DVQ Show "Autumn Renewal"

Saturday, September 21st, I went to the Diablo Valley Quilters 2024 Quilt Show Autumn Renewal in Walnut Creek with my friend Kathie. In addition to showcasing quilts of its members, the show also featured a Fabric Follies where cloth was available at the bargain price of $4/yd. I counted 88 quilts on display. In this post I will show only my favorites, the top 10% that appealed most to me, in no particular order. Then I will reveal my purchases at the Fabric Follies.

The Quilts
This Christmas quilt was appropriately titled Happy Christmas as it did indeed scream happy to me. The story behind how it was made up from a gradual collection of scrap blocks of trees was creative and inspiring. This approach gives me permission to make up random blocks just because I feel like it and because I've accumulated scraps that I think go together. I resolve to have faith. All will work out.

The next three quilts all have a modern feel to them and are destined for donation to youth in foster care. The first, Intertwine, interested me in the blocks that have either one, two, or three stripes and then capitalize on that with the graded colors on the diagonal. All the straight lines are complemented by a swirling quilting pattern. The second quilt, Elements, once again is very angular but the rigidity is set off by the flowing parallel wave quilting, effective, simple, and requiring a lot of patience. The third quilt, Paint Box, reminded me of a fabric color chart, so naturally it appealed to me due to the association. The quilt pattern was not dense and yet was oh-so fitting. I enjoyed the intermingling of circular and angular stitching lines — kind of like a clever hybrid of Bishop Fan and Grecian Key.

I Love Us Year Round appealed because of the bright colors and assortment of block patterns. It also showcased a variety of techniques in block creation.

Whirligigs reminded me of a quilt I made for my daughter and her husband. I was bemused that it lingered in the creator's stash just as mine had done. Whirligigs has a kaleidoscope appearance in each block made from four identical rotated quarters, a sort of Stack and Whack technique.  My quilt that it brought to mind was call Masquerade but more regularly referred to by me as The Quilt From Hell. Masquerade was completed in October 2020. My daughter had been married in 2011 and that is how long that hexagonal quilt was in the making. I could truly relate to Maryann Maiorana and the amount of effort involved; I gave Whirligigs my "Heartfelt" vote at the poll of the show.

Christmas in Baltimore got my WOW vote at the show. The block detail brought out by the exquisite quilting was truly WOW.

Pretty Polly was the last quilt I viewed in the show. It was modest in size. I do not have exact dimensions but, for scale, that clothespin is 3½" long, so I estimate the height at about 30". What gave me inspiration about this wall hanging was how effective the echo quilting around the bird was. I am always on the lookout for FMQ techniques I can add to my repertoire that enhance the quilt and yet are still within my skill limit. Hopefully my skill limit is an upwardly moving target, but progress is relatively slow. The beading and embroidery details on the bird are also pretty awesome. These intricacies are, however, a bit beyond my patience level.

My Bargain Purchases
You can't get more of a bargain than free, and I picked up these two patterns as giveaways. I liked that the Round Trip Duffle has a back strap to fit over a luggage handle. The Sunshine pattern by Elizabeth Hartman is sweet and I can see making just one row as a table runner or one block as a pillow. The Sunshine pattern uses conventional patchwork. No templates or paper piecing! Both should be small, fun projects to complete relatively quickly with fabrics I already have.

At $4/yd this stack of five fat quarters was $5. I am not overly fond of the black, large scale feature fabric but the mottled solids in red or yellow and the stripes in multi-color or black will easily get used.

These ten fat quarters of buffalo plaid flannels could make five great burp cloths for a baby for the bargain price of $10. I enjoy making these quick projects and often finding good quality flannel in a cute-but-not-insipid print is challenging. In 2015, I made 42 burp cloths! I made 42 more in May of 2017! 

These pretty two-tone florals in one-yard lengths caught my eye. I may use them all together in one project but I think they are versatile enough to be separated and blended with other prints. They are from different colorways of Tula Pink's TRUE COLOR series, pattern Wildflower by Free Spirit. They are very pretty fabrics and at $4/yd what a bargain — $24 for 6 yards!

This next collection of three ½ yards on the far left are from Kaffe Fassett and are titled Shark's Teeth. These are fun to use when a spot of nearly solid fabrics are called for and I want to be a bit risqué. To the immediate right of the Sharks' Teeth is a ½ yard length of a large scale print that would make a whimsical pillow or large scale blocks in a small quilt.  To the far right is 2½ yards and ½ yard of a large scale graphic reminiscent of Alice In Wonderland ; this fabric yardage could be useful as a backing. I show the ½ yard large scale print and the 2½ yard graphic Alice in Wonderland opened up in the follow on photos. 

I learned from the selvage that the delightful birds birds nestled among vines is from the art work of Monika Forsberg and the collection of Anna Marie's Conservatory.

Monika Forsberg was born in a seaside town in the very north of Sweden, where it was almost always winter. She moved to London to study art, became an animator and a mum. And later on an illustrator. Her work has appeared in magazines and books, and on children’s apparel and gift products.

I also learned of Anna Marie's Conservatory, which is a fabric collection made from the works of various artists. Among these artists are Anna Maria, Carolyn Gavin, Courtney Cerutti, Monika Forsberg, and Nathalie Lete. I will admit I am ignorant about these artists and of Anna Marie's Conservatory, but I plan to learn more. I like the colors and style of many of these fabrics.

This fabric is a Tula Pink design and titled Down the Rabbit Hole. Note that it is printed cross grain, the selvages run above and below the print when the trees are oriented up and down. I will need to keep this in mind if using it as a backing. The extra half-yard I picked up may help out in piecing if necessary.

The DVQ Autumn Renewal Quilt Show with accompanying Fabric Follies was not only a fun, social, experience, but also a source of inspiration for techniques and fabrics. I have some new ideas to try out in my FMQ. I also have some new artists to watch out for in fabric purchases.