July 28 -- Ann Arbor Quilt Guild show

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The Greater Ann Arbor Quilt Guild put on their biennial show in late July.

The show, like the meetings, takes place in Washtenaw Community College's Morris Lawrence building.  It's a lovely building, but it's not intended for gallery display.  Proper lighting can be difficult.

It was crowded when I was there.  Not, all in all, the best environment for picture-taking.

When I looked at my pics, I wasn't terribly surprised to find that all of the pics were of one special exhibit.  It was much less crowded in there, when I was there, than the rest of the show.

Sue Nickels and Pat Holly are sisters.  They specialize in densely-quilted appliqued work, and often collaborate.  They have won many awards.  Their excellent Beatles quilt is in the AQS Museum.  (I saw the quilt at a guild meeting -- it is spectacular, and so much fun to see in person!)

Many of their pieces were a special exhibit at this year's quilt show.  This is "New York State of Mind," made by Sue and Pat in 2000.

A detail.  Their workmanship is exquisite.  I love their color/fabric choices, and admire their design skills.

It's hard for cloth to hang flat and square, and when it's pinned to a sheet, even harder....

"Imagining India," made by Pat Holly in 2009.  This one is silk, which is a lot more difficult to work with than cotton, as it is slipperier and stiffer.

So much going on!  Fancy fabrics, rickrack, tiny pieces of fabric.....  I like the wide stitches around the teensy chartreuse circles....

Those feathers on the bird's head can't be more than 1/8" wide.  Note that the lower beak is a different color from the upper beak......

Wow.  Sewing in and out of each of those itsy-bitsy petals........  Around every minuscule dot.....

Wow, eh?

Really a technical tour de force, in addition to the design work.



Pat really seems to be pushing the limits of how small one can possibly work in this medium.  This was well under 18" square.  15" square, maybe.

This one, too, was very small.

I did not touch it, but my finger was as close to it as possible without touching.  This is a tiny quilt.....

This is a much bigger piece -- over 4' wide, as I recall.

Quilting detail.

Again, wow.  Imagining the time it would take to quilt this section (which was a little over 1' square, if I recall correctly)...............



Heading back outside.  Another hot blue day with interesting clouds.

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