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Quilt Puzzle: Name That QSOS Interviewee 02
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! This month, we’ve got a new challenge for you! See below for clues. Be sure to sign up for our blog notifications, so that you don’t miss any of the upcoming puzzles. Name That QSOS Interviewee! This week’s puzzle spotlights a quiltmaker who was interviewed for our Quilters’ S.O.S. – Save Our Stories oral history project on November 11, 2011. That interview is one of the first 20 interviews added to the new QSOS website to launch our QSOS 20th anniversary year. The Quilt Alliance is in the process of a major update for the project that will include searchable audio recordings and transcript, interview summaries and keywords and photos. The entire collection is still viewable on the QA website here, but this new site, when completed (hopefully by early 2020), will make the collection of more than 1,200 QSOS interviews with quiltmakers far more accessible online. Visit the new QSOS site with sample interviews here and consider making a $25 donation to sponsor an interview! Clues: Excerpts from the Interview Excerpt 1 Interviewer: Can you tell me about your process in creating this particular piece that you brought today? Interviewee: Yes I can. I work from photographs. I took the photograph and enlarged the image using a large format photocopier. On the photocopy, I traced out the majordesign elements with a black sharpie marker. The Sharpie marker bleeds thru the 2:00paper so when completed, the mirror image of the image is created on the back side of the photocopy. This becomes the master template pattern used to create the design. Each template piece was numbered then transferred to paper backed fusible web and then individually cut out. Fabrics were auditioned for each template unit, fused then cut out. Using a applique pressing sheet, the template pieces were reassembled into larger units (petals of the flower). I would work one unit (petal) at a time around the circumference of the flower I worked on entire, then I completed the center. The bee is a needle felted, and the wings are made with Angelina fiber and organza that I stitched , then attached. Excerpt 2 Interviewer: Do you currently belong to any quilt guilds or groups or both? Interviewee: I do. I belong to a number of groups. I am member of International Quilt Association (IQA), Studio Art Quilting Association (SAQA), IQF),Austin [Texas.] Fiber Artists (AFA) and it’s like an art quilt group. I’m also a member ofSurface Design Association (S.D.A.), and the Austin Area Quilt Guild. Excerpt 3 Interviewer: I’m going to ask you some questions about just your general feelings about quilting in general, like what do you think makes a great quilt? Interviewee [seven second pause.] I’d have to think about that for a second. What I think that makes a good quilt really is the fact that it’s been made. We live in such a society where people don’t know how to do anything. They go somewhere else to have things done. I think it’s important to be able to make something and to go through that process so all quilts to me have value and meaning because somebody made them and they weren’t mass produced. I guess I’m not one for kits and that type of thing or preprocessed type stuff. Every quilt has a story, there’s a meaning that every single quilt artist has and they’re trying to convey. So, just the fact that they’re made from a beginning quilt that, the first attempt that somebody trying to do something to most intricate and elaborate style quilts, just the fact that they were even thought of and made in the first place I think means something to me. Think you know who the mystery QSOS Interviewee is? Now solve the puzzle to see if you’re right! 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…
Contest Collaborations: From the QA Contest Quilt Archives
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…
Quilt Puzzle: Name That QSOS Interviewee 01
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! This month, we’ve got a new challenge for you! See below for clues. Be sure to sign up for our blog notifications, so that you don’t miss any of the upcoming puzzles. Name That QSOS Interviewee! This week’s puzzle spotlights a quiltmaker who was interviewed for our Quilters’ S.O.S. – Save Our Stories oral history project on November 5, 2011. Clues: Excerpts from the Interview Excerpt 1: “I consider myself a traditional quiltmaker, although I’m going into new venues, which is very, very exciting but typically I’ve been known as the Star Lady, and handquilter. So this particular quilt was made entirely by me, I didn’t even have a celebrity stunt sewer do the binding [laughs.] and it has machine pieced stars, hand appliquéd and handquilted.” Excerpt 2: “What is the biggest challenge confronting quiltmakers today? Couple years ago we would’ve said bringing in new quilt, younger quiltmakers, but I’m thrilled about the modern quilt guild, they’re doing their own thing. At Quilt Market you saw all these young women and I see them facing the struggles that I faced as a young mom, being a quiltmaker. I would say right now in history, right now it would be the socioeconomic issues and quilt shops having to close down. I think our industry, despite what’s all going on in the world, is relatively alive and healthy and if all of us commit to bring in one quiltmaker, just one quiltmaker, then that quiltmaker is going to pass her fairy dust onto somebody else just like my Katie Coons.” Excerpt 3: “How will I be remembered as a quilter? The good news is, is I’m on the internet now with [removed to make it harder on you!] because it’s really who I am. I was, I had a persona that was dictated by Home and Garden Television, that I needed to be, and that’s really not who I am. I’m a little bit, have a little bit of a wild side, if anybody knows me. I think how I hope, I hope how I am remembered is somebody that opened the door of quiltmaking to another person and by the magic of me having to fall into that television opportunity, I was blessed that particular incident. It will not be for my quiltmaking skills [laughs.] Think you know who the mystery QSOS Interviewee is? Now solve the puzzle to see if you’re right! 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…
