The Quilt Police Really Do Exist!

The North Star Quilters Guild show was held in Cadillac, MI today.  The show was raided by the quilt police!  No one was exempt.  I got a citation for having one side of my quilt 1/16th of an inch longer than the other.  Another was "too sparkly", another had "loose stuff" on it, etc.  It was all in good fun, and I think the attendees enjoyed it.

Our show is not judged, just viewers choice.  We usually have about five categories, some staying the same, and some changing every year.  Of course the usual bed quilt, wall/baby, miniature, and miscellaneous. This year's challenge category was two-color quilts (seen below).  It was a popular category.

The miniature quilts:

The general categories:

Miscellaneous:

We were approached last winter by the organization that runs the women's shelter.  At some time they did a project of having people decorate T-shirts to raise awareness of domestic violence.  They asked us to make some quilts for their office and the shelter from the shirts.

Our quilt racks have "feet" that stick out into the aisles, so we cover them with small tables to prevent people from tripping on them.  They are decorated with small items such as this doll.

I hope you enjoyed a few of the quilts from our show.  We had 97 in all, and several vendors.

The Bishop's House

 Hans Herr House, built in 1719, is the oldest existing structure in Lancaster Co., PA.  I am a direct descendant of Hans Herr, who was the first Mennonite Bishop of Lancaster Co.  The quilt was made following a visit to the house, which is now a museum.  The house is overshadowed by a center diamond, which though being more associated with the Amish, is probably the quilt design most representative of Lancaster County.

The sky is hand dyed in 5 gradations of blue.

 I used some traditional Amish quilting designs, such as the feather circle and cable, in addition to quilting the landscape features in grids and by following the outlines.

On the back is a pedigree chart showing the line from Hans Herr to myself, and a scan of the photo I worked with to create the quilt.

The remainder of the back was strip pieced.

The label tells the story.

Do you ever try to reflect your heritage in your quilts?

 

Feathers and Sunflowers

This is a quilt I did recently for a customer.  I love the look of the feather quilting with the braid piecing.

The sunflower quilted in the border was fast and easy, and adding the filler of small spirals really made the flowers pop.
She loved it, I'm happy to say!