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| Red and White. Carol Miller. |
The charmingly-named
Quinobequin Quilters guild had its biennial show March 29 and 30 in Needham, Massachusetts.
Quinobequin is a Native American word meaning "meandering," referring to the path of the Charles River as it wends its way through metrowest Boston. I meandered through this delightful show and thoroughly enjoyed the artistry of the 40 or so quilters who exhibited their work. Below are just a few of the many quilts I enjoyed.
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| Love the scrappy knit hat on the visitor in the foreground. |
At the entrance desk, crowded with the usual display of raffle tickets, raffle baskets and the admission money box, there sat another basket of fabric squares - children were encouraged to select a square and enjoy its tactile qualities while not touching the quilts on display. Brilliant!
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| Spin Cycle, Linda Evans. |
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| Spin Cycle, detail. |
The pinwheel blocks which form the sashing in the quilt above were an enormous amount of work, but they perfectly enhance the Dresden blocks, resulting in a quilt with a lot of energy despite the toned color palette.
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| Blue Giraffe River, Jane Evans. |
A gift for a young person, this quilt made of T-shirts continues the venerable tradition of commemorative textiles. The title refers to the blue giraffe print fabric used for the sashing, or the space between the T-shirt panels.
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| Stained Glass Windows, Deanna Dee Kingston. |
The quilt above, pieced in textured near-solid fabrics, with solid black material as the sashing, is greatly enhanced by the machine quilting of professional quilter Concessa Shearer, whose work could be seen throughout the show. Teamwork between the maker of the quilt top and the quilter of that top is just one example of the collaborative nature of this medium.
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| Stained Glass Windows, detail of quilting by Concessa Shearer. |
Below is a quilted created from just one fabric but the fabric is cut in such a way as to create kaleidoscopic patterns when the specially-cut pieces are reassembled into big hexagons. The technique is detailed in the book series
One Block Wonders by Maxine Rosenthal.
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| Asian Wonder, Evy Megerman. |
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| Great Great Grannie Florence's Turn of the Century Top, Susan Downs. |
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Until recently, the quilt above was an unfinished quilt top, stored away, its colors remaining vivid in the dark interior of a chest. Susan Downs repaired the top, added borders, and finished this contender for the prize of longest running UFO (UnFinished Object, in quilter lingo.) In the close up one can see that no scrap was wasted as the quilt pattern pieces were themselves sometimes pieced from even smaller snippets of fabric.
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| Small pieces stitched to make bigger pieces for top. |
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| Colors from circa 1890 remain vivid. |
Back to our century with the meticulously pieced quilt below. The narrow blue accent in the border - a skinny strip folded and sew into place like a
flange - is an exquisite finishing touch.
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| Razzle Frazzle, Kelly Savignano. |
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| Blue accent strip punches up the border. |
