Since its beginning in 1979, Quilt National has grown and expanded. We have created a series of pages about the history of this show. For each show, there is information with the jurors, the number of entrants, and the awards. For each of the prize winners, there is an artist statement and an illustration. The quality of the illustrations varies.
The coordinator for this show was Sara Gilfert, who was a weaver and who created quilts with hand-made paper. The stanchions had been removed and the trenches filled in. The flies were still present.
Three hundred fifty-five artists submitted 662 works. Jurors Daniel Butts III, Nancy Crow, and Diane Itter selected 78 quilts by 57 artists. The exhibitors represented twenty-one states and one foreign country. There were three awards granted.
Images from QN ’79 and QN ’81 were documented in The New American Quilt, published by Lark Books.
Awards
Best of Show
Pamela Jean Burg
Curtain
30 by 50 inches
Color xerox on acetate with paper, mylar, and plastic thread
Artist’s statement: This work grows from the tradition of woven textiles that are pieced and appliqued to form surfaces. The fabric is constructed of paper and plastic, incorporating both graphic patterns and subtle suggestions of intimate architectural spaces.
Award of Excellence
David Hornung
Pictorial Arrangement
60 by 72 inches
Hand dyed cotton.
Artist’s statement: I dye or over-dye muslin, using a paintbrush to apply the color. I then complete the top with hand applique. I favor this process because of the design freedom it allows.
Most Innovative Use of the Medium
Jean Hewes
The Sitter
54 by 65 inches.
Silk, crepe, wool, taffeta, brocade. Appliqued and machine quilted.
Artist’s statement:I do not start out with any sketch or plan in mind for my quilts. I just begin by throwing different fabrics on the floor, feeling how the colors and textures work together. As I continue working with the fabric, shapes and figures begin to suggest themselves.
Information about Quilt National 1983, including prize winners.
Quilt National ’83
At about the same time that the entries for Quilt National ’83 were arriving at the Dairy Barn, Hilary Fletcher assumed the responsibilities of Project Director. The Dairy Barn now had indoor plumbing and the number of flies had been reduced.
This was the first show to go on tour. Selected works were shown in New York at the American Craft Museum, in Houston at the International Quilt Festival, in Goldendale, Washington, and several other venues.
The entire collection is documented in The Quilt: New Directions for an American Tradition published by Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.
Three hundred fifty artists submitted 746 works. Jurors François Barnes, Virginia Jacobs and Paul Smith selected 79 quilts by 72 artists. The exhibitors represented twenty-six states and two foreign countries. There were five awards granted. First time awards were the Domini McCarthy Memorial Award for Exceptional Craftsman and the People’s Choice Award.
Artist’s statement:I like to play with color gradations, using hand-dyed and commercial fabrics. The surface paint not only creates a random pattern but also helps ease the transition from color to color. I am inspired by landscape views and vistas, fields of anything, all the quilts I’ve ever seen, and looking at my boxes of colored material.
Artist’s statement:The Twelve Days of Christmas is based on the traditional song. The quilt was conceived as a joyful celebration of gift-giving, with the greatest gift of all being the Holy Child.
Most Innovative Use of the Medium, Honorable Mention
Artist’s statement:This quilt shows a braided rug pattern surrounding some rather ambiguous figurations. In appliqueing the fabric pieces I let the threads hang loose to form a kind of network that starts to reveal the sewing process. I have added paint not only to enhance the surface but also to bring my quilting techniques and painting techniques closer together. The intent is to help confuse the issues often raised about “art vs craft.”
Information about Quilt National 1985, including prize winners.
Quilt National ’85
Hilary Fletcher was the Project Director for the entire show.
The whole collection is documented in Quilts: The State of an Art published by Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.
Four hundred and seven artists submitted 904 works. Jurors Lloyd Herman, David Hornung and Terrie Hancock Mangat selected 74 quilts by 65 artists. The exhibitors represented twenty-seven states and six foreign countries. There were five awards granted.
Artist’s statement: Quiltmaking is my favorite way of inventing, discovering and solving problems. My eye is constantly searching for a new way to use an old pattern; for a more expressive color combination; for just the right juxtaposition of patterned fabrics; for an image that speaks. Tedium is interspersed with joy. Ultimate gratification comes when I see the finished quilt.
Artist’s statement:My work in textiles developed from assembling individual elements into large dimensional pieces to using whole pieces of painted cloth, manipulated and tied to create textural fields.
Artist’s statement:There is an area in Southern California where flowers are grown just for their seeds — miles and miles of pure color. This place and my wonder at the way landscapes change and colors blend from above, come together in this quilt.
Artist’s statement:The basic idea for this quilt came to me when I saw a giant sawblade at our local county fair. The blade had a wonderful landscape painted on it. In my sawblade, I used a braided rug pattern instead of a landscape. When I was working on this piece I remember keeping track of how many pins I used (one for each patch), and it was a great number.
Artist’s statement:Begun as a winter jacket (the cyanotype strips were cuffs and facings) this evolved into a four-poster futon quilt — a cross cultural blend of New England bedquilt with the strong diagonals and presence of a Japanese Kimono.
Artist’s statement:My aim in this quilt was to achieve a sense of three-dimensionality on a flat surface. I also wanted a contrast between the strong design element, devoid of color, against a background of color to make the grid appear to float in front. It reminds me of woven steel.
Information about Quilt National 1987, including prize winners.
