Heart of the Pines

A friend and fellow-blogger gently reminded me last week that this blog has been verrrry quiet.  Just as I got started, Hurricane Sandy blew through.   So we have some catching up to do!

The Heart of the Pines Quilt Guild in Gaylord, Michigan had their 2012 quilt show just before I left the lake.  (In fact, I'd scheduled my trip to be sure to be there!).

Quilt Show!

Antique Quilts

Surprise!
The quilt police must have missed this circa 1930's quilt -- thank goodness!  This quilter must have been stash-busting -- lots of different fabrics in the "black-and-white" blocks but most of the blocks have just one main fabric and one background fabric.  But every now and then there's a happy little surprise.

Do you see the pink center strip and one gray triangle in one of the blocks above?  Just below it is  mix of black and brown.   But my favorite is way over on one edge, where two cheery gold triangles light up the block!

There's a story behind this quilt, too.  It fell in the mud at an auction and they were getting ready to throw it away.  A quilter found it, and although she couldn't see the condition or design of the quilt, they let her take it home -- for free!  :-D   It took some serious cleaning, but now it's traveling the quilt show circuit.  The red reminds me of the red fabric in many of the quilts I saw at the Drummond Island museum.


Trapunto
This yellow quilt is so pretty!  It only uses three fabrics and two blocks, so the trapunto flowers really stand out -- literally and figuratively.  The detail is wonderful.

Grandmother's Flower Garden

Many quilters find hand-stitching little hexagons to be relaxing.  Personally, making anything bigger than a coaster would drive me nuts!  Just imagine the work that went into this quilt.  The fabrics are probably from worn-out shirts and dresses.  Each hexie is less than an inch across!  (Sorry it's so blurry; I still haven't mastered my iPhone).

 Just For Fun!

I love county fairs.  This quilt is called "County Fair."  The quilter must have had fun designing and making it. 

Every "picture" block is 3-dimensional.  My friend Beth would like the eyelet on the canning jars!

The ticket booth for the Ferris wheel looks like a cupcake!

Little mini-quilts are flapping on a clothesline at the Quilt Show.  Wonder which one got the blue ribbon?

Who wants a cow bell when she can wear pearls?

Applique

West of Baltimore
Pat Deitering

The colors in this floral quilt are gorgeous.  Some of the flowers are made with folded fabric to give them a 3-dimensional look.  The four corners are identical baskets; the rest of the blocks are unique.

"Took no time at all"?!?  This woman is amazing.  I guess working on a quilt like this would help make the Michigan winter fly by.

Here's one of the corners:

Mother-of-Pearl

I don't remember the name of this quilt, but the colors of the flowers remind me of mother-of-pearl.  The applique is stitched on with the edges of the fabric exposed, like a rag quilt, but with only a very narrow edge.

Paper Piecing

Amazon Star
Terry Gravila

This stunning star quilt called to me from the far end of the room.  I love blue and brown together, and the aqua near the center makes it look as if the star were exploding -- supernova!  Have you done any paper piecing?  I haven't, but may add it to my 2013 quilting goals.  At least the quilter admits that this was the most challenging project she ever undertook!

Detail of the Amazon star, machine pieced and long-arm quilted.

Christmas Star
Sylvia Zamoyski

Another star quilt, also machine paper-pieced.  I like how she also used the background fabric in the stars, so the points look as if they were floating.

Mixed Media

Cherry-Chocolate
Janet Bonarski

Not too sure why this quilt went into the "mixed media" category, but it is different!  It took the quilter two years to make at a block a month.  She designed it herself.  It uses only two fabrics, brown and red,  with solid squares and pieced blocks in seeming random order.

Each block is quilted separately.  What is really nice is that the red squares were quilted in brown, and the brown squares in red.

Machine-Pieced

The Pieced-Tie Quilt
Terry Gravila

The pieces for this field of flying geese were meticulously cut and prepared by Joanne Harris, but she passed away in 2003 before sewing the quilt.  Terry Gravila received the "kit" and completed it in 2012.  The quilting is a Baptist Fan design.

 

I hope you're enjoying these lovely quilts!  I'm still without power 5 days after Hurricane Sandy blew threw, so my computer time is limited.  I'll be back with more photos from the quilt show in a few days.