Quilting on the Kenai

Close up of a block from the quilt that won Best of Show.  (for details see below)

This past weekend I headed down to Soldotna with my friend Jan. Our friend Sally and her husband also went down in their motor home.  We stayed at Jan's second home in Soldotna.  She has a great house there with a separate building that will one day be her sewing studio, until then we take over the dinning room with out sewing machines.  Her husband Rick is a good sport about being invaded by us.

Quilting on the Kenai is the a quilt show held every year in June.  This year they had a quilt walk and we discovered some fun shops as we traveled from shop to shop getting our Quilt Passports stamped.  Each shop had a quilt or piece of fiber art displayed from the quilt show.

We also went to a show entitled "Art Quilts Extra-Ordinaire."

The Exhibit Statement by Mary Kay Johnson said:  "Art quilting is a fairly recent outgrowth of traditional quilts which were originally made to keep people warm in their beds. They share with bed quilts the basic construction of a fabric 'sandwich' of a top, batting, and backing held together with stitching of some sort."

It goes on to say: "Some artist created their own fabric design using paint, dye, bleach, and ink. Hand-stitching, machine embroidery, staples, and wires hold the quilt layers together. Artist have added pain, beads, lace, fringe, and thread to embellish the surfaces. Some quilts have a theme and tell a story, others are simple or elaborate designs developed by the quilters."

These are a few of the quilts on display.

One

By Karen Fogarty for sale at the Art Gallery in Kenai, $190.

In the Jungles of San Blas by Marilyn Kay Johnson

Tile Magic by Anne Louise Gillian

Clown Fish by Rachel Gossl

Fall Sentinel by Rachel Gossl

Garden Party for Bag Ladies by Jan Wallace (No matter how I tried I could not get this one clear due to the light reflection.)

I took pictures of several of the quilts displayed in the shops during the quilt walk.

Sunburst I Designed, Pieced, and Quilted by Jacob "Jack" Ross

Mrs. Kramden and Sprout Designed, Pieced and Quilted by Alice Krivitsky.

Flippant Frogs Designed and Stitched by Anne Louise GIllian

My favorite from the quilt walk was at a nursery, which was very appropriate for the quilt.

Going to Seed Pieced by Kathy Sexton
Quilted by Lily Huebsch

The quilt show had some beautiful pieces and some that did not win ribbons, but in my opinion should have. I will not say what had ribbons or did not, though in a few pictures you can see the ribbons.

Machine Embroidered Quilt Made by Enid Keyes
I could not read the name of the quilter on the picture I took. I love the colors in this one.

Bed Quilt by Carla Carlisle Quilted by Sharon Hughes

Applique Made By Lorraine Roloff  Quilted by Cindy Rainey

Applique Made By Sue Tonione Quilted by Kathy Sanders

This pair was made by Joann Biegel and  quilted by Sharon Hughes

This is one I thought deserved a ribbon. It was made by Pauline Goecke and quilted by Larry Bravo

This one appliqued by Jan Allen and quilted by Cindy Rainey won best of show.

 I thought this little wall hanging made and quilted by Kathy Bongiovanni was just too cute.

The Four Seasons of an Outhouse

I really liked this bed quilt by Denise Maloney, which was quilted by Sharon Hughes.

This cute red work wall hanging was made and quilted by Barb Hope McKay.

This one was made and hand quilted by Flory Loughead. She did beautiful hand quilting as you can see in this closeup.

 

Here are a couple of close ups of Cindy Rainey's quilting on some of the quilts. She did a beautiful job.

 

We really enjoyed the quilt show and all the shops we stopped in along the quilt walk.  I have been a couple of times in the past, but after this year I think I would like to make it a yearly event, and who knows maybe one year I will enter one of my creations.