The End of SMQ Guild 2009 Show

Stack-n-Whack quilts intrigue me as do kaleidoscopes. I almost missed recognizing this quilt as one.

Twisted Sisters

It was made by Sue McCoy of Knoxville, Tennessee. As far as I can figure out this is a border print and Sue used it as such on the outside edge of the quilt. That green cord inserted between the binding and border is a nice touch.
The print of this fabric made wonderfully subtle patterns.

This lopsided photo is of the quilt made by our guild. Raffle tickets were sold before and during the show to raise money for our service projects ... the biggest one being quilts for children at Knoxville's Ronald McDonald house.
I had donated the three stack-n-whacks at the center bottom of the quilt. Loretta Painter donated the topiary tree block that I had made for her from a s&w block in an exchange. I had cut all 150 blocks that resulted from one design repeat into circles because of my love for kaleidoscopes. I got a variety of sizes by cutting various width strips to be whacked through for each block. To see the bed quilt I made featuring those blocks go here.

There are two Best In Show awards. One for a bed quilt ...

Aunt Mimi's Flower Garden

This top award winning quilt is created by Elsie M. Campbell of Dodge City, Kansas. She wrote for the show booklet, "I'm known as Aunt Mimi to my nieces and nephews. I love to garden, whether on my quilts or in my front yard. This quilt was my first bed sized, all machine made quilt. I loved watching it grow over the several months as I stitched away."
This quilt was displayed in an area where the back side could be viewed as well. I've always loved being under a quilt and holding it up to the morning sunshine to see the pattern and colors from the under side.

... and one for Best of Show Wall Quilt.

Life in Holly Ridge

This amazing quilt is created by Nancy Prince of Orlando, Florida. She wrote for the show booklet, "Approximately 50,000 yards of thread and 5 million stitches created the thread painting designs. No embroidery cards were used. The background fabric was hand painted and Tsukineko inks were used to ink the doors and windows on the houses and bias-sided stores. My grandchildren are the merchants in the town. It took approximately 1500 hours of frustration, a ton of trial and error and incredible fun and ultimately total joy to complete the quilt. Take a look around the town and step back in history a bit."

It also received the Surface Embellishment Award.

I've saved the one I consider to be the best for last. It was awarded Viewer's Choice, so I'm not alone in my judgement.

Icing On the Cake

This fabulous quilt is created by Linda Roy of Knoxville, Tennessee. It is hand appliqued and then hand quilted. It also received the special award for Hand Workmanship.
Linda says she based her design on old embroidered wool coverlets or quilts.
It all began with the rich chocolate Japanese background fabric and Amy Butler print fabric.
Post Note: Linda gave me what was left of that print fabric and I used it for this bird.

This show had live TV coverage three separate times on "Live With Allison". To see videos of the broadcasts go here. These are the numbers of the taped segments:

3764227 - Interview with show chairman
3764220 - Interview with Linda Roy
3764213 - Best of Show Quilts

The video screen on the TV's web page is on the right-hand side and you'll have to watch a commercial before each segment. OOPS, I just checked the links and they don't come up easily. You may have to go "digging" for them.

As you've seen and read through my posts about the Smoky Mountain Quilt Guild show, it is much more than a venue for our members to share their quilts with the Knoxville community. It is open for quilts to be entered from all over the country and beyond. Consider entering your quilt in our show next year. You, too, may come away with an award ribbon and part of the $5000 cash prizes. At the very least you'll get a professional critique of your quilt and it will be seen and appreciated by 1200-1300 visitors to the show.

All of the quilts in this 2009 show can viewed in a slide show on the Smoky Mountain Quilt Guild website. Links for slide shows of every quilt show dating back to 2005 are there, too.

MORE 2008 Festival of Quilts

These are just a few of the 93 quilts in the show that ends today. They're the ones that caught my eye and I had my camera at the ready. Some of them are new ... some have history.

Crazy Quilt circa 1890's
owned by Mary Bates

That is the quilt being delivered to the show when I submitted my entries.

Old and New

left - "Hope Chest Crazy Quilt" by Alice Summers
right - ""Tennessee Waltz" by Chris Windham
Our Mayor Eddy Ford's baby quilt made by his grandmother and aunts.

From Friends To Pearl

A friendship quilt made for a Philadelphia, Penn. girl's 16th birthday in 1891. Owned by Elizabeth Jamison.
Seeing all these quilts featuring sunbonnet Sue and sweet Sue together, I just had to take a picture.

"Girlfriends" by Sharon Slagle

This man apologized for walking into the photo. I was pleased to see quite a few men at the show, including my own husband. Quite a few of them were making the rounds on their own.

#77 - Arizona Inspired by Dawn Sullivan
#24- Texas Panhandle Iris by Kip Ford
#25- Mariner's Compass Leads the Way to Outer Space by Kip Ford
#75- Bold Bow Ties by Sue Edwards
#40- Love Makes My Heart Soar by Deborah Pulsford
#41- Italian Memories by Deborah Puslford

"Catch A Falling Star" by Lynda Wallace
"Letters To Home" by Margaret Murray-Evans

The above quilt is based on the Civil War themed show performed by the Farragut High School Band during the fall of 2004. Machine pieced and quilted, the quilt consists of b&w as well as colored photos taken by the maker. The photos were blown-up or reduced, printed on fabric and then cut and pieced with cotton fabrics in the colors of blue (North) and grey (South). The design is based on a formation used in the band drill charts for the show. The quilt includes alphabet charms, various button, guitar picks, clarinet reeds dyed with black ink, a guitar bridge and guitar string knobs.

PS: This concerns the web cam for the channel on Lake Michigan that's in my sidebar. If you see large equipment with cranes and stuff, the Corp of Engineers is pumping sand out of the channel to prepare for the shipping season. This year the public beach on the north side of the channel gets that beautiful, clean, fine sand. Last year it was pumped on our side.

2006 Festival of Quilts

A wonderful quilt show here in Farragut closed yesterday. It was put on by the Farragut Folk Life Museum and the Arts Council. This was the 9th biennial show coordinated by Linda Ford and it featured 110 quilts. It was a nice mix of vintage, traditional, and contemporary quilts. I was the featured artist/quilter with 21 of my quilts in a special exhibit, "Nellie's Needles".


I was there for about 2 hours each of the 4 days and got questions and attention from visitors that I wouldn't have thought would take an interest in the direction I've taken quilting.

My latest postings have been about quilts in this display. Stay tuned for those I haven't yet covered.

Also exhibited were seven of the eight quilts that comprised the Smoky Mountain Quilt Guild grand prize winning entry in the Ultimate Challenge contest at the AQS show in Nashville this last August. All eight quilts will soon be a special exhibit at the up coming AQS show in Paducah.


Following are photos featuring some of the other quilts in the "2006 Festival of Quilts". Enjoy!