Show Time! Foothill and Loomis Guilds

It’s Quilt Show Season in northern California and I’ve been able to attend two great shows over the last 2 weeks that leave me inspired. One thing I love about going to quilt shows is that you see quilts outside of your genre-there is much inspiration and instruction to be gained from going outside of your normal comfort zone.

This quilt received Best of Show from the Foothill Quilters Guild in Auburn. It’s one of my favorite shows because they have such a great
balance between artsy, traditional, innovative and wearables. This quilt was just spectacular in person-its maker is Sue Pharis.

It is hand appliqued (over 2500 leaves!) and the colors are vivid. The quilting enhances the applique and takes those leaves dimensional without overpowering the quilt. Lin Squires did the quilting-it’s so Lin! You can see from the detail how beautifully done this is.

I didn’t have much time for this show so the remaining photos are what I most enjoyed in my quick trip through-I don’t have names to go with the item-sorry!

The graphic impact of this quilt caught my eye. Those little gold cornerstones added energy to the mix and were a clever choice.
Imagine what the quilt would have looked like without them-they add such impact.

There was a lot of well done Wearable Art at the show-more than you usually see. I loved the simplicity and elegance of this vest. It’s truly wearable and the art doesn’t shout for attention.
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The maker selectively cut these motifs from her fabric and raw edge appliqued them to the vest. To me, this is well-edited and just simply beautiful.
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This quilt was very interesting in person-it drew me in and I kept on seeing more interesting details the more I looked. I love the colors-lots of Kaffe Fassett prints in there, although I think the color story is more about value than color. It’s very whimsical and just fun.
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I love the maker’s solution to getting the border to match up. The block size apparently was not going to result in a perfect match, so she just pieced in a partial block and called it a day. It fits in with the whimsical nature of the quilt. I probably would have spent days making 5 3/16″ blocks or something like that….this is a much better solution!
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The Featured Quilter was Lana LaPlante (no website/blog). She is an expert quilter and artist and just a really nice person. It was a pleasure to see a collection of her quilts all in one place. I didn’t know how prolific she was-there must have been 20 quilts of hers! This is one of her latest quilts-beautiful, huh?
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I think the motifs in this were stenciled or stamped. The quilt just seemed to combine the best of design, quilting, fabric choice and artistry. Her choice of that green marbled fabric to surround the medallion was wonderful.
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This makes me want to try stencils or stamping and then quilt the dickens out of it-I just love this look!
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Now I’m switching gears and moving over to the Loomis Quilt and Fiber Guild show. Their featured quilter was a mini-quilt maker, Geraldine Nall. Truly, her work is stunning. This quilt is only 15″x15″. It has 144 blocks and 6300 pieces!

To see this in person-oh my: her piecing is precise, points and seams are dead-on-perfect. She doesn’t sew with magnification.  Although I think she said she paper pieced this one, not all of her minis are paper pieced.
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This is another one of her exquisite minis. It too was around 15″x15″ I think. She has not entered any international juried shows yet-I told her she really should!
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Geraldine is working on a new mini and this is one of the blocks. It’s a 1″ block (I think) and it has 70(?) pieces in it. I am in awe.

Hope you enjoyed my tour of some of the local guild shows. Isn’t it fun and inspirational to see what everyone else is doing?