Quilt Festival St. Jacobs 2012 Part 5

Another day in St. Jacobs at the Quilt & Fibre Art Festival. Does a person ever get enough?!

Flowers by Angela Grasse

I took another short course this afternoon, this one with Angela Grasse, link to her blog here. Very cool, fun, and inspiring. She showed us how to make fun, funky flowers with bits of ribbon and string and lace and such. Her work encompasses so many other elements, but it was great fun to play with her for a couple of hours on these few techniques.  I suspect she uses many more in her work, and I would love the full course at some point. Just imagine the possibilities.

These flowers shown at left are made from painted cheesecloth, pipecleaners, heated ribbons, gathered ribbons, beads, hand stitching, lace, yarn, etc. My own flowers did not look so great, but I picked up a terrific tip from Angela. In Houston, I acquired a set of colouring pencils called Inktense Blocks, and wasn't sure how I would be using them. Angela showed us how to colour lace and other bits of fabric, very easily using the Inktense product. I'm thinking I'll be putting these to good use!

Car Quilt by Judy Taylor

A really big surprise in St. Jacobs was the quilt car. Of course, I've seen this quilt before, but I enjoy it with delight every time I see it.  It was made by Judy Taylor, and is owned by the St. Jacobs Quilt Festival. It is fully driveable and now tours around local parades and shows.

Quilts by Blossom Bowman Zink

Point Well Taken, detail
blocks about 2x2"
by Blossom Bowman Zink

And one other venue I saw today was in the St. Jacobs Schoolhouse Theatre. It was funny to see quilts there, because we saw an Elvis concert there last winter, but it is such a great display area for quilts, so it seems perfectly natural. A real treat there was the featured guest artist Blossom Bowman Zink, from Elmira, who does mostly miniature quilts. She had about 30 quilts on display, and I just loved seeing her quilts. Her quilts are small enough to fit in the hallway on the way into the theatre. Amazing to see all the tiny pieces in her work up close.

Quilts by St. Jacobs area quilters
display at Schoolhouse Theatre

Part of the same display was a very nice group of local quilters. It is not a judged show, but the collection was impressive. I was spoke to Wendy Lamb, the organizer. She said she aims for a variety of quiltmakers, looking for quilters who may not have had quilts on display before. She also said she does not see any photos of the quilts until they show up to go on display. Given all this, she sure puts on a great display.