"Beyond Reason" by Angela Petrocelli is Best of Show at this year's International Quilt Festival in Houston.
Wow! Wow! Wow! There's really little else to say about Angela Petrocelli's Best of Show, show-stopper entry into this year's International Quilt Festival show.
Detail of "Beyond Reason"
Each one-inch square of this amazing quilt is foundation pieced with many tiny pieces that total 226,576 for the whole quilt. Angela Petrocelli says of the quilt: "Some accomplishments are beyond reason. This quilt is the embodiment of a dream ... not of a finished product but the journey and completion of a process. I believed I could, I thought I should, I said I would, and I did."
Did I say, it's foundation paper pieced? Once again, WOW!!
BTW: I only had my phone today for photos. I'll try to get a better close up with my "real" camera to share with you.
A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words
I wandered the floor of International Quilt Market today having interesting conversations with some of the sellers. I'll share a few of those but for the most part, the joy of Market is in the colors and textures and images. I hope you will be as inspired as I was.
Down under colors and patterns from M&S Textiles of Australia
Friend and amazing quilter and tool developer Debbie Wendt took a minute to wave a quick hello. We had just a moment to connect as her booth was busy throughout the day. Debbie's best-selling products include her Hex-a-ma-jig and Brilliant Bindings rulers, patterns, kits, and long-arm project books. Check out her website.
While on the Wendt Quilting site, take time to learn more about Debbie. She has a fascinating story. BTW: She's a great speaker and teacher. Let your guild know.
Debbie Wendt staffing her Market booth.
Kristen Balouch is founder and CEO of Little House Cottons, a new organic fabric company, an endeavor she launched with experience as a fabric designer for Birch Fabrics, also an organic company.
Kristen Balouch has combined her talents as fabric designer and author of children's books in her start-up Little House Cottons organic fabric company. She's launching with reasonable prices to encourage quilters to go organic, an especially great idea when they're quilting and sewing clothes and toys for their grandchildren. The fabric designs parallel the book illustrations. They are stunning. You'll want copies of her books too.
Ask you local quilt shop to get Kristen's fabrics. You will love the hand, which is soft and smooth and oh so touchable.
While we're talking organic, I was interested to discover Scanfil organic thread. I'm eager to try the sample 30 and 50 weight threads they gave me. The thread is made from pima cotton and is GOTS certified. I hope my sewing machine loves them.
Talking thread, I enjoyed meeting Nancy at the YLI booth. She recommended I try their Select thread, a 40 weight, 2-ply thread designed for hand stitching. Select is thinner than YLI's Hand Quilting thread but shares its characteristics of smoothness, no knotting or tangling, and ease of pulling through fabric. Nancy suggested I try it for my next binding. I'll be doing that. I love YLI's Hand Quilting thread for English Paper Piecing. Nancy said I may like the Select even better. We'll see.
Quilt shop owners and fabric company reps work hard at Market. This is where many decisions are made in terms of what your local quilt shop will carry. Above, shop owners meet with folks from In the Beginning Fabrics.
A Promise: I'll share more images for International Quilt Market in the next few days.
Check Out What Bonita Accomplished
Bonita Nance really wanted to take my "Demystifying Design for Foundation Piecing" class. So much so, she recruited friends to sign up so I'd schedule a session just for them. Wifi issues meant I had to reschedule the second three hours but never fear. Bonita and friends rolled with the punches, and we finished up the class a few weeks later than originally planned.
Bonita designed and pieced an amazing block. Like so many busy women, she doubled up on assignments. After showing her block to our class, she donated to a community quilting project serving others. She's marked the block that's her original design in the photo at the right. Check it out.
Bonita, seeing this makes this quilt teacher so happy. Thanks for sharing!
What in the World Was I Thinking?
High school classmate Jim Purdy snapped this shot of me thinking about something while my class and the class a year behind mine toured our high school during our recent reunions. The building is at least twice the size it was when we were students. There are more than a half dozen gyms; we had one. There's a brand new swimming pool, the second for the school, both being constructed after we graduated.
I just may have been thinking what a difference Title IX has made for girls who want to be athletes. There just may be a quilt design in those thoughts. Time will tell.