by Amy Milne | Jun 6, 2025 | Alliance Quilt Contests
Love Never EndsChandrea Kowalski200815″ x 15″Quilt Alliance My Quilts/Our History Contest Materials: Embroidery, raw edge appliqué on Granny’s hand-quilted quilt that was cut and found in Mama’s trunk. Artist’s Statement: My love of quilts was “handed” down from my Mama, Maria Kowalski and Granny, Beatrice Kiser, both deceased. In my Mama’s trunk, there was an old cut quilt that was my Granny’s. I chose to use a piece for this contest. The rights hands (sister Danice Bible and her daughter Victoria) honor the Mother Child relationship. The left hand honors my quilting mentor Kate Meyers. For Mama and Granny Bea – Our Lives Will Always be a Part of the Others – Love Never Ends.
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by Amy Milne | Apr 30, 2025 | Alliance Quilt Contests
20 Things I Like About YouVictoria Findlay Wolfe201320″ x 20″Quilt Alliance TWENTY Contest Materials: Cotton Couture by Michael Miller, cotton and wool batting. Trapunto, machine embroidery, hand quilted and hand appliqué with 12 wt thread. Artist’s Statement: While I was thinking of the theme, 20 things… kept creeping into my brain…Then I thought about affirmations, and how when they say journal, and write as many nice things as you can about yourself…I thought, What if I quilted, “20 things I like about you”, so when you read it, whether you think of 20 or not, you’d get a smile on your lips…Also, adding 20 happy polka dots never hurt an affirmation either! Visit Victoria’s website.
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by Amy Milne | Apr 4, 2025 | Alliance Quilt Contests
Quilt ReadingRachel Ivy Clarke201016″x16″Quilt Alliance New From Old Contest Materials: Machine pieced patchwork from recycled textiles; machine quilted. Artist’s Statement: What better transition from old into new than vintage fabrics and discarded industry samples (which ordinarily would have been sent to a landfill) recycled and reclaimed into this new quilt, which employs traditional historical patchwork techniques to create a QR code; a modern, cell-phone readable barcode with the ability to store text, phone numbers, URLs and other data. Users with a camera phone and cod-reading software would scan this piece to discover that it reads “quilts.” This quilt was featured in “Cross switch: Stitching gets technical – in pictures,” The Guardian, June 15, 2011. QA members can watch Rachel Ivy Clarke’s workshop, “An Archive of Your Own: Using Spreadsheets to Describe and Catalog Your Quilts” in your Member Portal/Video & Audio Recordings/QTM 2024 Recordings.
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by Amy Milne | Jun 14, 2019 | Alliance Quilt Contests, Jigsaw puzzles
Your Quilt Jigsaw Puzzle Tip: for best results, solve puzzle on this page on a desktop computer or laptop. If you are solving on a mobile device, click on the puzzle piece icon in the lower righthand corner to solve on the Jigsaw Planet website. Welcome to another quilt jigsaw puzzle from Quilt Alliance! The beautiful quilts in the puzzles have all been entries in past Quilt Alliance quilt contests. Be sure to sign up for our blog notifications, so that you don’t miss any of the upcoming puzzles. Up and Away by Sheri Cifaldi-Morrill This week’s puzzle spotlights a quilt titled Up and Away made by Sheri Cifaldi-Morrill of Woodbridge, CT for the 2016 Quilt Alliance contest and auction, “Playing Favorites.” Materials: Cotton Fabric, Cotton Thread, Cotton Batting. Techniques: Foundation Paper Piecing, Domestic Machine Quilted. Artist’s Statement I designed and produced Up and Away using one of my favorite piecing techniques–foundation paper piecing. I love paper piecing because I can design and execute precise design elements. All of my paper piecing designs are created in Adobe Illustrator. I also love testing out new designs on a small scale before producing them larger. This challenge was the perfect opportunity to prototype a new design! Sheri’s quilt won Judge’s Choice (Mark Lipinski) and Honorable Mention (awarded by Quilt Alliance members). Judge Mark Lipinski’s comments: This entry is an original paper-pieced composition, a drifting hot air balloon, with an intentional modern design sensibility. On first impression, the simple templates and pieced colors jump off of the solid white background, drawing me in. I found the overall impact of the work fresh and clean. The shapes within the balloon widen and grow, from slivers