Our 4th Annual Bainbridge Island Quilt Festival took place recently on Saturday, 10th September. This is the fourth year in a row that we have been blessed with glorious sunny weather for hanging all these quilts outdoors for the day. There were 190 quilts displayed and they made a colorful show along our main street in Winslow. We had a good attendance and the public were very appreciative. Here’s an overall view and I’ll post more pictures in the coming weeks. My Original Octangles quilt is the black, white and red one in the center of the top left picture.

This Festival was initiated in 2013, by Barbara Kirk, owner of Esther’s Fabrics on Bainbridge Island. Barbara was inspired by the joy and beauty of the annual Sister’s Quilt Show held outdoors in Sisters, OR and wanted to put on a similar but smaller venture on Bainbridge. The Bainbridge Island Modern Quilt Guild collaborated with Esther’s Fabrics and other local businesses make this happen.

Here are two of my favorite quilts.

On the left is Temperance, by Marybeth O’Halloran. Marybeth writes, “I am a Leo, so of course this pattern spoke to me. It is entirely paper pieced, with almost 200 individual paper pattern pieces.” The pattern is The Lion by Violet Craft. On the right is Chromatic Hex Flowers, also by Marybeth O’Halloran. “This project was done long distance with my creative friend Jenn Rhoads. She moved to New York State, and so we mailed fabric and finished blocks back and forth. This is my finished quilt from those exchanges. I modified the pattern, Hexie Garden, by Atkinson Designs.” Marybeth is an accomplished long-arm quilter on Bainbridge Island – here’s her website.

Here is a beautiful Burgoyne Surrounded quilt in red, white and blue. I recently visited the La Conner Quilt & Textile Museum and saw the latest exhibits. On the ground floor, there is a display of Colonial Revival Quilts made by members of the American Quilt Study Group. Participants create a quilt which is copied from, or inspired by an existing antique quilt.

This example, (32” x 46”), was made by Anita Loscalzo from Dover, MA. This traditional pattern reflects historical events during the War of Independence. The British Army led by General Burgoyne was surrounded at the Battle of Saratoga which resulted in their surrender in October 1777, and convinced the French to ally themselves with the Americans. Anita used red in the large and small squares in the center of each block to symbolize the surrounded British army of redcoats. This quilt exhibit also includes several beautiful appliqué Colonial Revival quilts. On the upper two floors of the museum (where photography is not allowed), there are many exquisite hand-pieced and hand-quilted Japanese quilts made by Sachiko Yoshida and her students, utilizing antique kimonos. The display of Colonial Revival Quilts runs until the end of August, 2016 and the Japanese quilts will remain until early October, 2016.