It was another incredible day at the Houston Quilt Market & Festival! I took an all day couse with Esterita Austin that involved layering sheer fabrics to create a beautiful flower. While I loved the technique, let me "fess" up and inform you that the photo shown of the beautiful iris was NOT my own work. Mine looks like a blob of sheer fabrics but I'll give it another whirl when I get back to Nebraska and hope for improvement!
Tonight my sister Janie and I attended the 2015 Awards Show, and what a show it was! For those of you who might not be familiar with this show, any quilt shown here is already a winner. Months in advance, quilters from all over the world submit photos and the quilts are then juried to decide which of these quilts are Houston-worthy. Months prior to the show, they are judged by a select team of quilting experts. Tonight's winners are the equivalent of a Gold Medal winner at the Olympics or an Oscar at the Academy Awards. First time winners instantly join the elite club of our most recognized "Quilting Stars". For veteran winners, their name remains in the forefront and they continue to be our Quilting Superstars. These are the quilters we esteem to be. The BEST of the BEST. Those of us "Wanabe's" hope to stand near any one of them, just hoping their talents might rub off on us. These amazing award winners are the "Darlings" of our Quilting World!
Highlights of the Show: First of all, This Nebraska Girl is enormously proud of my own state's Kris Vierra for winning the prestigious "Pfaff Master Award for Machine Artistry". Woo Hoo! Way to go, Kris! Well Deserved!
The Top Prize of the night went to Janet Stone from Overland, KS and Ohhh...Did I LOVE this quilt. Little bits of black & white popped the bright colors in this quilt which as far as I could tell was absolutely perfect. Kansas isn't that far away so I'm planning on heading to Kansas to drink the water...something there seems to be producing amazing quilting!
A few of my personal favorites: The Art Abstract Quilt winner called Technicolor Deco by Shirley Gisi is one I want to hang in my house.
The Judge's Choice Award won by Katherirne Donges and Susan Slaton called "A Toast to Toulouse-Lautrec" was just plain fabulous.
In the Digital Imagery category, the winner was "Tagged" by Patricia Kennedy Zafred depicting prisoner's of war held in the Japanese Interment Camps. It made you stop and think!
"My Sweet House with Kirara" was submitted by Ayako Kawakami from Japan. It was loaded...inch by inch with incredible hand sewn embellishments that would have taken me a couple of lifetimes to complete.
One of my VERY FAVORITES was "Fly Me to The Moon by Jerry Granata...unlike any quilt I've ever seen. It was accented with touches of lame' and wonderfully "out there"!
And FINALLY, the quilt that MOST impressed me was called "Why Not" which WON the Traditional Pieced category. Get this...Not only did she design and execute this quilt created with itty bitty pieces of fabric...but it was her FIRST QUILT EVER! I talked to her and she's 35 years old. The quilt is named this because her Grandma said, "It's your 1st quilt. Why not do something a little simpler than THIS quilt?" But her reply was, "Why NOT this quilt?!!" And the REST of the story is history!
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