Turkey Tracks: Maine’s Pine Tree Quilt Guild Show

Turkey Tracks:  August 14, 2017

Maine’s Pine Tree Quilt Guild Show

I was able to attend this show for a quick run-through one morning while my family visitors went off to Squirrel Island.

The show has recently changed its judging process and categories.

And, the show winner is now deemed “Best of Judged.”

There is now a non-judged hanging quilt category for “modern” quilts.

There were rows and rows of red and white quilts–to honor the show’s 40th anniversary.

And rows of gorgeous functional quilts that one wraps up in to feel the love.

I saw a LOT of Bonnie Hunter quilts in all kinds of colors, and each one was so lovely.  Some groups had obviously used Bonnie’s patterns to create challenges for each other.

I LOVED this selvage quilt.  Do you recognize the star pattern Vicki Fletcher used to start her “traveling” quilt–and which Linda Satkowski paper pieced in miniature for Vicki’s quilt–see earlier posts–but this one has an added small triangle at the center, which makes the on-point block in the middle of the star.  And look at the selvage borders.

Here’s one of the quilts in the modern grouping.

Another improv one I liked:

And, another.

I like the free-hand nature of the blocks in these quilts–and the improv nature of making and joining them.  I like the energy.  I like the grid quilting in many of these quilts.  And, often, the heavy use of solid fabrics.

I like to think of traditional quilting as being about a “community” of blocks that make secondary patterns with each other–producing all sorts of crossing paths and connections.  To me, modern quilting is about individuals–each free and stand-alone.  They can join to make a “community,” but not in the same way traditional quits do.  I love both.  And there is in the modern movement, something called traditional modern, or something like that, which blends the two.

Here’s the Coastal Quilters’ (Maine) Challenge quilt for 2017:  Dawn Chorus.

Sarah Ann Smith found this idea on Pinterest a few years ago and proposed it as a challenge for us.  It was created on Pinterest by Terry, Draw Me A Line.  The idea, and others like it, can be seen on Pinterest at this link:

If you belong to a group interested in this kind of project, and my link does not work, you can find it in the Pinterest Art section, under group projects.   I think it would lend itself to paints as well as fabric.  And to other animals besides birds.  There are other examples of this idea at the link.  Per Terry’s Draw Me A Line Pinterest instructions, Sarah painted the sky and tree-limb background on a large piece of heavy something and cut it into numbered squares, which members took away with them in May of 2015–with the assignment to reproduce the background and add a bird and leaves and bring back the square in May of 2016.  Sarah organized putting the completed squares back together, hanging the completed quilt on its black backing, and getting it to the show with all the attendant paperwork.  Thank you, Sarah, for a fun challenge.

Here is Sarah  with her “Best of Judged” winner at the show.

Congratulations, Sarah!

In the best of my memory, in the 13 years I’ve attended this show, this is the first art quilt to ever win it.

Sarah has an awesome blog, teaches at the big show in Houston, has a special exhibit for emerging artists there this year, and has published several books.  Her quilts have been displayed world-wide.