Tag Archives: Texas

2025, Uncategorized

Cherrywood Challenge 2025

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Quilter’s Paradise On Display

A highlight of the International Quilt Festival and Market is the chance to check out the award-winning quilts on display. The George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston, Texas, showcases an extensive collection of quilts in various categories and themes. The outcomes are inspiring, colorful, and showcase the skill and imagination of the quilt makers.Cherrywood Challenge 2025

Cherrywood Challenge

I especially enjoy checking out the Cherrywood Challenge. Each year, the company offers up a new challenge. On display was the traveling exhibit from the Abyss Challenge. The rules are simple and direct.

  • Use only the colors designated within the bundle. This challenge used one of three collections: the Squid, Octopus, or Angelfish.
  • Create an original design.
  • The finished piece must be a square 20″ x 20″

Simple right? You might expect to see some similarities in the submitted quilts, but you would be wrong. These fabulous quilts show a vast variety in colors, designs, shapes, and outcomes.

The quilts are juried, and quilters are encouraged to use all the colors in the collection. The Abyss referred to the theme of – Creatures from the Deep.Cherrywood Challenge 2025

Plus, the way that the organizers display these square quilts is surprising. They are arranged on a display board. When you think you have seen all the quilts, you turn the corner and there are more quilts. And more quilts and more corners to turn. The outcome leaves you breathless and anxious to turn the corner and see even more designs.

Cherrywood Fabric

Cherrywood Fabrics are known for their cotton fabric that appears to be solid, suede-like colors. All the fabric is hand-dyed and made in Minnesota.Cherrywood Challenge 2025

If seeing these entries encourages you, the 2025 challenge, Storytime, is now open.

Check out all the quilts from the exhibition in the gallery below

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2025

Quilting Magic at the International Quilt Festival

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Houston, Texas, will host the International Quilt Festival at the George R. Brown Convention Center from October 9-12, 2025. In addition to the booths and displays offering fabric, patterns, threads, and notions, the Festival will feature an awe-inspiring display of quilts.

Over 1,000 quilts will be on view, focused on one of the 33 themed exhibits. The Festival consistently astounds us with its unique concepts and themes each year, and we eagerly await seeing them all. We can’t imagine the work it must take to cull out the submissions to settle on these few.

If you are going to the Festival, be sure to schedule sufficient time to cruise through the myriad of quilts. The preview night actually takes place on October 8th and is free for students enrolled in a class. Otherwise, it costs $16 for the preview night alone. Or buy a day pass and see the quilts during the show hours.quilt-festival

Some of our favorite categories for the show include the Elite Quilters from Taiwan, where Taiwanese quilting teachers are showcased. Their work is meticulous and detailed.Monkey-Boy

Fall in Ontario offers a glimpse of our northern neighbor with an autumn focus. The quilting is inspirational. Fall-in-Ontario

You can count on the Festival to remember all members of the world. The Cossack Mamai Quilt is a Ukrainian patchwork quilt created by 47 Ukrainian quilters, who produced these 65 segments. Cossack-Mamai-Quilt

It is incredible how some quilts stand the test of time. Fine Feathered Quilts displays the traditional Princess Feather design and Feathered Star quilts. These designs first surfaced in the 1800s.Fine-Feathered-Quilts

Frances Holiday Alford: An 80-Year Retrospective is a collection of the noted quilter’s work. Her work is touching and can’t be missed.Black-Cat-Red-Flowers-Green-Leaves

Can’t wait to see more quilt categories? Subscribe and stand by.

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Images courtesy of International Quilt Festival

2025

Preview of International Quilt Festival

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quilt-festivalHouston, Texas, will be colorful and bold when the International Quilt Festival checks into the George R. Brown Convention Center from October 9-12, 2025. Besides the booths offering every conceivable color of fabric and interesting gadgets and notions, the Festival will feature a dazzling display of quilts.

Yes, over 1,100 quilts will be on view, focused on one of the 33 themed exhibits. The Festival consistently astounds us with its unique concepts and themes each year, and we eagerly await seeing them all. The Festival offers a proper display for the quilts, with the lighting just so, and the artists’ stories and backgrounds available to read. We always enjoy seeing these quilts.

If you are going to the Festival, be sure to schedule sufficient time to cruise through the myriad of quilts. The preview night actually takes place on October 8th and is free if you are enrolled in a class. Otherwise, it costs $16 for the preview night alone. Or buy a day pass and see the quilts during the show hours.

