IQF people and portrait quilts

Whenever I go to a quilt show, I try to take a picture of every quilt that is a portrait or is figurative. I’m addicted. Some shows don’t have very many of them, but the International Quilt Festival in Houston last week had numerous people and portrait quilts. And, I had the priviledge of meeting several of the artists! It was so much fun asking them about their techniques (my continual interest) and the stories behind their quilts. For the next few days, I’d like to share a few of these wonderful quilts.

Megan Farkas won the Future of Quilting Award, which is given to a quilter younger than 35.

Her quilt, “Sakura I: Hanaogi Views the Cherry Blossoms,” was really interesting to look at. She was inspired by a Japanese woodblock from the 1790s. The figures are all hand appliqued. I think the outlines are done with marker. She stitched “silk” flowers along the top edge.

The first place winner in the “Art-People, Portraits, and Figures” category was “Checks & Balances” by Caryl Bryer Fallert. She is such an amazing quilter. I’ve been in awe of her for years and years! Not only do I love her use of color, but her free motion machine quilting is unbelievable! This piece was no exception. The details are so incredible, I ended up taking a close up photo of each figure. In addition to the larger figures, there are other smaller figures executed with just quilting lines. This is a jaw-dropping quilt!

I haven’t found my picture of the second place winner yet, but “God’s Greatest Gift to Me Was Dad” by Cindy Garcia won third place in the “Art-People, Portraits, and Figures” category. She used Marilyn Belford’s technique to create this wonderul portrait of her late father.

She used a really nice selection of fabrics to execute this portrait. At the show, she was telling me about how she used a pair of real blue jeans from a thrift store to make the jeans on the quilt.

(BTW, if you are wondering, according to IQA’s quilt photography rules, “If you post your photos to your personal web site, you must include appropriate credit for each quilt artist, and note that the photos were taken at International Quilt Festival.”)