I just got back from four days in Ohio…Athens, Ohio (OK, it’s taking me a long time to finish this post, so not really just back…almost a month ago! Hey school ended. Don’t judge too hard.). Where Quilt National takes place. This is my 5th time getting in, and nothing compares to the first time, but it’s still amazing. I wasn’t able to go the last two times…in 2021, there was barely a vaccine, and I was teaching on Zoom, and it just seemed like too much. In 2023, I was still listening to my school district tell me there were no subs, you can’t possibly take time off. I stopped listening to them, because there has to be a balance between work and life, and there hasn’t been. I am glad to have a supportive principal at the moment. So this year, I went. Excited! But even then, I had forgotten the amazing rush of being with like-minded people, artists struggling to create, whatever that looks like, meeting new people, seeing old friends, seeing the art! So my brain is still in exploding mode, and hopefully that will get me through the end of the year.

I didn’t photograph all of the pieces. I get to a point where I can’t. But I tried to photograph every artist with their piece, and details when I felt them. Oh hey! Here’s me. Talking about my inspiration. I kept it short. I read Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ Women Who Run With the Wolves when I was in college, and then I had signed up for Audible to listen to books when I quilt and clay, and her books about wise women and crones and Mother trees popped up, and I think I listened to two or three of them. I loved the idea of a Mother Tree/Crone who was trying to protect us all, especially the younger women who might not have the resources we older women have (I’m still not old enough to be a crone, but it’ll come). On the left are all the issues with reproductive rights, telling us we don’t have any, turning women into baby factories. On the right is war, Gaza, Ukraine, there’s bombs dropping throughout this quilt, body bags, people crying. It’s not an easy quilt to explain; it wasn’t easy to make. And I’m glad it got in.

Oh yeah, it has a name: Seeking the Crone’s Protection.

And here it is surrounded by other quilts…love to see what’s around it.

Susan Else’s sculpture Something to Say; to the right, Jennifer Candon’s Metanoia, Peggy Black’s Polyphonic 5 to the left of mine, to the left of that, Ruth de Vos‘ Wings of Freedom, and then to the far left, Keetje Abbenhuis’ Trash in Orbit.

Here’s Peggy Black in front of her piece.

Here’s my good friend Dinah Sargeant with her 100 pieces…holy moly. The piece is called Snaps and is all of her scraps made into little snapshots.

A detail of one of the hundred pieces. Not a small amount of work. She made each into a tiny quilt with sleeves and rods.

This is Kestrel Michaud’s Echoes of Time and Magic, part of her steampunk world.

I’ve read articles and watched videos of her explaining her process, which is similar to mine, but uses technology (computers and cutters instead of scissors).

I had a great conversation with her about her technique and materials, and am impressed she has persuaded her husband to make her artistic life easier (more technological support).

I know that if my hands ever give out, I might need to do the same, head to the computer. Not there yet. Nice to know a process exists though.

Heidi Parkes‘ Nimble Nimble won Best Handwork.

I saw a few of her pieces at QuiltCon this year; it’s a fascinating way of working, especially after hearing about why (and how) she did the arm and shoulder after an injury.

Certainly very different to how I make work. It has some ideas I might be exploring this summer. Inspirational anyway.

This is Russ Little talking about his quilt to the right, More Than Black & White #4, with Helen Geglio’s Mind Map: Compartments behind him. Russ had a fascinating story of the background behind making these pieces.

Also, this is a good example of my forgetting to go back and take additional photos. I was constantly getting overwhelmed by this experience of art and artists, so I apologize for not fully documenting the event.

For instance, this is Gabrielle McIntosh, a math teacher, who was talking about the piles of grading she needed to do (this is Precarious Balance, which is largely how I feel about school on a regular basis).

I meant to go tell her YES. I GET IT. And I never did.

Here is Roberta Lagomarsini’s Home Away from Home.

I took one larger picture where you can see those two a little better, on the right. I think when I went back, there were people just hanging out there constantly (table and chairs?), so that’s my excuse.

This is Jennifer Strauser’s Sweet Surrender, constructed by starting to stitch on the outside edges and then moving in.

OK, crazy small world (or not)…I just finished trying to watch some of the Making Zen online workshops this week (totally failed last year, due to being in Maine) and I watched hers! But I didn’t realize it was the same person.

It’s a fascinating technique.

And then there’s this, Stefanie Neuner’s That’s NUTS, about her atypical child and trying to get them help.

There’s a ton of really special embroidery on this piece.

I know it’s emotional for her and am glad she was invited to be part of the exhibit.

Insane amount or stitching.

Cindy Grisdela explained her leaf/pod shapes and her experimentation with color, in Musings II.

Wendy Richardson’s piece Children of War won an Award of Excellence.

So many pieces about war this year. This one is beautiful.

She spoke about the crosses going up into the sky being those who had lost their lives heading to heaven.

I traveled with a local San Diegan, Juli Smith, who happens to be in my modern quilt guild chapter. This was her first Quilt National with Sweet Tooth, due to the sugar packets she originally designed with.

We had a variety of international quilters, as always, with a variety of ways of communicating with us. This is Harue Konishi and her piece Halu #14. She translated her artist speech for Keri Wolfe to read to us.