Quilt National ’87
The whole collection is documented in Fiber Expressions: The Contemporary Quilt published by Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.
Four hundred and thirty artists submitted 915 works. Jurors Gerhardt Knodel, Penny McMorris, and Jan Myers selected 84 quilts by 74 artists. The exhibitors represented twenty-six states and four foreign countries. There were five awards granted.
Artist’s statement:The blue “Vermont” ram in the center of the quilt is the comet scar, a sweatshirt which was burned when a firecracker exploded on me when I was viewing Halley’s Comet. This is part of a series of six quilts documenting my life during the 1985-86 visit of the comet.
Artist’s statement:Revelation is the celebration of the sacred mystery of life. The mandala of Earth, Air, Water and Fire is surrounded by the images which mark the passage of time: rising and setting of the sun, seasons of the year, cycles of the moon. My representational shadow floats within this place and time. The buttons and net are the mystery and spirit which bind the cosmos.
Artist’s statement:Freedom and Liberty: embroidered with single strands of thread, hand appliquéd 20 stitches per inch. Every man, woman and child is a hero, celebrated here, as are our forefathers standing besides us (the black silhouettes). We are surrounded by creatures of the wild quilted into the outer border.
Domini McCarthy Memorial Award, co-recipient
People’s Choice Award
Artist’s statement:I have been making variations of compass designs for seven years. A friend sent me a photocopy of a compass rose watercolor by an anonymous 19th century artist (possibly a sailor) that provided the inspiration for this work. The quilt came alive for me when I decided to use value gradations in the background. This causes the values in the central compass design to change as the points move around the center.
84 inches in diameter.
Machine pieced and quilted cottons and blends, latex balloon armature.
Artist’s statement: This work developed out of my interest in the sculptural possibilities in quilting. The work honors two of the visual cultures I find most colorful and graphically inspiring. I am concerned with the rhythms created by the repetition of colors and patterns. I want the viewer to become spatially involved with my work as he or she moves around it. I also just wanted to make something absolutely outrageous.
Information about Quilt National 1989, including prize winners.
Quilt National ’89
The whole collection is documented in New Quilts: Interpretations and Innovations published by Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.
Five hundred fifty artists submitted 1156 works. Jurors Chris Wolf Edmonds, Bernard Kester and Yvonne Porcella selected 80 quilts by 75 artists. The exhibitors represented twenty-six states and five foreign countries. There were four awards granted.
Artist’s statement:This is one of a series of bed quilts about the bed. When We Were Young is about that time in early marriage when children are infants and all dreams are sweet and full of hope and love.
Artist’s statement:The initial inspiration for this quilt was both sublime and ridiculous – a combination of an Edward Weston photograph and the sweat stains on Joe Crocker’s brocade shirt during a rousing 1987 performance. It evolved into the lovely patterns of PCBs — printed circuit boards. The viewer is encouraged to maintain a thoughtful attitude towards technological innovation.
Artist’s statement:Recently I have been exploring three-dimensional mixed media textile constructions that relate to the graphic imagery of my previous work. While alluding to the quilt format, these wall pieces extend the traditional definition of the quilt. By treating the block as a separate unit, I draw attention to its singular nature without denying its role in the larger image. The quilt’s elements are fragmented, redefined and restored to create a new form and meaning.
Artist’s statement:I enjoy creating a three-dimensional work out of such a flat medium as fabric and I delight in playing with colors and shadows. This work is dedicated to the organization Greenpeace, for struggling to keep the beauty of the earth for our children.
Information about Quilt National 1991, including prize winners.
Quilt National ’91
The whole collection is documented in New Quilt 1 published by Taunton Press.
Five hundred ninety four artists submitted 1178 works. Jurors Tafi Brown, Esther Parkhurst and Rebecca A. T. Stevens selected 73 quilts by 69 artists. The exhibitors represented twenty-six states and four foreign countries. There were three awards granted.
Artist’s statement:This work is part of an ongoing series of works that take as their subject issues concerning domesticity, shelter, security, loss of innocence, betrayal, and patterns of power in relationships between men, women and children.
Artist’s statement:Inspiration for this quilt came from the 1988 Presidential election campaign, moving to a house with a flagpole and to a state with a wonderful flag, 4,000 tiny squares remaining from a previous project, and the use of our flag in American folk art.
Artist’s statement:The idea for this quilt came from a suggestion from my husband to do a piece with round poles that turn and interlock. Many months later, this is what happened. I tried to create the feeling that the viewer could climb around inside this structure with its different levels.
Information about Quilt National 1993, including the prize winners.
Quilt National ’93
The whole collection is documented in New Quilt 2 published by Taunton Press.
Five hundred sixty artists submitted 1101 works. Jurors Elizabeth Busch, Michael Monroe, and Judi Warren selected 82 quilts by 82 artists. The exhibitors represented twenty-three states and eight foreign countries. There were four awards granted.
Artist’s statement:This work is a departure from the emphasis on color that has been a distinguishing feature of my quilts for the past 15 years. As I become more involved with tie-dying my fabrics, pattern has become more of a design consideration. The shibori panels are monumental and subtle at the same time, much as the same as the forest of trees. The lack of color conveys a certain quietude that interests me.
Artist’s statement:Comforter or discomforter? My work combines photography with traditional women’s art forms and aims to create lush, seductive images out of the industrial landscape. My quilts contrast the conventional associations of stitched cloth — beauty, security and domesticity — with unlikely, provocative content and treat ugliness as though it were beautiful.
