Yesterday we spent a great day strolling the aisles of Quilt Canada in Ottawa. Beautiful and creative as the quilts were, one thing struck me more than anything - hand quilting seems to be becoming a dying art. There was no end to the talents that quilters exhibited with thread and machine on display, but I found very few examples of works quilted by hand. I suppose it is a statement on the evolution of the craft but it did give me reason to pause, so I'll start my tour with three works where hand work excelled.
This is
Paradise Landscape by Susan Sherman of Newmarket, ON. It. Was. Beautiful. The 2,000 hours of work that she put into it illustrate a talent for working with needle and thread...
and lots of fantastic colours. My photos don't do them justice, particularly the green and white polka dot that was used for the background.
It earned her the show's Excellence in Hand Quilting award. Little wonder - her quilting was unbelievably fine. You could get lost in this one for hours.
The second one brought a little squeal of delight from me when I turned the corner and saw it. It is
Down the Rabbit Hole and I have followed its creation by Sandra over at her
Quilting at the Cro's Nest blog. Click through so that you can see her progress too.
It is beautifully appliquéd and hand quilted - so amazing to see it in person.
It is such a whimsical piece. Not sure if it's all of the fun elements that run through the design...
or that fantastic bunny fabric that she used for the background.
And then there was a smaller piece in the Metamorphosis section called
Sea Wall Secheron Bay #2 by Sandra Champion, all the way from Australia. Unfortunately, I did not get a complete photo, but this is most of it.
The sea wall at Secheron Bay has existed for over 200 years and the quilt attempts to illustrate the layers of history that it has adapted to over the years, from ship building and timber drying to the manufacture of jams and jellies and its current use as a park, where the wall is now used for scientific study.
It's many layers can only be guessed at. Vintage papers, silks, scrim, fusible web and acrylic paint combined with Kantha styled stitching in heavier threads are beautifully rendered and it too pulls you in for a good long look. Beautiful and compelling....M
The sea wall at Secheron Bay has existed for over 200 years and the quilt attempts to illustrate the layers of history that it has adapted to over the years, from ship building and timber drying to the manufacture of jams and jellies and its current use as a park, where the wall is now used for scientific study.
there are actually a lot of us hand quilters out there - you should see the lists of groups on facebook. And I guess a lot of us just do not feel the need to enter shows as we are usually over looked or considered old fashioned maybe? I think it is harder for a hand quilter to get their quilts in shows now.
ReplyDeleteI belong to the Celebrate Handquilting Facebook group, now around 20,000 strong! We're there, just not always willing to consign our treasures to a lot of handling in potentially less than totally secure settings of shows. The quilts you shared today are gorgeous in both composition and execution. Thanks so much for sharing.
ReplyDeleteIt's great to know that there are still so many doing hand quilting which I love. It produces a much softer quilt.
ReplyDeleteI love the quilts!! I hand quilt, not with those very tiny stitches, though, more Kantha stitching.
ReplyDeleteThank you Marie, for sharing your gawking! Beautiful work and beyond description really for the quilting masterpieces these are!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing such beautiful examples of hand work - both applique and hand quilting. And I am so glad you showed a close up of Sandra’s fantastic quilt with that precious bunny background...it just sets the tone for that whimsical beauty. There are some wonderfully gifted machine quilters out there on both domestic and long arm...if done well, it is a good balance and not overwhelming the quilters hand work, being piecing or applique. But my heart always lingers over a handquilted piece, knowing and respecting how much dedication it took.
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