Pacific Northwest Quiltfest 2008

Oh what joy! I met up for the weekend with an old quilting buddy from the Rheinland-Pfalz Quilt Guild, where we met, and we went to the Pacific Northwest Quiltfest, sponsored by the Association of Pacific Northwest Quilters.

Going to a quilt show is an art in itself; the secret is to find someone else whose style and timing is close to your own. This friend and I have been to numerous quilt shows together, mostly the European Quilt Shows because one or the other of us was living there at the time. My all time favorite quilt show has got to be the one at Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, which will take place this year September 16 – 21, 2008.

My friend and I are systematic. She ordered the tickets ahead of time, so when we got to the show we cruised right up to Will Call and straight into the exhibit, which was held at the Seattle Convention Center. Oh! Nice, roomy location!

We start at the left, and go up and down each aisle, never skipping a quilt. I stopped photographing when I realized I could buy a complete collection CD, so I only have a few of my favorites to show to you. What a show!

These (mostly women) quilters are SO amazing. So creative. So inventive. It is simply awe inspiring to attend these shows.

Church Banner: Nestorian Cross

Our priest asked me to create a banner for the church, and provided some examples of a Nestorian cross, examples of which have been found in the Gulf, and since our church is a church in the Gulf, he thought it would be fitting.

I really wrestled with it for over a year. I couldn’t figure out how to do it. Finally, I threw up my hands, prayed for God to use my hands, and just got started. Honestly, I had no idea when I began how it would finish up.

I started by drafting a very large circle on freezerpaper. I found a piece of fabric that made my heart sing for the background – a sea-life batik, and it was perfect for Kuwait, with the ancient traditions of fishing and pearling. I added a layer of net that catches the light here and there, like the sparkle of the sun on the waves.

Then, I segmented the circle, and gathered up all my neutral silks and beaded and embroidered neutrals, hoping to get a stone mosaic effect for the circle around the cross, and I liked the effect so much, I decided to mosaic the cross, too, to get a more elemental and carved feeling.

While in the original, the circle around the cross comes out from the cross, in my version, the circle is separate.

For something that took me so long . . . meaning the thinking about it took so long – I actually had a lot of fun when I started working on it.

For me, the richness and textures of the fabrics bring to mind the richness and infinite variety of the population here, the rich brew that develops when cultures cross, mix, trans-pollinate – isn’t that what we are supposed to be doing?