by Quilt Alliance | Feb 3, 2013 | Alliance Membership, Alliance Quilt Contests, Tiny Desk Exhibition
The 7th annual Quilt Alliance contest theme is TWENTY and all quilters who love quilt history and believe that every quilt has a story worth sharing are encouraged to enter. This year in honor of our 20th anniversary as a nonprofit organization, we celebrate “twenty”: the numeral, the concept, the quantity, the word. All techniques and materials are encouraged. Entries must be a quilt (3 layers–top, filling and backing) and conform to our contest guidelines. Postmark deadline for entries is May 1, 2013. The Grand Prize winner (to be chosen by a panel of three professional quilters/designers) will receive an HQ Sweet Sixteen machine quilting system by Handi Quilter, Inc. Download entry forms here. Here is a Tiny Desk Exhibition (love those NPR Tiny Desk Concerts) of Alliance contest quilts made by Alliance member Dr. Ramona Bates of Little Rock, Arkansas. Ramona donated these miniature beauties between 2009-2012 and each quilt now lives in the collection of a generous quilt fan. Click on the link below each quilt to see materials and techniques Ramona used along with her artist statements. These quilts are also documented in The Quilt Index, along with all Alliance contest quilts (browse them here). Meet this Member! Visit Ramona’s Blog, Sutured for a Living, and find out more about this talented plastic surgeon with a passion for piecing (and knitting, and dogs and knitted items for dogs…). Thank you, Ramona, for giving your time, talent and treasure to this organization. As you help us save the stories of quilts and quiltmakers, we are so proud to preserve and share your own quilt story. I hope you enjoy this Tiny Desk Exhibition. Please share with a friend! Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
by Quilt Alliance | Jan 22, 2013 | Alliance Membership, Alliance Quilt Contests, Tiny Desk Exhibition
On This Day in History Quilts posts will return tomorrow! Alliance member Patricia Hobbs of Macomb, Illinois was our Grand Prize winner in the recent 2012 membership drawing. Pat won the Amazing Aurifil Cotton Thread Suitcase, with 216 gorgeous colors. I’d like to take this opportunity to launch a blog series I’m calling Meet a Member, where we’ll spotlight some of the generous, talented folks in our community of members. Our members include many who quilt, and some who do not. Pat is a quilter and a lifelong artist; in fact, she taught art for over forty years. Pat has donated four stunning quilts for the Quilt Alliance contests, one each year since 2009 (see the Tiny Desk Exhibition of these quilts below). And as a member, she has volunteered to help with Alliance events like greeting guests in our contest quilt exhibition at the AQS quilt show in Paducah. Thank you, Pat and all our members, for supporting the work that we do, contributing your story and your quilts to our documentation, and for caring deeply about preserving the tradition of quilting for future generations. When Pat heard the news that she’d won this bonanza of Aurifil thread she said, “I am so excited to have won the suitcase of Aurifil. I never thought I would be the winner of such a wonderful prize. I am guilty of sometimes using cheap thread in the past, but will certainly feel like a queen using such fine Aurifil thread. I do believe in the work and projects of Quilt Alliance especially that of telling and keeping quilters’ stories. I have learned so much from this organization and enjoy the annual small quilt auctions. It is impressive to see each quilter’s design and special interpretation of the yearly theme.” And after Pat received the thread suitcase, she told us: “It is one thing to be excited about winning the thread, but to sit and hold the Aurifil thread collection in my hands is a dream come true!” Here is a Tiny Desk Exhibition (love those NPR Tiny Desk Concerts) of Pat’s Alliance contest quilts from 2009-2012. Click on the link below each quilt to see materials and techniques used in each quilt and to read and hear Pat’s artist statements. These quilts are also documented in The Quilt Index, along with all Quilt Alliance contest quilts (you can browse them here). Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…
