Niles Piecemakers Quilt Show 2015

I was happy to attend the 2015 quilt show of the Niles Piecemakers a couple weeks ago. I took a lot of pictures and I'm going to post them here so you can enjoy them too.

The first thing you saw when you walked in was three quilts all made in the same block of the month series. It was fun to find similarities and differences:

There were plenty of smaller wall hangings. I think this first one was done by "drawing" on a dyed fabric with the thread to bring out shapes. Beautiful!

The next two were done by women after they traveled to Japan.

I think this one (above) is a great setting to show case fabrics that are special to you. Some squares are a single piece of fabric and some are four patches.

Here is another Japanese inspired design:

I have some Asian fabrics for a wall hanging and I wanted a record of this quilt as a reminder of the simplicity and asymmetry found in so many Japanese designs.

I'm a sucker for leaves (especially this pieced maple leaf block) so I was intrigued by this design that mixes stylized pieced leaves with more realistic embroidered leaves. I also love the log cabin setting blocks.

Speaking of settings, this arrangement is also fantastic:

There was a special exhibit of the work of Gale Polk. What a fantastic quilter. Her specialty was applique. (I overhead her telling some other people that she sticks with applique because she never learned to piece well!) The following are hers:

Detail:

A Sun Bonnet Sue calendar:

The last one is titled "Pandemonium"...small wonder why!

Although she claimed no proficiency with piecing, the following quilts she did proves that she is not correct in her self-assessment:

The well known "Dear Jane" quilt:

A lone-star in which each diamond is itself pieced:

And there were still more (by others in the guild):

Note the colour distribution in this one:

Hand embroidered Halloween or haunted house blocks:

I don't normally go for printed scenes, but I just love what they've done with this fabric. It looks like a neighbourhood of cosy cabins in the woods!

A Christmas quilt:

The next one is pieced in the "envelope" pattern and then it's signed by everyone and given as a friendship quilt. So clever.

And finally, I got a picture of all the apple projects that they made for the Niles Apple Festival Parade. You can see the trophies they have won over the years!

The guild has a show every two years. I'll be looking forward to the next one!