Throwback Thursday - QuiltCon East 2017 - One AMAZING MMQG Member Experience

Here's a #tbt for you - also known as Throwback Thursday... in the advent of Quiltcon West in Pasadena, CA next weekend - here's a long time coming post sharing the experience of one of our MMQG members at last year's Quiltcon East 2017 in Savannah, Georgia.

Mary was so generous with her time and provided a great presentation at our March 2017 MMQG Meeting - however, we thought you might want more of the juicy details in a longer blog post. Thank you so much to Mary for her time and willingness to document and share so much of her trip.

*All photos credit to Mary Guildford
**Post is an adaptation of a lovely PowerPoint presentation - hang on to your technology hats, quilt friends!

Savannah International Trade and Convention Center,
a short ferry ride across the Savannah River from downtown

Looking across at downtown Savannah from the convention centre. Savannah was founded in 1733 and was organized around a series of beautiful garden squares. The city is very walkable and full of wonderful old buildings. Many southern buildings were destroyed during the Civil War; Savannahians were smart enough to surrender.

Bling, Katherine Jones of Tasmania, Australia. Best in show. At 98” square it made a big impact at the entrance to the exhibit.

Inside the main room at the convention centre hundreds of quilts were on display and dozens of industry vendor and exhibitor booths. Every time I walked around I saw something new.



Crows Quill Analog, Andrea Tsang Jackson.

 I was very excited to see our guildmate’s work on display.

Land and Sea, Andrea Tsang Jackson

Impracticality, Angela Walters.

Walters was the featured quilter this year.

Another one by Angela Walters. This one is nothing but thread, no piecing at all.

 

 

Folksy Fish, Sarah Sharpe.

This is so fun and whimsical. Each fish has its own

personality.

Detail, Folksy Fish

She wanted to see if she could paper piece curves. Mission accomplished.

I Love a Lobstah, Shelly Brooks.

This was a paint chip challenge for Shelly’s guild in Maine. She had a year to do it but inspiration didn’t strike until two weeks before the deadline.

Siddi Quilts from India.

The Siddi people of Karnataka in southern India are descendants of Africans who moved to Indian centuries ago. Their distinctive hand stitched quilts derive from their African artistic heritage. I attended a lecture on quilting in Indian by modern quilter Shruti Dandekar who has visited the region. These are just a few of the Siddi quilts on display.

My Cat is a Jerk, Monica Solario-Snow.

Lincoln, Kim Soper.

This won the People’s Choice vote and the Improvised Piecing 1st place ribbon.

Permanence, Daniel Rouse.

This was inspired by Day of Dead traditions from Mexico and also by an old, worn quilt he saw that had another, older quilt as batting. The grey skull is emerging from under the pieced squares.

Transparence Quilt 1, Melissa Everett

Out of the Fog, Rebecca Cronk.

This is small scale improvised landscape.

Autumn is Wistful, Chawne Kimber. Poem by Autumn Kent.

I wanted to show a variety of text pieces since the MMQG challenge this year is Word Play.

Chawne Kimber is known for her text pieces. Here she gives us a whole poem.

Scuppernongs are type of grape native to the American South.

Cold Can Experience, Dorie Schwartz.

The text here is embroidered and then appliqued to a pieced background.

 

 

Tea and Skittles, Thomas Knauer.

This somber piece refers to the Trayvon Martin shooting in Florida in 2012. The text of Trayvon’s obituary is machine stitched over the quilt.

It was actually possible to buy a shooting target of hoodie-clad figure. That was Knauer’s inspiration for the image.

Tea and Skittles detail.

Cursive, Paige Alexander.

The letters are done with bias tape applique. It won second place in the Small Quilts category.

Cursive, detail.

Untitled, Jera MacKenzie.

 Part of Nine Patch Challenge group.

Sheri Lynn Wood, Ruler-free Strip Piecing.

She encouraged us to get grounded, be brave and let our rotary cutters fly.

I took two workshops with Lee Chappell Munroe of May Chappell.

Understanding the Rainbow: A Fresh Look at Colour Theory. We made a personal colour wheel in the form of a Dresden Plate.

Quilting Small Things: Free Motion Quilting on Your Domestic Machine.

I was encouraged when Lee said she has only mastered three basic designs for FMQ. Find what you are good at and stick with it.

Kickstart Your Creativity: Exercises to Boost Your Creative Flow, Deborah Moebes.

The organizers goofed with this one and put us in a room with no sewing machines. We had fun anyway with a kind of improv speed dating exercise.

Bonaventure Cemetery

 

Davenport House, c. 1820

It was the first house saved by the Savannah Heritage Foundation in the 1950s. This group has done amazing work saving Savannah’s built heritage for all to enjoy. Halifax could learn much!

 

Forsyth Park Fountain



 

Mercer Williams House.

Jim Williams house was the scene of much of action in John Berendt’s non-fiction bestseller, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. A fun read, it has been very good for Savannah tourism.

Juliette Gordon Low, Founder of the American Girl Scout movement.

The house where she was born is run by the Girl Scout organization as a museum

 

Hot Pink, Anne Ferrer. Jepson Centre for the Arts

Not all of the buildings are old. This beautiful modern building, on Telfair Square, houses gallery and performance spaces.

 

Nick Cave Sound Suits at the Jepson Centre.

These are wearable performance art pieces.

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That's all folks - I hope you enjoyed this little piece of Savannah and Quiltcon East, even if it's a year late. Stay tuned to the MMQG Instagram and Facebook for pics from Pasadena in the coming days... where we will be playing along with #quiltconfromhome.