Great sense of color and contrast.

Betty Busby’s piece Conflict was an intriguing mix of materials and shapes.

Another war quilt…she talks about these being the aftermath of battle scenes. Here she is explaining how she made barbed wire out of fiber.

Barbed wire that looks dipped in blood.

Susan Brubaker Knapp’s piece What Remains is delicate and beautiful.

When I first started paying attention to Quilt National, you could always tell who had taken classes from Nancy Crow. I think Irene Roderick is the new version of that. This is Laurie Paquin’s Composition 3, and she admits to Irene influence. Her piece reminds me of beetles…or brightly colored cars. The thin lines are intriguing.

She won the Emerging Artist award.

I got absolutely no good pictures of Patty Kennedy-Zafred’s long book-shaped piece, Mercato Del Friuli. It’s behind that head. Whoops! I swear, my brain gives out after a while.

I meant to go back and never did. This is where I tell you to buy the catalog. If you can’t go to the show.

I love Anne Smith’s work. So much recycled fabric used in such a fascinating way. This is Elmore & Duke Reminiscing.

Inspirational stuff.

I often wish I could work more like that…more freeform and textural.

This is Susan Braverman’s Pinot Noir.

I love her perfect circles, all pieced. That’s skill. And the flow from one shape to another.

This is Tania Tanti’s Will You Love Me When I’m Blue.

She paints these…

And then does some pretty intense machine stitching afterwards.

This is Abigail Vargas‘ Bumblebee Jasper.

The fabrics used here are fascinating.

She is also a much more careful quilter than I am.

Susan Shie was not at the opening weekend. I’ve met her before. I would call her one of my early influences in the art quilt world. This is her piece Navalny: 9 of Wooden Spoons (wands) in the Kitchen Tarot.

A crazy amount of writing.

This is Rodger Blum’s Seven Angry Men and One Celestial Being…

The surface is very interesting. I’d like to know more about how he does this. .

This is Trash in Orbit, by Keetje Abbenhuis.

She talked about using a particular shape, three sides and a curved line.

Ruth de Vos was also not at the opening weekend (not surprisingly). This is her piece Wings of Freedom.

The bird wings are beautiful.

Isabelle Dupras’s piece Le grand Tamtidelam a deux tetes is a fun folk piece.

It’s also very different than her other work.

I did ask if she had cats at home…

because of these…apparently no.

Cara Gulati’s Rainbow Spiral Kaleidoscope is fun to look at (and try to figure out).

John Lefelhocz’s piece Ring Tones was intriguing to watch.

His piece is sound reactive, so I spent time staring at it, trying to figure out what it was reacting to…

No real answer to that. Just that it’s reacting. Certainly beautiful and fascinating.

Sandra LH Woock’s piece Day Break is just fun to look at, trying to figure out how she made it.

That website is ancient. Clearly she spends more time making fascinating things than updating it.

This is Danette Pratt’s Scream. I wanted to meet her, to talk to her, but she disappeared. Her piece is on the page next to mine, and she has my mom’s middle name.

Plus holey moley, her stitching, that face; they’re just fascinating.

I like it. I like the hand applique with the slow stitching.

The cool shading here.

Just an amazing piece.

Barbara Schneider is amazing at making fabric look like bark. This is Forest Floor, Tree Bark Fragments, var. 10.

You know, one of the reasons it takes me so long to create this post (besides the day job) is that I search out websites for each artist, and THEN I read their websites. So I just take forever.

This is Barbara Lange’s So Wa Wai. It’s all discharged jeans fabric and there’s an amazing story behind it.

It involves a mom’s love, which is always a cool subject.

This is Heather Akerberg’s Dialectic No. 1, which won Outstanding Machine-Pieced Quilt.

I love that on her website, she talks about introducing her team…and it’s her. And her cat.

From left to right, Louise Silk’s Gabriel: A Mantle for our Steel Town Angel, all of reused materials. Then Sandy Curran’s Survivor’s Guilt. And Shin-Hee Chin’s Viriditas (Greenness), which won Best of Show.

Here is Jean Renli Jurgenson talking about the fabric she used for her piece Hallelujah.

It was a real pleasure to meet Jane Haworth (I own a small piece of hers) and hear about how she made all the chickens in Let’s Talk Color.

She makes some amazing collage pieces of animals.

And her chickens are gorgeous.

I also talked to Sue Sherman, not realizing at first what other work she had done that I had seen. She’s been creating these animal portraits and they’re mind-boggling. This is The King Family, and they are all painted.

Then the frame is made of all the things the animal would like…such as the squid crown.

Real skill in the painting as well…

There is such a wide range of work that is vastly different from mine…it’s part of why I love these exhibits. This is Seen and Unseen, by Kathy Ford.

She was an architect in her former life, so this is a true departure.

More fascinating closeups.

Here’s a better photo of Shin-Hee Chin’s piece Viriditas.

She’s got some YouTube videos of her process that are just fascinating, but she also talked about the role of classical music in her work.

Looking at it up close does not help explain her process!

I could stare at it for hours.

