Kitsap Quilters’ Guild Show (2) – Featured Artist Marybeth O’Halloran

Our annual Kitsap Quilters’ Guild show was on 16th and 17th of February. Our featured artist was Marybeth O’Halloran, whose beautiful work made a stunning display for us all to enjoy. Marybeth is a well-known, award-winning long-arm quilter from Bainbridge Island. Her work has appeared in books, magazines and other publications. In addition to her talent as a long-arm quilter, she is a precise piecer with a great eye for color and design. Last week I posted pictures of Marybeth’s display area with the promise of detailed pictures of her New Hexagon Millefiore quilt. Here it is.

The pattern for this quilt is by Katja Marek. Marybeth made this as a block of the month project, which took her years to finish. The piecing is all by hand using the English paper-piecing technique. What began as a serious project became more whimsical as Marybeth fussy cut pink poodles, astronaut cats, whales, foxes and more. The details are delightful and add so much to this absolutely gorgeous quilt. Check out the photos.

Kitsap Quilters’ Guild Show (1) – featured artist, Marybeth O’Halloran

Our annual Kitsap Quilters’ Guild show was on 16th and 17th of February. In the next few blogs I will share some of the highlights. Our featured artist was Marybeth O’Halloran, whose beautiful work made a stunning display for us all to enjoy. Marybeth is a well-known, award-winning long-arm quilter from Bainbridge Island. Her work has appeared in books, magazines and other publications. In addition to her talent as a long-arm quilter, she is a precise piecer with a great eye for color and design.

Here’s Marybeth in her display area. Next week my post will be detailed shots of the lovely millefiore quilt behind her. She rescued the chairs from our Rotary Auction and friends’ throw-aways. They are so whimsical in the bright colors and with the patchwork seats which Marybeth foundation pieced on denim for extra strength. She also made all the table mats, lamp shades and even fabric cup-cakes!

This spectacular Lone Star, Daddy’s Home, was a commissioned quilt and is made from three generations’ worth of ties set into a background of fine Italian shirting. The ties were stabilized with interfacing. The inset corner stars are from a Karen Stone pattern and Marybeth designed the rest of the quilt. Check out the details of her incredible machine quilting.

Rainbow Frankenquilt is sampler which began as a Pacific Fabrics block of the month from 2009 and then evolved to incorporate components from Marybeth’s spare parts bucket. The center was originally a stand-alone wall hanging but it looks wonderful as the focal point in this quilt. This quilt is eye-catching with so much detail and variety in the components which all come together to make an extremely successful design.

Corona, (on the left), is made from a pattern by Tula Pink. Marybeth modified it to be sewn by machine using an invisible zig-zag stitch to join the pieces instead of the hand-pieced English paper-piecing technique.This is a color-wheel within a color wheel, surrounded by coronal arcs to celebrate last summer’s eclipse. The Lion, (pattern by Violet Craft), is a fresh modern take on a paper foundation pieced lion. Marybeth is a Leo and loves lions of all sorts. She used prints instead of solids and changed the palette to incorporate her favorite color, turquoise. Check out the lovely patchwork lamp shades too.

More rainbow colors with these quilts that pop. On the left, Free-pieced Posies. pattern by Atkinson Design, is one of Marybeth’s first experiments in free-piecing on a polychromatic theme. She made sheets of fabric from scraps and then cut the sheets to the petal size. On the right, Modern Diamonds, was Marybeth’s pattern designed to use as a sample for a scrap quilting class. It was made entirely from her scrap pile.

Kitsap Quilters’ Guild Show, February 16th and 17th, 2018

Please join us for our Kitsap Quilters’ Guild annual show this Friday and Saturday. We will be displaying over 200 quilts, enjoying a fantastic display by our talented featured artist Marybeth O’Halloran, shopping from our quilt store vendors, observing demonstrations of a variety of quilting techniques by our members, bidding on our silent auction baskets and more. We always put on a good show and would love to see you there.

“Home” exhibit at Olympic College, Bremerton (2)

“Home” is a group exhibition featuring twenty-five artists from the Puget Sound Region. “Home” celebrates the opening of Olympic College’s Instructional Center and is a partnership between Olympic College, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art (BIMA) and Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network (BARN). The exhibit is in their brand new building, in the gallery, and will be there until 2nd March, 2018. I feel honoured to be a participant. As a previous exhibitor at BIMA, I was invited to submit any works pertaining to the theme of “Home”. Interpretation of the theme could be very loose. Two quilts were selected for Olympic College, and there will be more when the exhibit moves to the larger space in BIMA in March. See my blog last week for my bed quilt and additional pictures of some of the other works of art.

This wall hanging would be fun and appropriate to hang on the wall of a child’s bedroom in a home. Toto’s Garden, was made by me to be featured in a special exhibit, Quilts for the Young at Heart, at the Houston International Quilt Festival several years ago. The exhibit was sponsored by David Textiles Inc., who produced a Wizard of Oz line of fabrics and invited various quilters to use these to make Wizard of Oz themed quilts. I was invited by merit of my work teaching children to quilt and several kids made patchwork pillows and one made a lap quilt under my supervision. These all appeared, along with my offering, in the exhibit. Look closely to see the Cowardly Lion’s tail, the Scarecrow’s hat, Dorothy’s shoe, the Tin-man’s axe and the quilted tornado. This whimsical quilt was fun to make and rather atypical of my quilts which are not usually pictorial or applique. Here are some more pieces from the “Home” exhibit which captivated my interest.

On the left, Cedar Mesa Ruin, by Kay Walsh: scanned 4×5 black and white carbon pigment digital print. On the right, Home, Sweet Home, by Bill Walcott: acrylic on canvas.

On the left, On the Street Where You Live, by Max Grover: acrylic and collage on board. On the right, American Pie, by Karen Hackenberg: wood matchsticks, aluminum pan and scale-model figures.