IQF Top Awards

Now that I’ve shown you some of the portrait quilts that I saw at the International Quilt Festival, I thought maybe I should also show you some of the top award winners. Maybe you’ve already seen the overall images of each on the Quilt Festival website, but I’d like to also show you some detail shots. Many times I see the overall photo, and I can’t really appreciate the quilt fully. Getting a close up of all that amazing quilting usually puts me in awe!

Sue McCarty won Best of Show and $10,000 with her quilt, “Harmony Within.” This original design is symbolic of her husband and herself and it celebrates their different personalities. She writes, “The dragon on the upper right prefers to float about in a world of creativity, while the fisherman at the bottom left is more down to earth.

The amazing thing about this quilt is that most of the patterning you see is actually stitched with metallic threads and enhanced with Swarovski crystals.

The black borders that you see on the sides and bottom are vintage beaded trim. This is also another good view of that incredible metallic stitching that creates the patterning on the quilt. (Sorry, I couldn’t find a website for Sue. She must be too busy quilting!)

Kathy Wylie won the Founders Award and $7,500 with “Flourish on the Vine.” Her original design was inspired by the Bible verse in John 15, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If anyone remains in Me and I in them, they will bear much fruit.”

This quilt was created using needleturn applique, hand and machine embroidery, trapunto and machine quilting. Look at that incredible scalloped edge! Each of those clam shells are only 1/2″ big.

The World of Beauty Award and $7,500 was won by Mary Buvia for her quilt, “The Loading Dock.”

The quilt was mostly hand stitched while sitting with her husband during long chemo treatments. She finished the quilt after he passed. It is an incredible feat of reverse applique, couching, piping, and iridescent snowflakes. She used 78 different colors of “Fairy Frost” fabric. (Sorry, I couldn’t find a website for Mary.)

I’ll show you the Master Awards tomorrow.

(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.”)