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the last of the quilt show

I'm sure if you searched twitter you could find pictures of all the car quilts, the gorgeous applique  quilts (I did take one of an all Black @ White Baltimore Album style quilt, but my hands were too shaky and the pic was way too blurry to save...a big problem with my larger camera), and the theme/statement quilts. I thought I took photos of several landscape quilts, but if I did, I can't find them on my little memory card. But below is a quilt that I absolutely loved. Made as a wedding quilt for a Jewish couple, I was mesmerized by every single detail...and this quilt was full of them. The oak tree represented the bride, and the other Australian tree represented the groom, who was from Australia. 
 

 At the bottom in each corner, there was an applique bird representing their state/province.
 And the wedding date...

 I love how using three shade of fabrics on the roots gave the tree dimension. From a distance, you can almost feel the hole in the bottom of the tree.

 Sorry for the blur on this one, but this was right before lunch and I was getting shaky (plus I had caffeine that morning). But I wanted a close up of how she layered the fabric for the tree limbs and the leaves. I'm sure there's a stabilizer underneath as the edges aren't finished (meaning you wouldn't put this on a bed except for decoration or would use it as a wall hanging), but the simplicity in the quilting was amazing as well. There wasn't an excessive amount, but it was well placed and truly made each leaf pop. I  really hate I didn't get this artist's name.


Next is a landscape, which I have on my bucket list of quilts to make.

 Even though I have a quilt idea/wall hanging in mind for my Mom that involves birds, I never ever thought of anything this detailed! And a close up of the blue jay:

I think this is what they call fiber art, or thread painting. Each of these colors in both the blue jay and the cardinal are created by sewing threads back and forth (on the sewing machine). It's possible someone used an embroidery machine, but judging by the colors and placement, I can't help but wonder if it wasn't done by hand on a quilting machine. What I wasn't able to determine was whether or not the background was simply quilted fabric, or if the artist used fabric paint. Regardless of what techinque was used, it was exceptionally pleasing and impressive to look at.

And that wraps up all the photos for 2014's quilt show. Thankfully there was only one nude realistic quilt this year, and I think I managed to steer Bobby away from it. If he saw it, he didn't comment on it. Had he seen some of the feminist/political quilts from a few years ago, he would have never agreed to go. But I think he had a good time, despite the crowd and the difficulty that always creates with a wheelchair. I don't know that we saved any money by tacking this on to the end of our vacation as opposed to me riding the bus with a Raleigh quilt shop, but we were home a little after dark, as opposed to 11:30pm had I taken the bus.

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