Most Innovative Use of the Medium sponsored by Friends of Fiber Art International
Artist’s statement:My political imagery addresses issues of nuclear war, terrorism and government corruption. Using drawing and collage to create my imagery allows me to develop a contemporary artistic statement with high tech photo-imaging materials. Figures begin to suggest themselves. Working in this manner creates color, texture and form not possible with traditional materials. My quilts are meant to be both beautiful and informative.
Artist’s statement:My “Neon Maze” series of quilts are textile constructions in which a line or several lines make a long and convoluted circuit or journey through the quilt. Originally a visual description of the complexity and confusion that I perceive in my life, these mazes have evolved into complex patterns that are determined by fairly random rules and parameters.
Artist’s statement:I begin with white fabric because I see its possibilities. I dye, print and paint my own images and feel free to use any technique that contributes to my work. I do not reject a technique simply because it is laborious. I base my work on geological time rather than TV time. Here the flowers and insects bring perpetual summer indoors; the cool of the forest, the whine of the insects, and nasty things waiting in the grass.
Information about Quilt National 1995, including the prize winners.
Quilt National ’95
The whole collection is documented in Quilt National: Contemporary Designs in Fabric published by Lark Books.
Six hundred thirteen artists submitted 1,232 works. Jurors Ann Batchelder, Libby Lehman, and Linda MacDonald selected 80 quilts by 84 artists. The exhibitors represented twenty-three states and seven foreign countries. There were six awards granted.
Artist’s statement:Each side of this quilt is always seen through the veil of the image on the other side. The veiling effect is relative and can reveal or conceal, depending on the light. An expressway image from a Chicago map runs through the back view self-portrait to suggest an interior mapping of place, time and female identity. The shorthand encryption reads: “Women veil their egos the way men mask their emotions.”
Artist’s statement:Every body of water I’ve seen in recent years has unmistakable signs of human presence — trivial garbage like candy wrappers or foam cups. In this work the time is dusk, and it’s a little spooky. I don’t know if the water is pure or polluted…it is very clear but dark. The people have gone home, leaving, as always, something behind.
Most Innovative Use of the Medium sponsored by
Friends of Fiber Art International
Artist’s statement:The indomitably of the human spirit may be the most magnificent gift God has given us. Despite hardships endured by body and soul, we all have the capacity to rise above difficult circumstances and to become more powerful in spirit.
Artist’s statement:I have been working on a series of quilts using windows as a theme — both in the literal and in the metaphorical sense. The literal choice of the windows motif is probably because I come from a northern country, needing light, and seeing ruined abbeys with open sky windows. Metaphorically, windows reflect my interest in self-growth and understanding.
Artist’s statement:I have been enamored with surfaces in most of my work — color overlaying color; peeling surfaces, edges that define and contrast. Now the final marks are getting larger, more dramatic in, perhaps, a gesture to come closer and take in all the quiet detail.
Artist’s statement: This quilt emerged as I thought about the traditional quilt versus the art quilt. Even though this quilt is based more on a painting concept, I wanted to express something about the beauty of the traditional quilt and the idea of sewing squares together.
Artist’s statement: While the fabric choices in the quilt may seem to reflect the tension and complexity of my urban life, its inspiration is actually the traditional orange peel quilt and an orange Indian wedding ring quilt from the Pilgrim/Roy collection. While I’ve come to associate this piece with fire and gospel music (which, like quiltmaking, have changed little in 100 years), I think its appeal lies in the simple juxtaposition of two opposing colors.
Information about Quilt National 1997, including the prize winners.
Quilt National ’97
The whole collection is documented in Contemporary Quilts published by Lark Books.
Five hundred ninety five artists submitted 1,254 works. Jurors Nancy Halpern, Jason Pollen, and Joan Schulze selected 80 quilts by 82 artists. The exhibitors represented twenty-six states and eight foreign countries. There were 8 awards granted.
Artist’s statement:My assemblages are about old decaying materials — old wooden piers, buildings and stuff found therein. Traditionally I turn to landscapes for design. My thoughts and elements are abstract. The imagery I use in my quilts is from my own photography. I want the image to lose its identity and become a part of the whole.
Artist’s statement:Time and nurturing are carried through rings of wisdom. These rings are displayed in their natural form through geometric cuts. The patterns allow the viewer to visualize the existence and environmental history of this tree and how it has sheltered and nurtured earth.
Most Innovative Use of the Medium sponsored by Friends of Fiber Art International
Artist’s statement:The inspiration for my work is landscape and man’s mark on it. I am very aware of earlier cultures and times and how man has left behind evidence of his presence. Disclose, lay open, reveal, discover and uncover are key words and have influenced my textile techniques. I stitch and manipulate cloth, which I use for its tactile quality, its substance and its intimacy.
Artist’s statement:My quilts mark the path of a spiritual journey. The images come from dreams, and are influenced by research into their symbolic message. The fish, which is often in my dreams, is thought to act as a guide to the unconscious because it never closes its eyes. As such, it inspired a series of pieces that acknowledged and honored a part of my nature that is wild, mysterious and filled with potential.
Artist’s statement:This is the third quilt in a series inspired by river rocks. I have canoed the Brule River in northern Wisconsin since I was a young girl, and love the look of the river rocks through clear water. After dyeing a wide range of neutral fabrics, I felt compelled to create quilts incorporating the wonderful colors of nature and the fascinating shapes of the river rocks.
