Quilts

The Alden Lane Nursery in Livermore, California, just down the street from The Quilt Show's own Alex Anderson, is famous for every year putting on their Quilting in the Garden show where they hang quilts from the large trees that hang over the nursery. Not to be outdone, the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville, North Carolina actually "quilts" their garden, as they plant their plants to look like quilt blocks. Get a glimpse at how they do this in this video from 2022 showing how they're going to design the Quilt Garden for that season.

This past Friday Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry, friend and past guest of The Quilt Show, had a celebratory retrospective exhibition of quilts debut at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky entitled Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry: A Life In Color. This career-spanning display of her work features some of her most famous quilts and is an amazing opportunity to see such a large body of her work together in one place. Click through to find out more about the exhibit.

While we may be a month removed from Valentine's Day, this video from CBS Sunday Morning provides a fascinating look and appreciation of lace, that holiday's premiere textile for cards, garments, and other romantically-tinged ephemera. Join CBS correspondent Lee Cowan as he dives into the history of lace and the love it sees throughout the textile community.

Karen Lantz, formerly Karen Gloeggler, was a guest of The Quilt Show back in Series 1400 where she told us all about how she created a series of quilts, and a quilt book, inspired by Jane Austen’s romantic novels, along with sharing how to find, and then incorporate vintage fabrics, handkerchiefs, and doilies into your quilts to give them a Jane Austen flair. Now, Karen has a brand new book titled The UFO Cure: Managing UnFinished Objects to Restore Your Joy in Quilting, which will help you complete and take care of all those UnFinished Objects (UFOs) you have lying around.

From the National Quilt Museum: "For more than 50 years, Mr. Mallard has chronicled world events through his vibrant and intricately detailed thread collages. Born of brilliantly colored embroidery floss, fabric, patience and time, his quilts have been showcased in the United States and Europe.  He has been profiled in Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine, Linda LaPinta’s book Kentucky Quilts and Quiltmakers, Three Centuries of Creativity, Community, and Commerce,  inducted in the Mc Comb Mississippi Wall of Fame, and was honored with the ArtsReach “Living the Vision” Award.  Joe’s feature quilts include his Obama Tie Quilt, which chronicles the first four years of the Obama administration and an embroidered denim jacket he presented to former President Jimmy Carter, which highlights key events of his political life."

Beth and Jonathan Evans, internationally known batik artists, discuss their craft and recently published book, A Book of Batik, at a virtual event on Zoom, this Sunday, February 16, 2025. Registration is required, and there will be a question and answer session after the interview which you are welcome to participate in.

Christa Watson has twice been a guest of The Quilt Show, and in her first appearance with us she began sewing together improv scraps of color during one of the segments. After many years the fruits of her labor have paid off as the quilt that was created from those scraps, Colorful Chaos, has been juried into the Modern category at the AQS Paducah quilt show. Click through to see the quilt.

From the American Folk Art Museum: "Featuring 42 textile works and oil paintings, Madalena Santos Reinbolt: A Head Full of Planets is the first comprehensive survey of Santos Reinbolt’s art ever presented and marks the first-ever solo museum exhibition for the artist organized outside her native Brazil. Best known for her large-scale embroideries made from hundreds of vibrant colored threads, which the artist referred to as quadros de lã (“wool paintings”), the exhibition represents more than half of all known works by the artist and examines the artist’s work through a variety of lenses, including gender, race, and socio-economic dynamics."

Ian Berry is known for his masterful works created exclusively from denim. This last year he had a denim installation on display at the Garden Museum in London, which actually was a garden that Ian created entirely from denim. This Secret Garden as it was titled featured flora, fauna, grass, and everything else one could find in nature patterned out in that all too familiar shade of denim blue. Click through to learn more about this amazing display and to see some great photos as well.

From the Texas Quilt Museum: "Libby Lehman: The Art of Quilting celebrates the groundbreaking creativity and techniques in quilting pioneered by Lehman, one of the best-known fabric artists in the world. Of special note among the 13 works chosen for this exhibit is Lehman’s Joy Ride, which was picked as one of “The 20th Century’s 100 Best American Quilts.” Click through to find out more about the exhibit and other exhibits making their way to the Texas Quilt Museum.

Lisa Walton, textile artist and past President of SAQA, talks to Libby Williamson to see what she does with her teabags and to hear about her quilt Etiquette in Connecticut on another inspiring installment of Quilt Stories. And stay around until the end to see her studio!!!

Lilo Bowman interviews textile artist Judith Ahlborn about her quilt, Sightseeing in New Orleans, at the Houston International Quilt Festival 2024. Judith talks about her process in the creation of the quilt.

You never know where things are going to turn up. One day you put a box in the attic, then it gets moved to the basement, then to a friend's house and so on. That's kind of what happened in Clay County, Minnesota, where a quilt donated to the Ulen Museum​ turned out to be one of America's oldest quilts, older than the country itself. Find out more about this amazing discovery of American History.

From The Kennedy Center: "Calling all 7–12 graders, individual quilters, crafters, and artists in the United States—we are seeking submissions for The Next Giant Leap: Lunar Quilt Block Challenge! Learn about the history of textiles and sewing in space exploration from astronaut and artist Karen Nyberg, and then work to create your own quilt block based on the theme of the moon."

From Jaftex Corp: "November 11-December 6, join us in making a meaningful impact by participating in JaftexCorp's Mountains of Love Quilt Auction supporting those affected by Hurricane Helene. Our hearts are with the mountain communities in th Carolinas that have been affected Helene and we are glad to support this cause to make a difference in the wake of this devastating event. Jaftex has teamed up with their talented designers and brand ambassadors to bring you an extraordinary selection of beautiful quilts, all up for auction."

Lisa Ellis talks about her selection for a Judge's Choice Award at the Houston International Quilt Festival 2024. Lisa selected the quilt Millstones by Tetiana Bohachuk, and if you are out and about in the Houston area this weekend you can see this beautiful quilt in all its glory at the 50th Anniversary Edition of the Houston Quilt Show.

The 50th Anniversary of the Houston International Quilt Festival actually begins tomorrow, October 31, 2024, but some will get to experience all the grandeur tonight as preview night takes place. What will you see when you enter the doors of the convention center? It truly is a sight to behold, and when the TQS crew visited the show early last week they got a glimpse of what would greet every quilter as they walked though those doors. What did they see? Take a look for yourself, and get some other sneak peeks of the convention floor.

Lisa Ellis has an exhibit at the 2024 Houston Quilt Show entitled Cathedral Windows Contemporary Explorations, sponsored by Cherrywood Fabrics, that features her quilts that share her "long love affair of the textures and complexity of the overlapping circles of the Cathedral Window design." We caught up with Lisa on the floor of the show and she personally gave us the inside scoop on the exhibit.

Join Patricia Belyea of Okan Arts and her tour group as they visit the home of Amy Katoh​ in Tokyo, Japan. See Amy's collection of beautiful textiles, and revel in the wonderful and intimate experience of a trunk show from the other side of the world.

Patricia Belyea of Okan Arts recently got to do something she's always wanted to do but was never in the right place at the right time. What did she do? She got to view the Quilt Nihon Exhibition at the Pacific Northwest Quilt & Fibers Arts Museum in La Conner, WA. Why is this a big deal? Well, Quilt Nihon takes place in Japan every two years, so to these quilts outside of the show was an absolute joy for Patricia and she wanted to share that enjoyment with all of you. Take in some of the quilts she saw, and learn about about this amazing international event.