International Quilt Festival – New Mexico Quilts in Special Exhibits
November 30th, 2013
What great representation we had from the Land of Enchantment at International Quilt Festival. Although I tried to photograph as many New Mexico quilts as possible, I am sure that I missed some. Great job ladies!
Adobe Row was juried into the Tactile Architecture exhibit. Michelle Jackson writes, “My inspiration is always color and, in this case, using color to show the unique interaction of nature and the adobe.”
Judith Roderick is a very well know artist throughout our state. Her work often features the birds that are her passion and hundreds of buttons that accent her designs. Judith writes, “The male bowerbird clears a space on the forest floor. He creates a large structure, a bower, or display area out of twigs, branches, sticks and grasses. He decorates his bower in an amazing manner using his beak. He chooses similar colored objects and carefully arranges them to decorate his area. He chooses flowers, pebbles, moss, berries, and manmade objects, particularly if they are shiny. The drab female then comes and inspects the bower to see if he is a good enough architect and decorator to be her mate.” This quilt was in the Tactile Architecture exhibit.
Also exhibited in the Tactile Architecture exhibit was Ode to Dad by Nora Bebee. She writes, “Doors in New Mexico are not only functional, but pieces of art. Their structure and elaborate designs fascinated me. My father was a building contractor and I spent many hours following him on job sites, looking over blueprints, emulating his work in whatever form I could. It only made sense to me to quilt a door.”
Patricia Gould commented that her design inspirations were the Sandhill Cranes wintering in the Rio Grande Valley and the beautiful Sandia Mountains. She writes, “I’m entranced by the beautiful pink colors of our Sandia Mountains in the winter. The full moon also turns pink at times. Sandia means ‘watermelon’ in Spanish so it is easy to see how the mountain range got its name. Sandhill Cranes from Nebraska spend the winter in the Rio Grande Valley in New Mexico.”
Jennifer Day is a well known photographer as well as a quiltmaker. In Los Mambesis, she writes, “This quilt is based on a photograph I took of an old man on the plaza in Cuba. Las Mambesis refers to the guerilla Cuban independence soldiers who fought against Spain in the Ten Years War (1868-1878). This man would have been in his thirties in 1959 when the United States broke off relations with Cuba. Maybe his hat is a comment on international relations! He is a musician playing his instrument on the plaza for free for all to hear. He is very happy with his craft.”
Another of Judith’s trademark quilts featuring birds, this time the playful raven. She writes, “I love watching ravens flying and wheeling through the big blue New Mexico sky and sitting on telephone poles as I drive along. A friend is a wildlife rehabilitator so I have spent much time with Po, her raven. I have sketched him repeated and taken his portait as he exhibits his particular behaviors. In this quilt, I have shown him in many of his guises, flying, standing, squawking against a background of a southwestern landscape.”
Lorraine writes. “Geology is inspired by the many layers and colors of the New Mexico landscape, from the soaring red rocks to the rivers and meadows and all the layers in between.”
Okay, so this quilt was NOT made by a New Mexico quilter, but it was inspired by a trip to New Mexico, so it deserves to be included in this post. Chaco 1, by Sally Wright was inspired by the makers trip to the iconic Chaco Canyon. Sally writes, “Several years ago, my husband and I visited remote, starkly beautiful and mysterious Chaco Canyon in the Four Corners area of New Mexico. There we were, fascinated by the distinct architecture of this ancient trading and religious center in the middle of the desert where the Chacoan culture flowered between 800-1250 AD. This quilt was made from photographs of a series of doorways in the Pueblo Bonito.”
And in the silent auction to benefit the International Quilt Association, I found this treasure by Betty Busby, of Albuquerque , NM. Sadly, I wasn’t there at the end to see how much this little treasure raised for the group.
Lastly, there was our quilt, hanging in the exhibit, “In the American Tradittion.” Abo Canyon Memories was inspired by my love of the Ganado Red style of Navajo Rugs typical of northern Arizona.
Thank you for joining me on a mini-tour of the quilts on exhibit at International Quilt Festival. It was one spectacular show and I was privileged to be a part of the faculty.
See you there next year!