9/22/11

Northwest Quilting Expo

Today I attended the Northwest Quilting Expo in Portland, Oregon.  It is a three-day event, but I'm only attending just today.  The quilts were stunning . . . beautiful . . . exquisite . . . fabulous.  I could go on with superlatives, but I think you get my drift.  Often when I attend a quilt show, I'm inspired and encouraged, because I see things I think I could do.  Today was different.  The quilts I'm going to post were way beyond my level, not just in the expertise required, but in the patience required.  They were all exquisitely detailed with threadwork, beading, and texture.  They were something to look at however, and despite feeling intimidated by the craftsmanship, I was delighted with the artistry.

I didn't photograph every quilt.  Instead, I found myself drawn to the ones that exhibited texture through threadwork and embellishment.  There were hundreds of quilts.  I took pictures of dozens.  I'm going to show them over a period of days, mainly because I don't want to spend hours at one sitting uploading them to my blog.  So stay tuned.  I'll be showing a few each day until I've shown you all the ones I especially liked.  And I'm not showing them in any particular order, other than the order in which I saw them. 

I managed to avoid purchasing any fabric.  However I did purchase two patterns, each with embroidery designs.  One features cats (surprise, surprise), the other is a kit of little Christmas ornaments.  You'll see them as I make them up.  Now here are the quilts.



The overall design of this quilt didn't catch my eye so much as the details did.



As a Portlander, this one especially appealed to me.  Portland is known as the Rain Rose City.


It just looked wet to me.  A scene I've participated in many times.

This next one is called "Making Wishes".  See the little dragonflies next to her face?  Her shoelaces were 3D.


Again, the details on this one were stunning.



This next one was made by a woman in Washington, but it was inspired by September 11th.


Haunting, isn't it?

I loved the reflecting in the water in this next one.  I didn't read the tag, but it reminded me of the covered bridges one sees in Stayton, Oregon.


This next one seemed so realistic.  The sun shining through the trees was accomplished with tulle.


And I'll finish off for today with this flash of brilliant color, which always catches my eye.


I'll post the rest over the next couple of days, and I imagine others in attendance will post more on their blogs.  I didn't photograph all of them, but I have a lot to show you nonetheless.

5 comments:

Snoodles said...

Amazing artistry...the tiny details and shading are incredible! I think I liked the first one best, simply because I had to keep going back to it, to see how the artist had folded and arranged the fabric to look just like the flowers...what in the world were the stamens made from? It always amazes me to see the ones that look like paintings. I'm doing good to get all my blocks to look alike! :)

Linda said...

Those quilts are amazing. I especially love the 3-D flowers. However, on the Making Wishes quilt, I don't think those are dragonflies! It looks like she's blowing on a dandelion seed head, and those are the individual seeds blowing away.

Aliene said...

These are amazing! I looked them over several times. The trees with the light shining through fascinates me.

Unknown said...

I am without words, so wonderfull. hugs

quiltzyx said...

I think we may have similar taste in quilts! lol
I'm looking forward to seeing more as you post them - it's always inspiring to see what other quilters are doing.