Dallas Quilt Show Part 3

Still more quilts!

This is Crow Water Dance Waist High in Lighting Seed by Naima Jones. I love her work and find it instantly recognizable for its hand stitching and repurposed fabrics.


I think her work is often overlooked at quilt shows but might be much more celebrated in a folk-art exhibit.  I spoke with Naima about another of her quilts. She's very thoughtful and intentional and richly tied to her community and history.



This is Kerri Green's stunning Murmuration.


You have to see a detail to see how the screen printed images are layered.


You see Kerri won 2nd place in the Art Quilt category for the quilt above. AND she won first place in the same category. I would guess that the judges had no clue that these quilts were made by the same artist. They are really quite different, but equally stunning.

The blue ribbon quilt is Hugs and Kisses. It really makes an impact! As you study it, you can see that the four sections are all the same composition in just two colors, then three colors, then in multiple colors.


Kerri had one more quilt in the show. It's called Fun House 1. I'm crazy about that red triangle.


Heather Pregger had one of her Tuning Fork Series in the show.  It's Tuning Fork @29: The Marsh at First Encounter Beach.  I really love the deconstructed, landscape feel of this work.


Here is an amazing hexie quilt. I wish I had taken a close up shot so you could see the piecing of the small shapes, but it's more impressive from far away. The circular, swirling image she created must have taken so much planning! It's called Almost Charming Circles by Fay Poe.



Here is the first place winner in Wall Quilts. It's Richard Larson's Tapestry. As I understand it, this is a computerized machine embroidery pattern. It really boggles the mind to think how this is stitched and pieced.

Here's a detail. There is no black fabric in this quilt. All the black you see (other than the border) is black thread. (I think.)

Frankly, I really don't understand the draw. Here is the same quilt in a vendor booth. 

There were other quilts that incorporated machine embroidery in various ways. Some more innovative and interesting than others.

I love Karen Stone's work. Years and years ago, I paper pieced a quilt using her New York Beauty pattern. She had at least two quilts in the show. Here is Must Love Linen. It's a relatively traditional quilt and a bit outside of what I'd expect from Karen, but I love it. 

And here is Spot On.

I'm going to wrap up with just one more quilt. I shouldn't have saved it for last because it was the stand out experience for me from the whole show. It's incredible. Innovative and original, but grounded in tradition and masterful technique. It won the Viewer's Choice. Deservedly!

It's Rebecca Prior's Extraneous Female: Escapement Mechanism. She says it was based on blocks she learned from Elly Sienkiewicz in the Baltimore Album style. She also was loosely inspired by patterns for two steampunked theme quilt blocks published in Wired magazine, but beyond that I believe this design is entirely her own creation! Bravo Rebecca!

There was so much to see and enjoy with this quilt.  Can you see the flaps that open to reveal the heart on the woman's chest? Inside is a bird in a cage.

The steampunk theme was really strong and fun!

Some of the blocks were a bit creepy and odd, but it all worked.

Notice the quilting? The lightbulb?! Genius!

The titles on the books here are all steampunk genre.

This corset/bird cage may be my favorite block. It feels like such a traditional Baltimore album style basket... and yet different!

I didn't even show you images from the special exhibits which were really excellent. The Quilters Guild of Dallas puts on an excellent show. I am so proud to be a member of the guild and I enjoy it every year. Second week in March, mark your calendar and come see us!