MQS 2012: Under the Sea

My mom and I just got back from MQS and we had a blast.  It was actually at the same time and in the same city as quilt market, which was a weird coincidence.

Both of us entered quilts in the Just for Me (amateur) division and were pleased to win prizes.  Seeing all the phenomenal quilts made me realize just how far I have to go to compete with the professionals.  In addition to seeing all the quilts and doing a bunch of shopping (yay vendors), we both took several classes.  I'll talk more about them in future posts.

Here's my mom with her winning quilt, called ABC-Zoo.  She made it for Anna, and it features paper pieced animals for every alphabet letter and paper pieced letters in alternate blocks.  Many of the paper pieced animals she designed herself and most are embellished with embroidery.  The icing on the cake is that in the background of each letter block, she quilted lovely even rows of cursive letters (whatever letter the block was).  Someday I'll do a whole post on it when I have better pictures.  And, for good measure, another picture of my mom standing by the archway at the entrance to the conference.  We took this shot because we were looking at all the quilts printed on the archway and spotted one of hers from a previous year! So exciting.  My quilt that won a ribbon is one you've seen before.

The theme this year was "Under the Sea" and the theme category was huge and filled with gorgeous quilts.  I made two flickr slideshows (to help avoid scrollingitis) for the category and even still am showing only about half the quilts entered.  The first slide show is the winners in that category and the second features my favorites.  It really seemed like the vast majority of winning quilts this year were really heavily embellished (lots of texture, crystals, beading etc.) and employed different surface design techniques, (painting, inking, shiva paint sticks), and use of alternate fabrics (lots of shiny sateens, organzas, handmade thread "lace", leather etc.)

Quilts that won in the theme category include those by:
Claudia Pfeil-Claudia won the whole show Solitaire award which wasn't specific to the theme category.
Cathy Franks
Shelli Ricci
Cathy Wiggins
Judith Woodworth
Deborah Levy



The "my favorites" slideshow features theme category quilts by:
Janet Fogg
Margaret Solomon Gunn
Karla Dahms
Brian Fackler
Jo Ann Blade
Laura Wertwijin
Jill Schoen
Janet Hoeltzel



If your quilt is featured and I couldn't find your blog or website, just let me know and I'll add a link.

That Janet Fogg striped sea horse quilt was my pick for viewers choice.  I've always loved her quilts, and this one was so large, you really had to step way back to appreciate it.  The quilting especially was really effective:  on the sea horse, the first layer of quilting was shimmery white, in alternating paterns to give curvature and a subtle checkerboard effect.  Then she went back in and quilted over it again in a light blue to give the effect of scales.  Just wonderful.

I'll be back on Friday with pictures of my favorites from the other categories.