Panhandle Piecemakers Festival of Quilts - Part II

I most commonly view a quilt show with a slow wander, taking in the quilt as a whole, then leaning in to scrutinize details and the quilting itself, then stepping back again and reading any signage. That's what I was doing with this quilt, admiring all those small half-square triangle units while admitting with a sigh to another viewer how I used to really go in for this kind of small intricate piecing but now don't seem to have the patience (or perhaps recognize as I age that I'm running out of time!), then leaning in and noticing the quilting. Look! It's my swirls from Sea and Sand, only I bet this quilter didn't have to mark hers.

And then I looked at the signage and saw a familiar name - Renee who follows my blog and who I was hoping to meet that day (which I did). It was such a pleasure to be admiring a quilt and discover it was by someone I knew (or sort of know - I'm sure we'll get to know each other better now that we've met). She has a mid-arm machine on a frame, I believe she said, that she used to quilt this and admitted to the same occasional veering off track I experienced even with my marking. You'd never know it.

Here's another one of Renee's that I was drawn to before realizing it was hers. That woman got lots of ribbons that weekend.

The Modern Quilt movement has not bypassed our area.

Many "modern" quilts are quilted with parallel vertical or horizontal lines. This quilter took advantage of those odd negative shapes to quilt hers a bit differently, which I liked.

This one struck me as influenced by the modern quilt movement too, even though it uses a very traditional block. Maybe it's that intense solid turquoise background (a color I really love - I might not have kept coming back to this quilt had the background been a different one). Wouldn't it look great in a home in the Southwest?

It was so intensely quilted but in a way sympathetic to the pieced design.

One corner of the exhibit was devoted to their featured quilter, Carol Beber. If you click on the picture, you can read the article.

I spent some time talking with her about this quilt which she made for her husband per his request, her technique for joining the tumbling blocks, the search for an elusive color for one of the diagonals (haven't we all been through this?) and of course, those mariner compass blocks in the corners. Like me, she too follows Judy Mathieson's methods for making these.

Finally, I leave you with this quilt (not shown in its entirety), simply because it amused me so, thinking of my experiences with raccoons in Wisconsin and at the first place I rented when I moved back to Idaho. 

Another thing I'm a bit out of the loop on is the many commercial prints on the market. Back in the 90's when I made my first pilgrimage to Paducah, KY for the American Quilt Society Show, I had the chance to shop at Hancock's of Paducah (no affiliation with Hancock Fabrics which has recently gone out of business). They had rows and rows and rows and rows of Hoffman prints, and I was told I could probably find anything I was looking for within their massive line. Butterflies, dogs, fruits and vegetables of every kind, ditto for flowers. Well, Hancocks and Hoffman failed me that day, as I was looking for something with horses on it and there was none to be found. Ever since then, though, I've sort of paid attention to the vast array of things that end up on fabric available to quilters. The raccoons I didn't know about and I think they are great.

Whether the quilter found the fabric first, then the intricate paper piecing pattern, or the other way around, I bet she thought she'd hit the jackpot! I'm sure she was excited to have these two come together in her life. I'm guessing her grandson just loves it.

Hope you enjoyed this slice of traditional quilt life in my local area.