Artist’s statement:I did not drink tea at all when I first met my husband, but I finally yielded to his frequent offering to have a cup. Over the years, tea has been a great source of enjoyment. Through both its delicious flavors and its ritualistic preparation, the experience of tea is a comfort. Whether faced with exhaustion, tension, confusion, anxiety, or cold, tea will make it better.
Artist’s statement:I was inspired to make Heaven’s Gate after viewing a television program about people’s near-death experiences. I was amazed by how similar the stories were. All described themselves floating down a corridor with colorful squares of light and the glowing outline of a figure reaching out to them. All of the people reported that the experience was very peaceful and that they no longer feared death. After the show, I also felt more peaceful about death and what happens after . . . it truly is only “another horizon.”
Information about Quilt National 1999, including the prize winners.
Quilt National ’99
The whole collection is documented in The Best in Contemporary Quilts published by Lark Books.
Six hundred and thirty-seven artists submitted 1,321 works. Jurors Nancy Crow, Caryl Bryer Fallert, and Bruce Pepich selected 84 quilts by 86 artists. The exhibitors represented 27 states and 13 foreign countries. There were 8 awards granted.
Artist’s statement:This quilt is the latest in the Interweave Series started in January 1983. Every time I finish one I think it is the last of that series, but then yet another beckons me. I have been interested in structure and illusions of depth all my life. My father was interested in bridges, and Pittsburgh (where I grew up) is a city of bridges. He often pointed out the differences in their structures to me. I have no real depth perception because my eyes don’t achieve fusion (one is near-sighted and the other is far-sighted.) Most of the fabrics were hand dyed by me. All of the pieces are individually airbrushed by me. The quilt was named by my friend Nancy Halpern.
Artist’s statement:Overlay 4 contrasts the rigidity of the grid and the controlled value gradation of the background with the playful unpredictability of irregular strip piecing.
Most Innovative Use of the Medium sponsored by Friends of Fiber Art International
Artist’s statement:My goal in playing around with fabric is to tell a story. This quilt is a walk in the garden on a sunny day. You see the colors of the flowers, shadows, trees, and the colors of the stones. The stones are old and can also tell us stories.
Rookie Award Sponsored by Studio Art Quilt Associates
Artist’s statement:I grew up in California and have spent countless hours exploring the beauty of its mountains and deserts. In this quilt I have tried to beautify an unnatural landscape through a play of color and texture on silk. The landscape is I-5, a major transportation artery, crossing from the California Aqueduct, the man-made river that moves water from north to south and irrigates farm fields in what once was a desert. This is the second mining of California and hence the name of the quilt.
Artist’s statement: After doing a number of River Rocks quilts, I did a few quilts of foliage and grasses. This quilt is an integration of the two, and is reminiscent of the northern Wisconsin lake country that is very important to me.
Artist’s statement: We have a dense garden in our small city yard. Every year we grow several varieties of angels’ trumpets, also called jimsonweed or thorn apple. This plant is poisonous, yet incredibly dramatic. It has huge, white, sweet-smelling trumpet blossoms, dusty gray-green leaves, and wonderfully evil looking prickly seed balls the size of Christmas ornaments. I absolutely love them so it was an obvious subject for a quilt.
Artist’s statement:It is not that encouraging to be voted Most Talented in a high school that didn’t offer a single art class, but at age 17 the gap between fantasy and reality does seem that wide. There’s a lot of room to dream, and sometimes the dreams do come true. This quilt was created in a reflective mood. I haven’t been in touch with anyone from the PineCrest class of ’63 for many years, but I enjoyed rereading their yearbook quips and notes while stitching the portraits and hope that they have shared my good fortune.
Artist’s statement:In an effort to unify form with content, the representation of two underwater swimmers in a pool is partially obscured — but also revealed — by my reverse appliqué method. This accomplishes an abstracted, broken-up image somewhat like the refraction of light that occurs in water. I use an iridescent silk which is reflective, like water. The surface texture is a broken-up wave pattern such as you might see in a pool. A slight use of perspective is accomplished by a subtle foreshortening of the torsos and elongation of the arms. Light/shadow and figure/ground relationships are also used to create the illusion of depth.
Information about Quilt National 2001, including the prize winners.
Quilt National ’01
The whole collection is documented in The Best Contemporary Quilts: Quilt National 2001 published by Lark Books.
Six hundred and seventy artists submitted 1,411 works. Jurors Jane A. Sassaman, Melissa Leventon and Arturo Alonzo Sandoval selected 88 quilts by 92 artists. The exhibitors represented 23 states and 9 foreign countries. There were 7 awards granted.
Artist’s statement: It is late autumn at dusk. Here and there an individual leaf captures the day’s final slanting light and is briefly illuminated. The burnished gold is contrasted by the deep purple of the shadows. The oriental influence in my work is apparent–the three hanging panels are meant to suggest a kimono.
Artist’s statement: Two sets of strip-pieced fabrics that are different in character are brought together in this piece. The high contrast allows the frenzied strips to float above a calm sea of blue-green solids.
Most Innovative Use of the Medium sponsored by Friends of Fiber Art International
Artist’s statement:I have created a series of fiber-fragment quilts by working in a fairly random and spontaneous manner. I’m constantly reminded of the simple beauty of found objects, recycled materials, and castoffs. From my background in abstract painting, I recently remembered how much I enjoy Jackson Pollock’s work. Now I feel as though I’m truly painting with fabric and thread.
