A recap of my weekend at the West Michigan Quilt Guild Show

October 9, 9:47 AMQuilting ExaminerKelly Smith

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Last weekend I spent Saturday and Sunday at the West Michigan Quilter's Guild Quilts on the Grand show. I was in the Lakeshore Sewing booth for most of that time, selling and signing my book, Open Your Heart with Quilting. I sold 55 books in 13 hours! Thank you to everyone who stopped by to chat and especially to those who bought a book! I hope you enjoy them!

I was too busy on Saturday to get much more than a peek at the quilts, but I arrived before the show opened on Sunday (one of the perks of being a vendor!) and had a chance to walk around and take pictures of all the quilts that caught my eye. I paid no attention to what category they were in or who made them. I just went by what drew my eye - the quilts that made me say, "Wow."

Here are some photos I took. Most of the quilts I loved were not award winners. That just goes to show - I'll never be a quilt show judge! But they all spoke to me in some way.

The first one that struck me was this three-quilt piece. It's a short series of journal quilts by my friend Bev Anderson. It's called "What a Trip - Broken, On the Mend, Way Better". Bev said that it "depicts the healing process of a very broken arm through the physical therapy and back to health and happiness.

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The next one is called "I am the the Vine" by Elsie Vredenburg. I was struck by both the colors and the sinuous vine in this piece. Elsie said it was a challenge inspired by Paul Cezanne's painting "Apples, Peaches, Pears & Grapes". The vine reminded her of a bible verse (John 15:5) "I am the vine, you are the branches". She embroidered another bible verse (Galatians 5:23) in the border.

As you can see, I am drawn to art quilts with bright colors and the next quilt that caught my eye was one called "Moon Storm" by Yvette O'Strander. This one is described in the show book as simply, "An exercise in abstract art". I love the vivid colors and the calm, floaty look of the moons and clouds.

The three quilts were hung from a beaded cord and each of the three were attached together by the same beaded cords. I loved the subtle embellishments and way she cut random swoops through the sky to create the effect of clouds.

The Raterink Award for Best Hand Quilting went to Sue Cortese for her "Jacobean Sampler". I have seen this same pattern in many shows, but again, Sue's use of color drew me in. I am also a big fan of combining simple piecing with beautiful applique and these delicate flowers on a background of multi-hued mosiac piecing really appealed to me.

The next quilt to catch my eye was "Joy" by Daniel E. Burke. The colors, the mosaic piecing, the texture of the batik fabrics, and the sharply pointed suns all appealed to me. This is the kind of quilt that I love to look at, but would probably never attempt to make.

Dianne Vander Meer's quilt "My Flynn's Kaleidoscope Nightmare" was another colorful, striking quilt.

This die-cut kit is produced by John Flynn and makes a traditional Storm at Sea pattern. The brilliant colors are definitely non-traditional and the interesting placement of the colors (which Dianne lamented in her show book blurb) really add to the beauty of the quilt.

In "Autumn Splendor" Laura Hillaker used Ricky Tims' Harmonic Convergence pattern to create a bright, lovely quilt.

The golden focus fabric in the center reminds me of the late afternoon autumn sun shining through the trees. The border fabric looks like a forest floor littered with fallen leaves.

"Church Windows" by Barb Smith was made using a subtractive applique technique from Julie Hirota's book Art Glass Quilts.

I was struck by the bright colors and abstract look of the quilt.

"Ginko" is another Sue Cortese quilt that caught my eye. I love ginko leaves and I love the soft monochromatic look of this quilt. Sue won the top prize in the category - Wall Quilts - Mixed/Other Techniques, Machine Quilted. The beige and brown tones are very reminiscent of the taupe quilts that have been popular in Japan in recent years.

The leaves were embroidered using free-motion machine quilting onto a backdrop provided by the very popular Turning Twenty quilt pattern by Tricia Cribb.

In my next column I will have some pictures of the miniature quilts from the show that caught my eye. I love mini quilts - they replicated the scale and beauty of full-size bed quilts in a tiny, perfect package.