Dallas Quilt Celebration 2015 - Finale

I remember watching post after post as Annelies van den Bergh made this quilt.  Honestly, its charm eluded me until I saw it in person.  Even these pictures do not do it justice, but Catherine Mathieu's "Sunbonnets at Play" by Reiko Kato is a really darling quilt.

It is not a very large quilt at all, but certainly a great deal went into its creation.  I love the mixture of Overall Sams with among the "Sues" - and they are all having such a good time together!

I believe this quilt started out as a mystery quilt.  I wonder if Ms. Matheiu followed the clues as they came out, or just bought the book later? From her artist's statement, it sounds as if she perhaps followed along with the mystery.  What fun!

Ms. Matheiu hand-quilted her version of the quilt.  I love that she has used multiple quilting patterns within each block instead of just doing an overall quilting motif.  I really like the little guy with the purple balloon that is wandering off into the sashing.  The setting for this quilt feels very modern, despite the ultra-traditional subject matter.

I am very glad that I got to appreciate seeing Sunbonnets at Play in person.  I congratulate Ms. Mathieu on her beautiful heirloom.

This sweet "Mini Baltimore Album" won third prize in the "Small Traditional - Open" division for Peggy Sympson .  It was hand-quilted by Ms. Sympson and is based on miniature Baltimore album designs by Jenifer Buechel.

 Ms. Sympson's workmanship is exquisite.  Just look at the sewing perfection on that heart.  I love it.

The teeny tiny little ship and the little wreaths are just gorgeous little jewels.  Each motif is more spectacular than the one that came before.

The embroidery in the border is really beautiful as well.  Now that had to be a major time-saver over appliqueing the border. Congratulations, Ms. Sympson on the latest heirloom in your collection.

Sharry Evans was a blue ribbon winner in the "Two Person Wall Quilt - Master" division for her wonderful rendition of "Good Fortune" quilted by Jackie Brown (who also quilted Linda Neal's Viewer's Choice winner "One Cake, Two Cake, Red Cake, Blue Cake". )

Ms. Evans gave design credit to Craft World - Wonderful Applique Quilts, but I had no luck in finding a link to them.  I was able to identify that "noshi" means ribbons in Japanese, and they are considered a symbol of good fortune.  I found many instances of quilted noshi in blogland, and I believe they are a relatively common Japanese design element.

I absolutely adore the quilting on this quilt.  Ms. Brown really outdid herself yet again.  I love how the quilting extends the ribbon design, then gets really carried away with fantastic feathering.  It is simply awesome.

The quilting is both very inventive and perfectly appropriate.  It really complements the rock-like background fabric, which itself contrasts very well with the bright noshi fabrics.  Both Ms. Evans and Ms. Brown made terrific design choice and richly deserve the blue ribbon they won.

Congratulations to both Ms. Evans and Ms. Brown for their wonderful achievement.  I look forward to seeing more of their collaborations in the future.

Well, that's it for the show.  I have posted all the quilts I can without getting permission from the quilters.  Dallas has relaxed its photography restrictions a good bit.  Perhaps I was not the only one to complain during the strict years.  

I determined which quilts to post about as follows:  I got permission when I could.  If permission was not readily attainable, I restricted myself to quilts with listed design credits, and also provided links to the designers whenever possible.  In all cases the designers had more and better images of the quilts on the web than the ones I was posting, so I was not giving anything away.  I definitely hope people will click on the links and buy their patterns! I did post two quilts that did not have design credits listed.  In the first case, I had seen images of the frog being eaten by the bird while strangling the bird in greeting cards - that image is in the popular domain.  In the second case, well, I believe Mr. T probably licenses his own image, and would not appreciate a quilter selling patterns with him on it, no matter how cute!  

In all cases, I have attempted to properly attribute every picture of every quilt.  If anyone identifies any attribution errors, please let me know and I will fix them promptly.

In the meantime, happy quilting!