Cathy Rasmussen Emerging Artist Award Sponsored by Studio Art Quilt Associates
Artist’s statement:The impetus for this quilt was my husband’s decision to discard a number of silk ties after he had cleaned out his closet. These ties with their rich colors, wonderful textures, and intricate designs just begged to be used. This quilt flows from a single square into a design-as-you-go quilt that plays with color, texture, value, and shape.
Artist’s statement: This is the third in a series of quilts inspired by a 1996 trip to Russia. Much residue, both physical and figurative, remains after the fall of communism. A quote from David K. Shipler’s book Russia: Broken Idols, Solemn Dreams plays out across ripped wall posters on the crumbling faces, contrasting the party line of a social realist cityscape with the rich interior lives of its inhabitants.
Artist’s statement: I’m working on a series of quilts and drawings concerning what happens to trees–to northern California, it is quite an issue because they are disappearing. Do they dance away, fly, burn up, travel to Europe, or what? These trees have gone up through the funnel in a rare California tornado.
Artist’s statement: For the past eight years, I have been creating quilts by ‘forming relationships’ among patterned fabrics. In most cases, these relationships are the indistinct patterns created by arashi shibori. Often the piece begins with a fabric that has a particularly demanding ‘voice’ that I try to add to as I orchestrate the interplay. The story of Icarus is spiritual and universal–it is about the value of striving upward, even if it is for the ultimately unattainable.
Artist’s statement:I was spurred to undertake an immersion in red through a friend’s commission for a quilt. This quilt is about color, repetition, contrast, and playing my intuition against the basic geometric structure of a good old traditional quilt design. Even though it is nonobjective and abstract, it is full of personal history, symbolism, and emotional experience.
Information about Quilt National 2003, including the prize winners.
Quilt National ’03
The whole collection is documented in Quilt National ’03: The Best of Contemporary Quilts published by Lark Books.
Six hundred and seventy-six artists submitted 1,452 works. Jurors Liz Axford, Wendy Huhn and Robert Shaw selected 84 quilts by 86 artists. The exhibitors represented 26 states and 10 foreign countries. There were 7 awards granted.
Artist’s statement: In the mid 1990s I worked on quilted pieces that showed bears in caverns or in rooms formerly occupied by humans and covered with cave drawings of early animals. The bears wander through these environments, teaching their cubs about history. In this new series, Felis…, the ancient history is imprinted on the cougars; the cougars are freed of caves and rooms, and they move freely on the wall.
Artist’s statement: A 1949 photograph taken by my father when I was five months old and an essay by Freud on the mystery of infantile amnesia were the triggers for this quilt. The child’s neurological immaturity would seem to prevent the “reading” of visual patterns, such as the genteel floral wallpaper of that first room, but can we be sure? While I don’t have any memories of that first bedroom, I am fascinated by pattern of all kinds, and believe that fascination has deeply embedded roots.
Cathy Rasmussen Emerging Artist Memorial Award Sponsored by Studio Art Quilt Associates
Artist’s statement:Skeletons typically signify death, but for me they represent the essence of humanity. The visual elements in this quilt evolved from my fear and rage about violent events in my personal history and in American culture. While working on this quilt, I explored ideas about fate and precognition, using text from a Ouija board to evoke the indiscriminate nature of violence. This quilt is a warning, an amulet, and a private memorial.
Artist’s statement: This quilt brings the viewer to the memory of a favorite time and place, easily moving them into a dream of visiting warm, carefree, tropical days that are waiting just beyond the horizon. Letting your mind bring you to a sense of serenity can feel so good.
Artist’s statement: Abundance. I cannot keep what I don’t give away. Annie Dillard in The Writing Life says it all: “These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water. . . Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.”
Artist’s statement:My current work is created in response to the coastline where I live: the rhythms, patterns, and textures and its emptiness and limited color schemes all excite me. The inspiration for this particular quilt was the graywacke stones that blanket our city beach combined with the formality of the beachfront gardens.
Artist’s statement:This piece is part of a recent series of work that deals with landscapes. I am totally absorbed and fascinated by the beauty of nature’s colors. The inspiration for this work was a series of beautiful trees with changing colors along a sidewalk in Tokyo.
Information about Quilt National 2005, including the prize winners.
Quilt National ’05
The whole collection is documented in Quilt National ’05: The Best of Contemporary Quilts published by Lark Books.
599 artists submitted 1227 works. Jurors Mark Leach, Joan Lintault and Miriam Nathan-Roberts, selected 80 quilts by 80 artists. The exhibitors represented 26 states and 7 foreign countries. There were 7 awards granted.
Artist’s statement:I combined the grids of three construction fences when I printed the fabric for Orange Construction Fence Series #29. I wanted to show the difference in grid patterns and how we can see the sky and grass through the holes. After this piece was quilted, I painted the blues of the sky and the greens of the grass on the back so they would bleed through the front to create a softer look.
Artist’s statement:This neglected garden has been invaded by wild and undisciplined brambles. But, there is still evidence of the formal and cultivated blossoms beneath—optimism in spite of adversity.
