And Now ~ the Quilts

The quilts in Paducah were amazing! And you can view the top prize winners on the AQS website. They’ve shared most of the other winning quilts on their Facebook page as well. Each year, I like to share my favorites here ~ whether they won a ribbon or not 😊.

That being said, “A February’s Dream of Spring” by Laurie Tigner won the Best of Show. It is truly beautiful, but what I enjoyed the most was talking with Laurie about the making of her quilt. She is a sweet and very talented lady, and I enjoyed our conversation.

As I walked past this next quilt I heard Holly Lee Wilson say: “every time you finish a quilt you’re a winner!” She was standing next to her quilt “Richard’s Star”. I love her attitude!

It’s always special when the maker is there to talk about their quilt, especially since AQS no longer prints their stories in the show book. I had taken a photo of Kathy Tolbert’s quilt “Our Code” on a previous walk through. This time she was there and she said that her husband is a ham radio operator, and the colorful design in her quilt is Morse code for the lyrics to Ronnie Milsap’s song “Let’s Take the Long Way Around the World”. Wow – who knew Morse code could be so attractive?!?

There were quite a few pictorial quilts that captivated me. “City of Saints” by Jaimie Davis in fascinating. She put many famous structures from around the world together. From Big Ben to Neuschwanstein Castle, they can all now be found in one place!

“Path of Silence” by Mimi Ghaun-Young is a quiet “slice of place” (my words). I often am drawn to quilts like this, and her shading is spot on.

I loved the colors and design of “The Turning of the Wheel” by Pamela Trantham. Her attention to detail is delightful. Who would have thought to make each border different?

I found “Cabin on the Beach” by Mindy Skinner very interesting. Her log cabin blocks are made up of soft hues that wash together so gently that the overall petal quilting design almost overpowers the piecing. What a lovely effect.

“Melodeon” by Besty Vinegrad also used a creative effect. This time the overall look of the quilt is 3D because the values of the fabrics were changed in each visual column. Well done!

“LifeV” by Noriko Misawa created what I would call a broken line illusion by heavily quilting everything but the dark lines that “fracture” the quilt.

At first glance I thought “Kiwi Peel” by Ben Darby was just an orange peel quilt made up of solid colors. Then I realized that each arced piece was different from the others. So interesting.

Another quilt that used asymmetry and embroidery in a fascinating way was “Spring Dawn” by Yuko Murkami.

“Take a Bow” by Leslie Swearinger made me take a second look. What do you see? If you look closely it’s a ballerina with a 3D bun in her hair 🤔.

“Midnight Magic” by Joanne Baeth was very deserving of this ribbon. I had to get up close to discover the reflections were made with paint.

“Forest For the Trees” by Jane Zillmer is another quilt with amazing attention to detail.

“Blooming Bright” is a beautiful floral quilt by Pat Durbin. I don’t think she’s ever made a quilt I didn’t admire.

And of course there were many amazing traditional quilts. This was my favorite ~ “Bird in a Cherry Tree” by Rebecca Collis. Everything was done very well done.

The design and workmanship was so lovely on the quilt above. “Wild Rose” by Noriko Kido was just as well done, but veered a bit from the traditional in Noriko’s choice of background color. I loved it!

Arcadia Avenue by Clara Cartwright is a fun hexagon sampler that only uses solid fabrics!

And now for something completely different. I think “Retro Living” by Tami Graeber was one of my favorites. It is big – 91″ x 66″ – and such fun, especially if you lived during that time (my in-laws had that couch 🤣).

And just look at the fun color play in “Scrap Maze” by Anthony Bowman.

“Millefleur” by Jan Hutchinson is one of the most amazing whole cloth quilts I’ve seen ~ yes ~ whole cloth! The dark green fabric is covered with a myriad of colorful threads. Beautiful!

This whole cloth quilt with a very different feel was made by my friend Diana Fox. She dyed the background for “Deep Space Nebula”, and then covered it with spectacular free motion stitching.

Last year I stumbled into an art studio in Paducah and met 3 very talented artists (click here for that story). Diana was one of them. I found it again this year, and it was fun to get reacquainted with Diana, Beth and Donalee. They made a quilt together and entered it in this year’s show. It’s called “Whirling Dervish”, and they won a ribbon in the group quilt category. Congratulations ladies!

And now I’ll leave you with a smile. “Happiness” is a triptych by Kathy McNeil, and it is delightful!

What wonderful quilts!!!