Some of our favorite categories for the show include the 1X4: A Dimensional Challenge, where artists must use a narrow vertical format to showcase their skills.Creatures-Real-and-Imagined

4 Common Corners Rocks! asked for quilters to use the Colorado Plateau and the four corners of the states to develop a geo-based quilt.New-Heights

You can count on the Festival to remember all members of the world. Advocacy Quilts: A Voice for the Voiceless enables marginalized women to share their stories through exquisite quilts, bags, and tea towels, each made from embroidered squares.Advocacy

It is amazing what artists can produce. Black & White + One presents displays highlighting the contrasting values with a splash of one color. These offerings came from the Handi Quilter National Educators.B-W1

Brasilidade showcases 15 Brazilian quilts, offering a vast array of expressions, colors, and cultures.Brasilidade

How better to celebrate a special moment in a loved one’s life than in a quilt? So Celebrate Life presents a variety of techniques to honor special moments.Weddding-Quilt

Can’t wait to see more quilt categories? Subscribe and stand by.

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Images courtesy of International Quilt Festival

2024

Texas Quilt Museum – New Summer 2024 Exhibits

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The Texas Quilt Museum offers two new outstanding exhibits. The Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo Prize Winners and Fiber Art Now: Excellence in Fibers III will be on display from May 2- August 31, 2024.

Welcome-to-the-Farm

As unlikely a combination as it may sound, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo offer a different competition that does not involve livestock. Yearly, the show promotes its unique quilt contest. The contest is divided into Adult and Youth categories. The Museum will display the Blue Ribbon winners from both of them, totaling 35 works in Galleries I and II.

Color-My-World
The exhibit also included some offerings from the local La Grange, Texas, high school. The art students created some striking examples under the theme of “Western Art.”Dixie-in-Violet

The museum will showcase its Fiber Art Now: Excellence in Fibers III exhibit, with a total of 19 works on display. Contemporary fiber and textile art is always compelling, and this international collection shows why. The exhibit was organized by the Fiber Art Now
magazine.La-Longue-Route

The Texas Quilt Museum is located in La Grange, Texas, and is open Thursday through Saturday, so make your plans before these exhibits disappear.Epoch-2

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Images courtesy of Texas Quilt Museum

2022, Uncategorized

Two Quilt Festivals Were Successful

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The International Quilt Festival successfully wrapped up two exciting shows in the Western United States with great success. It was nice to see quilters getting a chance to see the latest offerings and become inspired by some of the judged quilts. We can’t wait for the Houston, Texas Quilt Festival in November.

The Salt Lake City Quilt Festival was July 21-23 at the Salt Palace Convention Center. Followed by the Long Beach Quilt Festival held this month August 4-6  at the Long Beach Entertainment & Convention Center. Both events had great attendance from both vendors and quilters. It’s been a while for a Long Beach, California show, and Salt Lake, Utah was a new addition. Quilters and crafters came from across the region to check out the offerings, classes, and friendship.

Celebration of Color

The quilt festival organizers also recently announced the top winners of their “A Celebration of Color” show, with unique selections. This annual judged competition is open to all quilters, with a focus on the vibrant use of colors. The three categories were Traditional, Modern and Art with each winner taking home $500 with the Best of Show being awarded $1,000.

The Best of Show was given to Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry for Celebration #2. Fallert-Gentry used an original design and hand-dyed fabrics.celebrations-2

The Art category was claimed by Lou Ellen Hassold for Clamshell Surprise. Her variation of the Judy Niemeyer design is bright and colorful. She discusses her work here.

clamshell-Surprise

Susan McKinney won the Modern pick for Chroma Infinitum. It was paper-pieced with over 50 colors.Chroma-Infinitum

Twenty Baskets Full of Flowers by Rossillis Rosario won the Traditional selection. It took two years to make.Twenty-Baskets-Full-of-Flowers

Houston Quilt Festival

The next Festival will be held in Houston, Texas on November 3-6, 2022.  Here are some details. We can’t wait to see the vendors, classes, and quilts on display.

Which quilt did you favor?

Images courtesy of International Quilt Festival

2022, Uncategorized

Texas Quilt Museum – New Exhibits for the New Year

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Starting this month, the Texas Quilt Museum is presenting not one, but TWO new exhibits. What a way to kick off the new year, right?

SAQA: Musica!

GuitarsMuisca consists of thirty-one works by members of the Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA), juried by quilt master Joe Cunningham, who is based in San Francisco California. He has been a professional quilt artist since 1979 and was an artist in residence at the De Young Museum in San Francisco. He has written ten books on quilt making and his blog showcases how he crafts his quilts from start to finish.

Can’t make it to Texas?  Here is a video of the exhibit when it was recently at the National Quilt Museum. 

 Super Samplers!

Who doesn’t love samplers? They are timeless treasures that showcase a quilter’s artistry.  These quilts in the exhibit are mostly from the International Quilt Festival archives, and the twenty sampler quilts are dated between 1795 and 2014.

You may recognize the Baltimore Album style as a leading example of samplers and the exhibit features three of this style quilt.Sampler

Hours and Dates

The Exhibits are scheduled to run through May 1, 2022, so hurry into the Texas Quilt Museum before the music ends and the samplers disappear.

The Texas Quilt Museum is at 140 W. Colorado St., La Grange, Texas 78945.

Limited hours and days

Hours are 10 am-4 pm only on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

Photos courtesy of Texas Quilt Museum

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