Most Innovative Use of the Medium sponsored by Friends of Fiber Art International
Artist’s statement:This work is part of an ongoing series, exploring the complex surfaces of aging walls, using photographic imagery on fabric. The different patterns and textures that occur in the wall as a result of construction, deterioration, and reconstruction set up interesting visual relationships and contrasts when reproduced in softer materials.
Cathy Rasmussen Emerging Artist Memorial Award sponsored by Studio Art Quilt Associates
Artist’s statement:This work is actually pieced cloth that is usually cut out and used to create a garment. This time, however, I left it whole but made reference to the garment with the stitch lines.
Artist’s statement:I combined the grids of three construction fences when I printed the fabric for Orange Construction Fence Series #29. I wanted to show the difference in grid patterns and how we can see the sky and grass through the holes. After this piece was quilted, I painted the blues of the sky and the greens of the grass on the back so they would bleed through the front to create a softer look.
The whole collection is documented in Quilt National ’07: The Best of Contemporary Quilts published by Lark Books.
Kathleen Dawson became Project Director in 2006.
545 artists submitted 1151 works. Jurors Paula Nadelstern, Tim Harding and Robin Treen, selected 83 quilts by 84 artists. The exhibitors represented 28 states and 9 foreign countries. 45 works are by former exhibitors and 38 are by first-time Quilt National exhibitors. There were 13 awards granted.
Artist’s statement: This piece is part of a recent series of work that deals with landscapes. While walking in the woods, I have discovered a place chased by the light where pretty pink flowers are blooming. I felt nature kept some of her hidden secret. I am totally absorbed and fascinated by the beauty of nature.
Artist’s statement:There are times when sound and images envelop me; swelling, receding, growing, and diminishing. This work communicates that embrace, through the colorations, shirring, stitching, and dimensional construction, I am coaxing the viewers to share this space and feel their inner music.
Most Innovative Use of the Medium sponsored by Friends of Fiber Art International
Artist’s statement: My work addresses aspects of the intersection between technology and art. By using the labor-intensive quilt medium, nostalgic materials, and the robot persona, the pieces have layers of meaning about time, personal and political conflict, and memory. The robot represents scientific and technological improvement resulting in change to the status quo. The Robo Sapien Agents series constitute a pantheon of characters questioning the direction of events pertinent to our environment and body politic.
Artist’s statement: My quilts are most typically images of Irish megalithic stones and landscapes — dolmens, cairens, stone circles, standing stones, ancient stone forts, old stone churches, and the like. I love the mystery of the stones — their textures and weathered age — and all the associated questions of why they were built and what stories they were meant to tell. I find these landscapes to be the most spiritual places I have ever been.
Artist’s statement:My work as an engineer has prepared me for printmaking and fiber art in a unique way. My art begins with natural 100% silk or fine cotton, inks, dyes, paints, advanced intaglio and lithographic printmaking plates and processes. All of my materials are original and created specifically for expressing a feeling, time, or place within the context of my imagery and Buddhist philosophical beliefs. Maintaining simplicity in color choices and design creates a multi-layered surface that allows the viewer to see, and to feel, the beauty of a quiet, peaceful moment of discovery.
Artist’s statement: The Mindscape series represents the fascinating progression of ideas and how they draw us in, until we’re lost in the depths of our minds. The rhythm and flow of daydreams spring forth unexpectedly..how many are forgotten if not immediately captured? How do we hold on to all these inspirations of an active mind? Only a few are remembered..are they the ones that make the strongest impressions or only the most familiar or just a recurring theme?
Artist’s statement:Are We Safer Now? Is my response to the ongoing war in Iraq and its effect on terrorism. On monoprinted black fabric, I discharge printed text and then overprinted in black, names of the dead. Bright red shapes, again with both type and script, portray the bloody images without being literally graphic. Red splatters of dye, and hand stitching representing razor wire, complete the shredded, bloodied and bullet-ridden imagery conveying the horrors of war.
Artist’s statement:That suit, that hair, that mole; you immediately recognize Chairman Mao. But who–or what–are those pouty women, with their Western features, retro hairdos, and dead-eyed stares? They’re store mannequins, manufactured in China for the Chinese market, never appearing solo, but always arrayed in chorus lines. Perhaps the discordantly comical images have a darker point–if you have that system of government, you get this kind of dehumanized citizen.
Artist’s statement: This art quilt is part of a series based on photographs of moving water. The series explores the concept of reflection and how to capture the essence of images that are not physically there, images made of light and movement, images that are infinitely variable. What does the eye see? And lastly, reflection is what I do throughout my work process, as well as what I hope the viewers do as they look at the completed work.
Artist’s statement:The fabrics and quilts I produce often allude to domesticity and domestic life. Using my eyes as the only measure, I am careful to show marks made by hand. I am not concerned with literal narratives; therefore, many “stories” can be layered, one on top of another. I am interested in magnifying everday life, using fabric, color, and pattern as a metaphor for the structure of our culture, our lives, and our bodies.
List of all the prize winners and information about Quilt National 2009
Quilt National ’09
The whole collection is documented in The Best Contemporary Quilts: Quilt National 2009 published by Lark Books.
498 artists submitted 1026 works. Jurors Sue Benner, Katie Pasquini Masopust, and Ned Wert selected 85 quilts by 87 artists. The exhibitors represented 25 states and 13 foreign countries. In this exhibition 51 percent of the exhibitors are first time Quilt National artists. There were13 awards granted.
