesterday. I decided there just wasn't enough color (the Swiss Coffee color I chose was just too neutral), so I'm repainting two rooms! Hey, at least the mess is mine!
I am finally back on line!!!! Yeah!!!! I've been off-line for the last few days due to the painters working in my computer room. I finally got everything hooked back up and working today. Stay tuned...I'm even going to show you the mess my house was in during the painting! I also have more great pictures from Paducah to share with you. I'll get pics posted some time today, so....please check back. It is after midnight, and I'm heading to bed right now.
I included a closeup so you could get a better look at the quilting.
"Garden of Dream" was made by Fusako Takido from Japan. In the garden footpath, flowers perform a play. The Cattleya orchid has the leading part, supported by wild herbs. The applique on this quilt is SO striking. I think you can click on this picture to get a closeup. The quilting includes trapunto and really adds to the beauty of this quilt.
Susan V. Polansky from Dedham, MA, made “Pastoral Disturbance” after the October 2006 schoolhouse massacre. The Amish community responded with forgiveness despite the random victimization of their children. 
