Quilts on covered bridges
It’s a romantic recipe: small town, famous county, covered bridges and quilts on a lovely summer day.
That’s the “airing of the quilts” during the Iowa Quilt Festival, where I spent Saturday, June 2. I grabbed my quilting travel buddy Mary and off we went to Winterset, which is set in wooded rolling hills toward the center of the state.
Quick overview:
Iowa Quilt Festival is a recently expanded event in and around Winterset, Iowa featuring several days worth of events for makers and lovers of quilts, hosted by Iowa Quilt Museum and sponsored/supported by a host of businesses and organizations local and beyond.
I’ll do a series of posts because there is just so much.
Central Iowa Modern Quilt Guild hung quilts on Cedar Covered Bridge and these were among my favorites of the day. I was happy to meet Eva Marie Evans on site and she chatted with us about two quilts I adored.
This modern version of Double Wedding Ring lit my fire because of its scrappy vibe and the wide variety of fabrics.
Sometimes it’s hard to convince my students that fabrics don’t have to match. But a quilt like this brings home that point beautifully.
I wanted to look at this quilt, and look some more, and look some more. That’s a successful quilt! The viewer can hardly look away because of all the fascinating interactions.
Look carefully at the fabrics and notice the different textures and sizes of prints.
How many different styles of fabric can you spot? I see floral, Asian, novelty, stripe, modern, shirting, batik, solid and scenic, also known as toile.
Virtually nothing “matches” and yet the quilt looks fabulous. I’d love to spend a day sewing with Eva Marie because I think I could learn from her.
Do you see how the overall effect is what really matters? The big picture is what makes a quilt work.
I think it’s really interesting that there isn’t a lot of contrast between the rings and the backgrounds. And yet most quilters would instantly recognize it as Double Wedding Ring. I like how the value moves from the lightest at the top left to the darkest at the bottom right. This is a quilt that grabbed me and wouldn’t let me go.
If you aspire to create like this, check out Double Wedding Ring Quilts by Victoria Findlay Wolfe. It’s been out a while so you can grab a copy quite inexpensively.
Iowa Quilt Festival was sponsored by Iowa Quilt Museum and many other organizations and businesses.
And from what I observed, it couldn’t happen without hundreds of volunteers who worked long and hard. Thank you, all.
Much more to come, so quilt on,