Artist’s Statement:The old Welsh hymn “Calon Lân” sings of a pure heart. This quilt is a celebration of contented times, everyday blessings, and simple gifts.
Artist’s Statement:I thrill in imaging and illustrating stories that have yet to be written. I hope you will bring your own tales to my drawings among the stitches.
Artist’s Statement:I have always been intrigued with aerial views–the scars we humans make on our planet and on things around us. I have vivid memories as a little girl of cows being branded–scarred for life. Humans, for greed and self gratification, will ride roughshod over everything, not worrying about the end result or the marks they make and leave. Be gentle on this place!
Artist’s Statement:This work explores surfaces and what lies beneath the surface. What was once there–now gone–that makes the surface what it is today? I’m especially drawn to old stucco buildings–with partially eroded surfaces that suggest the passage of time. I’m drawn to openings–in vessels and the bark of a birch, black holes in the universe, and the rabbit hole that beckoned Alice.
Artist’s Statement:As a quilter, I strive to allow the unknown in. I believe that there are many silent, invisible messages available to us at every moment in life. They can wrap us in anxiety, love, confusion, or hope. I work in a stream-of-consciousness manner–manipulating, reorganizing, and layering the fabric and thread in a way that mimics my thoughts. My quilts are a way of showing the invisible connections that we become aware of only upon reflection.
Cathy Rasmussen Emerging Artist Memorial Award sponsored by Studio Art Quilt Associates
Artist’s Statement:This piece is about falling for various societal myths regarding Power, Fame, Beauty, Luck, and Money–the things we wish for. Notice the tiny images from Mexican lottery cards, women celebrities from the entertainment section, and fruit from seed catalogs. I could get all “feministy” on you and talk about the pressures to undermine women psychologically and politically but, suffice it to say, swallowing roses involves lots of physical and emotional training.
Artist’s Statement:I try to use the medium in innovative ways. My main source of inspiration is the natural world. I think that I have succeeded in combing all these elements–photography, design, paints–in my present work. I hope the viewer will take pleasure in it.
Artist’s Statement:Finding a plastic, flowered, white wreath at a memorial site for a young person who had drowned made me think about the use of the wreath icon as a memorial for those who had died. Just beyond this memorial was another that had a similar wreath molded into the headstone dated 1867. More than 140 years earlier, the wreath image was used to denote the passing of another spirit in the same spot.
Artist’s Statement:This piece is a continuation of my “Windows” series. Frames, mullions, and transoms create a diversity of interesting forms and become a launching point for endless explorations. Windows are also a metaphor–reality viewed through a window, self-reflected in the window, the truth distorted, intentionally or not. The negative shapes also speak–the unseen, the unspoken, the undone. Family Union embodies all of this and more!
Artist’s Statement:Silence is made up of many layers of fabric with separate but related compositions on each piece. After I hand stitch the layers together, I begin to cut into them. As I work toward revealing different parts of the layers, I discover that they are a lot like my own layers. It is difficult to cut into some parts, so I leave them be. I guess they are not yet ready to be revealed.
Artist’s Statement:Blue Bamboo is my transitional series, using my usual x’s and o’s in a more literal matter to create my imagery. Living in the DC metro area, I am fascinated by the bamboo that grows wild. Included in my imaginary garden, this prolific plant requires no maintenance to keep it under control and adds a sense of order to nature’s chaotic growth.
Artist’s Statement:This piece is one in a series about my impressions of New York, where so much visual information assaults the eye. The challenge lay in organizing all of it while keeping alive the excitement, the color, the motion.
Artist’s Statement:Once in a while, it is good to make something of the leftovers. This quilt continues a series focusing on spontaneous design, small scale piecing, and the stories that emerge from abstract compositions of color and shape.
494 artists submitted 1038 works. Jurors Nelda Warkentin, Pauline Verbeek-Cowart, and Eleanor McCain selected 85 quilts by 85 artists. The exhibitors represented 20 states and 6 foreign countries. In this exhibition 48 percent of the exhibitors are first time Quilt National artists. There were 14 awards granted. In addition, the People’s Choice award was chosen by the visitors to the show.
Artist’s Statement:I find inspiration in the landscape of the many places where I have traveled and lives. Each location has its own unique character, colors, and mood.
Artist’s Statement:I have returned to my painting roots, working with acrylics while listening to music. These paintings are then translated into quilts that feature the original artwork as a centerpiece. The flow of my brushwork and the colors and patterns of my fabrics are the notes floating in the air.
Artist’s Statement:The Structures series, which investigates the boundaries we use to divide our world, originated as an exploration of human-made structures for containment, such as fences and stone walls. Lines of posts, negative space created between odd shaped stones, and uniform rows of bricks are all of interest.As the series matures, focus has shifted to the psychological barriers humans use to protect themselves emotionally, exploring how we hide our true thoughts and feelings with these imagined roadblocks.
Artist’s Statement:Greek speaks to my fascination with communication struggles in relationships. Our individual and shared experiences and influences affect how we understand and convey meaning. I am interested in exploring how constant change in our lives influences how we emotionally process emphasis, content, and context. I am intrigued with the process of creating, deconstructing, and then redefining a new composition from the parts of the whole to communicate the depth of our complex and evolving relationships.
Artist’s Statement:Life ebbs and flows, much like a river. We’re ever changing, yet, once a path is chosen, we tend to stay within the comfort of our boundaries. Bits of the environment rub off on us and enrich our journeys. And once in a great while we might escape our imaginary banks and forge a new path. Those times can make all the difference.