of lime green (representing the balloon’s flame) through various blues and finally to deep red- and blue-toned purples, giving the small quilt both heft and dimension. I thought the artist’s fabric choices thoughtful and effective—primarily solid colors with just the slightest bit of minimalistic patterned fabric tossed into the mix. The quilting is simple but efficient, made up of clean and clear straight lines that accent the shapes within the balloon, contrasted with the slightly wavy lines quilted in the background. I really appreciated the white binding the designer used, as almost any other color would have felt heavy and constraining. About Quilt Alliance We rely on the generous support of donors and members like you to sustain our projects. If you support our mission of documenting, preserving, and sharing the stories of quilts and quiltmakers, join us by becoming a member or renewing your membership, making a donation, or learning how your business or corporation can become a supporter of the Quilt…
by Amy Milne | Dec 15, 2018 | Alliance Quilt Contests
This month we revisit some of the gorgeous pieces in our QA Contest Quilt archives, all made by groups. Since 2007, our annual contests have been open to both individuals and groups. Often these collaborative quilts break new ground for the artists-trying new techniques, or working with a specific team approach where the quilt is sectioned and divvied up amongst collaborators. Sometimes the collaboration echoes the artists’ relationship or marks a special moment in time. We are so grateful to have received support from these artists and to have documented their work. You’ll see three quilts by the Broadway Gentlemen’s Quilting Auxiliary. This group of talented quilters all share a connection–they have at one time worked on Broadway, as actors, dressers or other creative or supportive roles. Their approach differs in each of the quilts, each showing great care to create unified design without compromising individual group member contributions. Another group quilt, “Time for Tea” made for the TWENTY contest uses a strip technique to divide up the surface and group responsibilities. The quilt made by Asheville, NC area quilters won the Grand Prize in 2014 and the team had the difficult task of sharing a Handi Quilter HQ Sweet Sixteen sit-down machine. 🙂 Another team effort made for the TWENTY contest, “Second Triangulation,” showcases leftover pieces of the group quilt, “Triangulations,” exhibited at the International Quilt Association’s “World of Beauty” show at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas in 2013. Inventive repurposing! Some group quilts featured here are a collaboration of two, sometimes a familial team and sometimes artistic colleagues. Esther Muh created a quilt with her daughter Elizabeth for the Inspired By contest in 2014, and Mary Pumphrey worked with her daughter Lorna on their entry for the 2012 Home Is Where the Quilt Is contest. Mary Kay Davis enlisted her son Clayton Alexander to submit a quilt for the Home contest. Quilt Alliance Treasurer Lisa Ellis allied with her husband Mike to create a beautiful “Sunflowers” quilt for the 2011 Alliances contest. Longtime Quilt Alliance member and volunteer Alice Helms made the quilt “Show of Hands” with her husband Arthur, “to put together two art forms – drawing and quilting. The twenty cartoon-like panels are integrated into a traditional quilt block layout and the drawings suggest the prominence of hands in all endeavors.” Syrie Blanco Walsh painted and Maria Ferri Cousins quilted their collaborative entry for the Animals We Love contest in 2015. Since quilts are historically a collaborative effort, it’s fascinating to see how group quilting evolves. Enjoy this gallery from the QA Contest Quilt Archives. [huge_it_gallery…
by Amy Milne | Nov 17, 2018 | Alliance Quilt Contests
Our heart goes out to all those suffering from the devastating fires burning across the state of California. Friends on social media report that many in our community have lost their homes, their businesses or both. We want all those who are suffering from losses and all those in fear of these fires to know we are with you in spirit, sending our love. And please pass on the availability of our Quilt Recovery Kits to those who have had quilts damaged by the fires. Quilts made by Californians or about California are our theme for this month’s gallery from our Quilt Contest Archives. [huge_it_gallery…