This one, I could have sworn it was flowers until the artist, Beth Schnellenberger, started talking about the two birds in Double Phoenix Rising (it was my first run through…wasn’t reading labels at all).

She uses a technique very similar to mine (so she understands my insanity).

Brent McGee’s work Apollo and Dionysus is fun to look at…very textural and 3D (honestly probably more fun to touch…but you’re not supposed to touch the art).

I spent some time hanging out with Brent and some of the other artists at a winery Saturday night. It was interesting listening to all the ideas bopping around.

Here is Ann Houle talking about her work Bio-Sphere on Fire.

It’s a fascinating piece to look at up close.

As is this one, Holly Cole’s Adrift, which won the Persistence Pays award.

Intriguing use of materials and development of imagery.

Vicki Conley’s piece Flying has crazy details. These are flamingoes…which explains her headband and shirt…

I had just read an article about her traveling and quilting. She has a setup in their camper and it works. Sounds lovely.

Susan Lapham has been doing these organic plant quilts recently (or maybe forever?), which totally contrast with the more blocky/improv stuff I’d seen from her before. I love this piece, Field Counts 2.

Jungeun Tark’s piece Tea-Bowl of Mama has some very interesting construction going on.

When I think of experimenting with more textural work, this is some of what I think of, at least in parts.

Lousy picture, sorry; I think that woman walked in front right as I took the picture and it focused on her amazing hair instead of Jean Sredl and her piece Shoddy, made up of waste fibers and other fun things.

She talks in her statement about ‘environmental catastrophe’, which is what this piece reminds me of happening.

Next to hers was Chiaki Dosho’s Resonating.

She moved so fast! She had someone read her statement for her; I found a website, but it’s out of date. That said, her work is fascinating and very textural.

This is a fun piece by Diane Melms, called Swish.

She mentioned that her piece didn’t have any deep story behind it; it was just about color and shapes…it is a fun piece though.

Jan Soules told a story of improv piecing these fish shapes in Two Fish, Blue Fish.

Complicated but also fun to look at and contemplate.

Sarah Spencer’s (aka Io the Alien) work is graphic and in your face, as is the subject of this piece, Queen of Swords, who is Mona Eltahawy.

This is kind of my mood for 2025 (my own Project 2025?), so I love it, and the color. Plus Sarah is fun to talk to.

She’s relatively new to the quilting world, but let’s hope she keeps making these graphic pieces.

I’ve always loved Terrie Hancock Mangat’s work, from way back. This is Vertigo on Cobblestone, which is so accurate for how this quilt feels.

And even better? That skelly under a sheer fabric.

It’s funny that her work and Susan Shie’s are two that I feel really influenced me early on, and I don’t embellish really at all…although maybe I want to? I did crazy quilting, so there is a connection. Terrie wasn’t at the opening, unfortunately.

This is Kathy York’s Where the Walls Have Eyes piece, where the eyes are inside.

I did wonder if it was on the wrong side, because you could only see the eyes from the top, and most of us were too short to see them…but I don’t know what happened with that.

I didn’t take pictures of everything. I always feel weird about that after, like I would have enjoyed staring at Niraja Lorenz‘ piece Abundance, on the right, for a long time, but I never got there. And there’s Denise L. Roberts‘ piece Finding Connections #26, the red on blue piece.

There’s a point when I feel totally overwhelmed.

This piece was so delicate and beautiful. It’s Dawn’s Early Light by Myania Moses.

Linda Steele’s piece Communication Breakdown is about being addicted to being on our phones, but also a fun use of improv and text.

I realized while wandering all over her website that I’ve seen some of her crazy quilts before. She has a wide range of stuff she creates; truly impressive.

This piece, Cellular Entanglement, by Mattea Jurin, is a very cool use of materials.

The clear vinyl plus stitching plus colored pencil work…

She wasn’t there, unfortunately, because I would have loved to hear her talk about her work.

This is Susan Avishai’s Where Do the Children Play?, a quilt about the Hamas attack on Gaza.

She uses a lot of repurposed fabrics and texture. But also, wow, another war quilt, and as I’m finally getting around to finishing this post, the day after my country drops bombs on Iran. Sigh.

Doesn’t matter what your politics are…it’s a valid question.

Here is Regula Affolter talking about her piece The WEF Extra’s #103.

She was talking…sorry for the weird face! I do spend more time listening than I do taking amazing photos (as might be obvious).

This is Gail Sevilla’s Refuge–Uvalde May 2022. Ah yes.

This is a quote from her statement: “Pieced with dimensional pocket that person can fit in.” Because we need those.

Yes, I know I missed some people and some quilts. I can’t do it all. In fact, in looking at the catalog, there’s some I don’t remember seeing at all, which is kind of mindboggling. I did really really really enjoy the trip though. Totally worth all the school stress going in and coming back. Just getting the chance to hear everyone talk about their work and spending time with artists was a boon to my art brain. So I’ll remember that for the (hopefully) next time I get in. Always go. Don’t NOT go. Now I just have to find the extra frame I have somewhere in the house so I can hang my poster from the show…my 5th! I remember when I thought I would never get in. It feels good to get in.