Houston Quilt Festival, 2021, Part 1: Miniatures, Best Use of Color and Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry
I was so glad that I booked a full day to see the quilts! In previous years I have frantically viewed the quilts with stolen moments between events. I do think it was a strong year for quilts and I thoroughly enjoyed the show.
A couple of things about this post:
– If I have posted a quilt before, I don’t post a second time.
– I don’t pay much attention to ribbons so I generally won’t note that a quilt ribboned.
– I don’t usually take photos of the big prize winners. It’s easy to find photos of those quilts that are better than mine.
– I don’t take photos of exhibits with a quantity of quilts with the same theme like the Cherrywood Challenge. I just can’t process distinctions between quilts that are so similar. The Cherrywood Challenge this year was PINK. It was not pink but PINK, and I could not approach that much pink. I am not being snarky, I just get overwhelmed.
Okay, let’s see some quilts! The first category, created by Judge Jenny is….
BEST USE OF COLOR – a fictional category
This includes quilts that caught my eye because of their use of color, whether it be subtle, monochromatic, bold or innovative:
Dreamweaver II, Beth Schillig.
Circles in Bloom, Robyn Cuthbertson.
It would appear that she free motion quilted, trapunto’d, then quilted.
Aurora, Kyra Reps.
Media Bubble, Beatrice Gilbert. This was huge, maybe 60″+ x 45′?
Silk, raw edge applique.
My Secret Garden, Margaret Solomon Gunn.
Multitasking, Kathleen Bovee.
Lying Ties, Karen K. Stone.
Bohemian Rhapsody, Mary Bauer. Color of my photo is horrible, can’t correct enough. See detail below:
Red Bird, Karen Kay Buckley and Judi Madsen.
Berry Blue, Linda Roy
Regal White, Olena Nebuchadnezzar.
Slice of Life, Michele Lea.
The Full Monty, Lisa Ellis.
Cathedral Window!
Summer Fun, Marina Landi with Fabia Diniz.
Fire on my Mind, Melinda Bula.
Big Frank, Jane Haworth.
If It’s Purple, Barbara Black with Lucille Ford.
A Swamp, Niza Hoffman.
Slot Canyon, Natalie Furrey.
Early Summer Walz, Harumi Asada.
Midnight Flight, Betsy Vinegrad
Ties!
I Dream in Orange and Blue, Julie Antinucci.
Penumbra, Karen K. Stone.
MINIATURES
Dream Weaver, Judy Spiers.
Soft Pride, Amy Pabst.
Emerald Labyrinth, Kumiko Frydl.
Wholecloth! The color is thread, not paint or fabric.
Pure Velvet, Amy Pabst. Okay, technically not a miniature, but deserves to be in the miniature category given its teeny tiny blocks.
The centers are velvet!
Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry
CBF as some call her, stunned me with her work. She had 3 entries (maybe more?), each an amazing quilt. She is always moving forward, embracing new techniques and styles.
She has moved into photos printed on fabrics. I’ve heard some snarky comments about this genre. Caryl’s work is not just a photo printed on fabric, then quilted to death. She manipulates the photo digitally (an artform in itself), then assembles and quilts it.
Grey and Gold.
Plunge.
Vine #2. Sorry this image is fuzzy.
I’ll have more next week as well as my teaching adventures so stay tuned!
I’ll link up with:
Thank you for posting so I could enjoy!
My pleasure Roxane!
Great to see your photos!! I have yet to download my myriad photos that I took there… finally have gotten my teaching stuff and clothing from Houston unpacked and have taken down and put away all the Halloween decorations. Never a dull moment…
I know, there certainly is a recovery period after Houston!
Thank you for posting for those of us who couldn’t be there! Greatly appreciated
Thanks for sharing some of the quilts at Festival with us, Jenny. You captured some true beauties!!
It was so great to be back to Houston!
And there’s more next week!
I could be heard sighing and ooooh and ahhhh ing from the next room! Oh my gosh plunge. And the heron!!! all of them so beautiful.
I was less impressed by women wearing masks over their chins not covering their noses… crikey
LOL! I know, those two were so spectacular! There are more images coming in my second post.
Wow! What a treat for the eyes! I would love to get there someday. I bet I would be overwhelmed too.
There’s a term coined by someone else: “doomspiration”, a feeling of doom because you feel like you could never make anything that could jury in as well as a feeling of “oh I can do that!” and inspiration. I hope you go sometime. It really is amazing.
So glad that you took such great photos, including the closeups! I just had one day to go through everything, and took photos quickly, and not necessarily close-ups… there were a lot of really wonderful quilts, both beautiful and many that were quite thought-provoking. I was floored by the emotions that were portrayed in many of the quilts – I think we can all relate to the ones that touched us deeply.
Thanks so much for posting!!
I wish I’d had time to spend with you walking the floor together. I hope you got some good photos. It was pure luxury to be able to have a day to look at quilts!
So much fun to visit IQF through your eyes. Points for including your hand in some pictures to give us touring virtually a sense of the intricacy of the work, especially that whole piece where the color comes from the thread.
Oh my gosh those teeny tiny pieces were not even 1/16″ I think! It was amazing. There was just so much beauty there. Glad you enjoyed the tour!
Love that you make up your OWN categories when you’re checking out quilts at a show. The ones you’ve shared today are just astounding. The Judi Madden-Karen Kay Buckley collaboration is exciting; I think their styles mesh so well. Hopefully they will work on more quilts together in the future. Wish I’d been there to see all of them in person!
You must go sometime and see them in person! I do think there was a Covid-induced bumper crop of fabulous quilts this year.