Quilt entries for QuiltCon officially close today, November 30, at 11:59 pm Central. If you are planning to Submit a Quilt, today is the day to do it or you will have to wait to submit next year! I submitted 4 quilts for consideration this year, and I submitted them at different times this year; in the past I have waited to submit them as a group when they were all ready.
I thought I would share the quilts I submitted today, take you on a behind the scenes tour of where I photograph my quilts for submission, and offer a few quick tips for temporarily hanging quilts for photography. The QuiltCon submission guidelines request an overall photograph of the quilt and a detail photograph. For the purposes of this post, I am going to share the overall photograph and my submitted description for each quilt.
Babsie
Submitted on August 15 to the Small Quilts Category
In loving memory of Babsy.
The overlapping circles at the bottom represent the connection between generations and the free-floating orange peel at the top is the separation felt in losing Babsie, the last of her generation in our families. During a week spent with family, I began hand quilting the piece in the evenings as we remembered Grandma: her love of food, her horrible massages, and her unyielding curiosity to the end. She graduated with a degree in Chemistry in the 1940s, supported her family during WWII, and she was a pillar in her community and family.
See Right Through Me
Submitted on September 6 to the American Patchwork & Quilting Two-Color Quilt Challenge
Inspired by an improv mini quilt I made in June 2018, I wanted to challenge myself to expand the idea and achieve greater piecing precision. The solid, two color, high contrast palette strips down the design and all the details of the quilt are easier to see. Cropping the design, I hoped to achieve a sense of intimacy with a viewer; making them feel drawn in. By inviting such close inspection, I feel very vulnerable, represented by the inverted X-ray block.
Pieced using traditional piecing methods (not paper pieced).
Refraction
Submitted on November 8 to the Small Quilts Category
Refraction was designed with the idea of light hitting the edge of a surface and reflecting back at different angles. Refraction is a phenomenon of light as it deflects and passes through objects of different density, and I like to imagine this mini quilt representing the spreading of not just light but ideas as they ripple, shift, and change at such a high rate in our online, digital world.
Wonder
Submitted on November 24 to the Minimalist Design Category
Wonder is a design sketch I made while sitting on a beach, listening to the waves lap against the shore, looking out at the turquoise colors deepening as the water depth increased off shore. I don’t think I’m the only one that looks out at the horizon across an ocean and is filled with a sense of wonder…
Behind the Scenes
The largest unobstructed wall in my home happens to be in my garage. It’s not a glamorous quilt photography location, but it works! I particularly get a kick out of seeing the hanging tennis ball in the photo above.
Quilt Hanging Preparation
To prepare my quilts to stick to the wall, I first apply a strip of masking tape directly to the top and bottom edges of the quilt.
Quilt Hanging Preparation
I then add “rolls” of tape every 3-4 inches along the tape line. I find that the tape rolls stick much better to the quilt this way. To hang the quilt on the wall, I start in the center at the top of the quilt and press the tape rolls down from the middle out. Then I gently tug the quilt down and press from the center out along the bottom of the quilt. For a quilt the size of Wonder (~65″ x 81″), I also put 3 rolls of tape down each side after the fact.
Behind the Scenes
I try to photograph my quilts on days with diffuse outdoor natural lighting. I put my garage door most of the way down and supplement lighting with my OttLite. When I am getting the detail shot for each quilt, I bring the light in closer to specifically highlight the area I want to photograph.
Did you submit or do you plan to submit any quilts to QuiltCon this year? Do you have any photography tips to share?
you’re going to take all the prizes!!!! each one pulled me in, even in these small email photos to look and absorb. any patterns available? thanks for sharing, shoshana
Such wonderful submissions, Yvonne – it’s tough to pick a fave! Good luck with your entries!!
Beautiful submissions, Yvonne. Thanks especially for the behind the scenes photography tips! Very helpful!
Wow … that’s how I feel when I look at your quilts. Your style is so amazing and distinctive. I really admire you! Good luck with the entries!
Love the quilts – look forward to seeing them in the show!. Thanks for sharing how you photo. I entered 2 quilts and tried photographing them both indoors – against a blue wall – and outside clipped to a fence. Getting the lighting right inside was really hard.
I love your quilts. The info. on photographing quilts is always helpful. I really enjoyed reading your quilt stories. Hope they get accepted. I’ve never been to Quilt Con but it’s on my bucket list!
After a long day of putting red and green objects all around my house, I sat down to read your post. It was an antidote for my fatigue, and I enjoyed reading about each quilt, and then your methods for photography. My favorites (can’t have just one) are Refraction and See Right Through Me. Refraction reminds me (but it not the same) of my favorite one of your transparency quilts. See Right Through Me reminds me of thin structures that have strength beyond what they know: children’s swing sets, spider’s legs, steel scaffolding for high rises, and yes, our own skeletons. Thank you for a wonderful read!
Your entries are terrific! I was hoping to get into one of the challenges, but neither time nor my muse was with me on that plan. The nice thing is that I will see any of yours that get in – in person!
Such beautiful quilts. I love the background information and I’m always in awe of the precision you show in your work. The “behind the Scenes” for the photography was really interesting. I love that the Ott light can provide the lighting you need. I have so many of them in my house and use them all the time. I would not have thought the masking tape would be strong enough to hold them. I’m sure Painter’s Tape wouldn’t because it is not meant to be that strong. Good luck with your entries.
Great to see your entries and looking forward to seeing them in Nashville. Lighting is always tricky. I too supplement with lamps using natural daylight bulbs.
You submitted great quilts. Good luck. Thanks for the photography tips.
Great choices! Your photography ‘studio’ works well. The only large wall I have available is downstairs in our family room, where there is no natural light whatsoever. Oh, and the wall is painted dark grey…perfect for movie watching, not so much for quilt photography, lol. I’m curious to see how many quilts you’ll have accepted, especially since I’d accept them all!
Best of luck with all your entries, Yvonne. They’re all wonderful and I’m hoping to see them in the best if show when it hits Australia