Love for California: From the QA Contest Quilt Archives
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…
Quilt Puzzle: Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend
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 contestants or quilt donations in current or past Quilt Alliance contests and auctions. Be sure to sign up for our blog notifications, so that you don’t miss any of the upcoming puzzles. Diamonds Are Girl’s Best Friend by Teresa Stoller This week’s puzzle spotlights a quilt entitled Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend made by Teresa Stoller of Flagler Beach, Florida for the 2011 Quilt Alliance “Alliances: People, Patterns, Passion” contest and auction. Artist’s Statement This quilt is my playful interpretation of the theme People, Pattern, Passions. I was inspired by wonderful memoires of attending Baltimore Orioles’ baseball games at Camden Yards with my husband and two children. As I looked around the stadium, I saw those 47,000 heads as a sea of colorful circular shapes ….. big, small, dark, light, rough, smooth ….. all different, yet the same: a repetition of happy circles! In my quilt, the circles were cut from many different sizes of cotton fabric and further embellished with some fun items, including Angelina fibers and film, snowflake sequins, distorted ‘gold’ color chocolate candy container parts, and melted nylon mesh potato bagging. The most significant circle, the baseball, was created with cheesecloth over a base of cotton fabric, and was further embellished with Shiva Paintstiks to ‘roughen’ it up a bit like a well played baseball! And, of course, if it didn’t have its bright red stitching, it just wouldn’t be as American as ‘baseball, hotdogs, apple pie and ‘ …. Well, you know the rest! I was ALWAYS fascinated by that perfectly cut grass that spanned the baseball field ….. a huge field of gorgeous diamond shapes! I created my diamonds in the field with jacquard paints, acrylic craft paint, Angelina fibers and straight stitching. I invite you to gaze into my quilt, hear the cheering fans, smell the popcorn and stadium hot dogs, enjoy the game and revel in the beauty of that perfectly cut field. I’m sure every woman in the stadium dreamed of a lawn at home that looked like that; after all, Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend! 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…
Faces in Fiber: From the QA Contest Quilt Archives
Typically, November signals the launch of our annual quilt auction. For the past ten years, we have invited quilters from all over the world to enter our small quilt contest. Each year we offered up a different theme–adventurous, yet open-ended, to encourage quilters from all corners of our community to join in the challenge. Each quilter provided an artist’s statement, and a quilt label for their piece, ensuring future owners would know its history. Thanks to our devoted sponsors at Handi Quilter, Moda, Aurifil, Electric Quilt Company, Simplicity and Storypatches, our winners received fabulous prizes (as in: longarm and mid-arm sewing machines, giant thread collections and fabric gift baskets). After judging, the contest quilts went on an exhibition tour across the country, showcased at quilt shows and in corporate and public galleries. And the culminating event of the year was the online auction of the quilts, thanks to the generosity of the artists who donated them. This year, we hit pause on the contest in order to reconfigure our formula a bit. We wanted to process feedback from our entrants, our sponsors, our buyers and our members. Since our mission is to document, preserve and share the history of quilts and their makers, our contest allowed us to record and archive the work of today’s quilters while raising critical operating funds. We’re excited about the next chapter and look forward to sharing, so Please Stand By! In the mean time we thought you might enjoy a series of themed galleries of past contest entries, like this one focused on portrait quilts. We do love a quilted face! [huge_it_gallery…
Quilt Puzzle: Ashley Selfie with Dr. Pecker
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 contestants or quilt donations in current or past Quilt Alliance contests and auctions. Be sure to sign up for our blog notifications, so that you don’t miss any of the upcoming puzzles. Ashley Selfie with Dr. Pecker by Rhonda Denney This week’s puzzle spotlights a quilt entitled Ashley Selfie with Dr. Pecker made by artist Rhonda Denney of Canon City, Colorado for the 2014 Quilt Alliance “Inspired By” contest and auction. The piece is made using turn edge and raw edge applique, commercial cotton fabric, fabric inks/paint, color pencils and pastels, thread sketching Artist’s Statement When browsing the Quilt Index for inspiration, I found one with appliquéd children playing with chickens. My niece Ashley, typical of youngsters today, sends me Selfies (a self-portrait photograph taken by her camera phone) of her and her pets. One selfie in particular captures her personality and that of her chicken Dr. Pecker. That was my inspiration for this quilt. In this age of portable technology one can truly capture interesting, whimsical, wonderful moments. 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…
Quilt Puzzle: Sonnenblume
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 contestants or quilt donations in current or past Quilt Alliance contests and auctions. Be sure to sign up for our blog notifications, so that you don’t miss any of the upcoming puzzles. Sonnenblume by Ellen Hernandez This week’s puzzle spotlights a quilt entitled Sonnenblume made by artist Ellen Hernandez of San Antonio, Texas for the 2016 Quilt Alliance “Playing Favorites” contest and auction. The piece is made from cotton fabric, raw edge applique, and spray fabric glitter. Artist’s Statement One of my favorite things to do is organize and when sorting my sewing closet I found several PIGS (Projects I’ve Gotta Sew.) This sunflower was from an unfinished Melinda Bula class with techniques I’m not really thrilled about, ie, kits, raw edge applique, free motion quilting. Adding a few of my fabrics, some glitter, and varied quilting turned Sonnenblume into a favorite – I got the PIG done! 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…