Winning Quilts
Traditional Artistry Award
Sponsored by the Grace Company
Merry Christmas – by Aki Sakai – Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan
This is Aki’s second Christmas quilt. It took a year to finish. The quilt is hand pieced, appliqued, embellished, embroidered, and quilted. Aki made it with the hope that everyone can have a happy Christmas!Thread Artistry Award
The Thread Artistry award was sponsored by Superior Threads.
Dear Humans… – by Sue Sherman – Newmarket, Ontario, Canada
The animals are sending a message to humans offering their opinion about the state of things. If you zoom in and look closely, you can see where the humans have filled the sky with their empty talk about addressing habitat loss and climate change, but don’t do enough to help. The quilt is wholecloth cotton painted with thickened dyes.Machine Artistry Award
sponsored by Gammil
Soul of the Southwest – by Debbie Corbett with Mike Corbett – Glendale, AZ, USA
The Corbetts’ love of Native American artwork inspired this collaborative quilt. They recreated an authentic serape quilt. The quilt consists of 2,426 one-inch pieces, 12 thread colors and over one million quilting stitches. Twenty eight digitized quilting designs were created from traditional vintage pottery artwork from the Acoma, Zuni, Hopi, and Navajo people.Contemporary Artistry Award
Sponsored by eQuilter.com This quilt is an original design inspired by the baskets in the book, Scrape the Willow Until It Sings, by Deborah Valoma. “Baskets are like stories – If you listen, they will tell you something.” – Deborah Valoma
Blue Basket – by Roberta Lagomarsini – Bishop, CA, USA
Inspired by California and Nevada Piute Tribes’ winnowing baskets, this quilt is a deconstructed version to allow viewing of the weaving. The vibrant colors show the beauty of the rituals involved in creating baskets. Quilting is in a basketweave pattern.Innovative Artistry Award
Sponsored by Janome
Born to Be Wild – by Susan de Vanny – Greenvale, Victoria, Australia
Susan’s favorite animals out of Africa are wild dogs or painted wolves. The quilt depicts three young pups walking ahead of the adult dog in the background. Like so many African animals, wild dogs are diminishing in number rapidly from disease. The webbed holes in the quilt represent climate change and the effects it has on nature’s wonderful creatures. Susan used machine applique, free-motion stitching, embellishment, collage, couching and thread sketching.Best of Show Award
Sponsored by Handi Quilter
Beyond Reason – by Angela Petrocelli – Prescott Valley, AZ, USA
This original design is the embodiment of a dream. Not of a finished product but of the journey and the completion of the process. Angela says, “I believed I could, I thought I should, I said I would, and I did.” Angela machine pieced and quilted this piece. It contains 226,576 pieces!!!
detail of Beyond Reason – by Angela Petrocelli
The small squares are foundation-pieced and are 1.5 inches square.
Close-up detail of Beyond Reason – by Angela Petrocelli
WOW! Hope you enjoyed seeing these winning quilts! Be sure to put a trip to the International Quilt Festival in Houston on your bucket list because is a must see. Which quilt is your favorite? Would you ever tackle a quilt with 226,576 pieces? by Mary Beth Krapil
Loved seeing these quilts. Would like to see more of them.