We have a local group called the Albuquerque Fiber Arts Council.  They do a great job promoting fiber arts in our area – certainly quilts, but also knitting, weaving, lace making, mixed media…basically anything fiber related.  The Council holds a non-judged spring show during even years and a really big judged exposition during odd years – called Fiber Arts Fiesta.  There are a lot of really talented makers in the area so both shows are a treat to attend.

This year I submitted 4 quilts to the show – 3 of my own and 1 group quilt from my international Bee Inspirited Quilt Bee.  The show was held last weekend and was a lot of fun to attend. It was great to see my quilts hanging in the show, and it was a good afternoon of quilty inspiration.

The first quilt I submitted was Blueberry Orange Peels.  It got a 2nd place ribbon in the Large Modern Quilt category.  Apparently my Albuquerque Modern Quilt Guild fought hard to get modern categories added in to the show for the first time this year.  There was a large and a small category, both of which had really great entries.

The Dog Quilt got a 2nd place ribbon in the Group Division.  There were only 2 submissions in the Group Division 🙂 .  So not a huge victory here, but I do still love this quilt:

I also submitted 2 quilts in to the traditional category.  I love these quilts but neither won a ribbon.  This category was pretty competitive with a lot of entries.

This is The Bee Quilt:

And The Hawaiian Sampler:

My friend Tisha from IG @QuiltIcing won first place in Large Modern and second place in Small Modern (these are her photos):

Shards, First Place Large Modern:

Transparent Hexies, Second Place Small Modern Quilts:

I love the transparency she did here – I hadn’t seen a transparency done before with color transitions rather than color gradations (from light to dark of the same color).  Tisha is a master longarmer and it is always such a treat see her quilting and study what she’s done.

This quilt won best long arm quilting.  I love the color of this quilt…actually that was one of my take aways from the show…I was really drawn to the bright colors.  I think I want to try and use more bright colors for backgrounds rather than white and gray.  This is Fiesta Halo Medallion by Joyce at IG @FortQuilt:

This quilt, Wings Alight, by IG @QuiltsnFeathers won best stationary machine quilting.  It is a big quilt and amazing that she did all the quilting on a domestic machine.

I love the Zia Symbols in this quilt and that blue color is amazing.  This is Zia Quilt by Debbie Thornton:

This quilt was a shop sample for a vendor selling at the show.  Love the color!

SAQA, the Studio Art Quilters Association, had an exhibit called “Life Along the Rio Grande”.  There were a lot of great quilts in this exhibit.

Again, I found I was really drawn to the deep, rich colors.  I also found that I was more drawn to the quilts that had more structure rather than the really abstract ones.

Around the Bend by Vicki Conley (I think that’s her last name – I’m having problems reading my zoomed-up photo):

Meandering River by Cheryl FitzGerald.  The squares along the river below are woven, not pieced.  It was cool:

In the Beginning, by Gay Young:

Life Blood of a Nation, Anita McSorley:

There was a lot of great eye candy at the show and I really enjoyed it.  I have lots of inspiration – particularly with color – to play with going forward!