Artist’s Statement:My art is a meditation on nature. From garden, wetlands, and woods, I gather the raw materials I use in creating my soft paintings. These imaginary botanicals and abstract landscapes are created by painting and printing in successive layers on un-stretched cotton canvas or silk. Marks made by hand, brush, and stitch interweave with natural forms from the earth to communicate time, memory, emotion, and my philosophy of coexistence in harmony with nature. My goal is to create an evocative artwork that nourishes mind, eye, and spirit in equal measure.
Cathy Rasmussen Emerging Artist Memorial Award sponsored by Studio Art Quilt Associates
Artist’s Statement:Circles No. 4 explores the tension I have felt during the last two years of economic turmoil in our country. While my compositions may appear to be a random assortment of circles and lines, they are all placed quite deliberately. The technique I use involves cutting over and over into a “finished” top–my version of Russian roulette, since one false cut can, and has, ruined months of work.
55 by 35
Cotton, silk, velvet, unidentified fabric; raw edge revere appliquéd
Artist’s Statement:Since the 70s, I have been stitching, weaving, painting, and exploring a wide variety of media. In 2003, I started layering fabric in a grid-like fashion. I visualize the quilt composition, its colors and forms in my head and then as I move through the process, I improvise the details.
Artist’s Statement:I have expanded my image of the transformation of the social condition and environment with color, light, and shadow. The joy of machine quilting also took part in creating a scene of the mysterious and eternal cosmos. I am concerned about the destruction of the natural environment due to global warming.
Quilt Surface Design Symposium
Award of Excellence
Artist’s Statement:After many years of learning how to be a mother of children, I have yet to figure out how to be a mother to my adult children. This quilt is part of a series that explores my children in their adulthood.
Artist’s Statement: This tiny plant is a marvel in adaptability and survival. We may complain about the pesky dandelions taking over our grassy lawns, but who can resist the temptation to make a wish and blow their fuzzy seeds into the air…knowing that they’ll thrive wherever they land?
Artist’s Statement:As a fiber artist, I work with enthusiasm and patience, drawing from experiences and things imagined. Inspiration comes from within and from the observation of color, light, line, form, texture, and pattern on faces, figures, ordinary things, and nature. This quilt depicts “my imagined space” with chairs, dresser, fancy mirror, iron and ironing board, a window with curtains, a figure, and a table with a bouquet of flowers; it’s full of color and abstract shapes.
Artist’s Statement:Fugitive Pieces II is a whole cloth quilt. It is itajime shibori, which for me involved layering patterns by repeatedly adding and subtracting colors, leaving hints and marks of what was there before. This method of dying allows me to juxtapose soft and hard edges, revealing an unexpected dance of solid and diffuse contours. Through machine quilting I accentuate color nuances, playing cloth and thread against one another. Overall, I aim for subtle narrative spaces.
Artist’s Statement:In my Quilt Drawing series I honor my love of drawing. Lines reminiscent of landscape are quilted and embroidered with open white spaces. The rich visual language of these lines and markings is influenced and restrained by the power of simplicity. Hand quilting is of great importance in my work because it is equivalent to the act of drawing. The quilting is a loose, spontaneous act. My hand responds to the cloth, creating a loose rhythm of shadow line that is simple, clear, and meditative.
There were 851 quilts submitted by 458 artists from 44 states, 17 countries and five Canadian Provinces. Jurors Linda Colsh, Penny McMorris, and Judith Content selected 85 quilts by 85 artists. The exhibitors represented 27 states and 7 foreign countries. In this exhibition 20 percent of the exhibitors are first time Quilt National artists. There were 13 awards granted. In addition, the People’s Choice award was chosen by the visitors to the show.
Artist’s statement:In the series Fugitive Pieces, I am inspired by the Canadian poet, Anne Michaels novel of the same name. I seek the visual equivalent of her beautifully crafted sentences, her quietly unfolding imagery, and both subtle and haunting stories. I believe her range of feelings and moods can find its equivalent in the softness and depth of cloth, and its tactile and luminous qualities..
Artist’s statement:Florence Nightingale used her data to show the correlation between the cleanliness of the hospitals and the mortality rate, creating a chart, often called rose chart. In laying out her image with her rose chart, red rose, and red cross. I wished to honor her accomplishments. By synthesizing the Fibonacci Spiral, I wanted to illustrate circles and squares, math and art, beautiful mind and good deeds.
Artist’s statement:Letter to Myself-Page 4 is a reflection on the transient nature of life. With the passage of time there is a transience depicted with traces, recollections, faded memory and layers. I consider my work as an ongoing process of searching for meaning and deciphering the metaphors.
Artist’s statement:Storms are driven by the conflicting movements of warm and cool air, something that we can feel but cannot see. What we do see are the things that are picked up by the storm, such as raindrops or dust or cinders. In this quilt I have tried to capture the swirling fluid character of that movement as the air seeks equilibrium.
Cathy Rasmussen Emerging Artist Memorial Award sponsored by Studio Art Quilt Associates
Artist’s Statement:Creating visual art in any form often results in something attractive or beautiful to enjoy. To use art as a political statement without falling into illustration is in my experience, more challenging.In this Kimono form, Truth or Consequences, the medium is truly the message; barricade tape to create the “fabric” amplifies the warnings of irreversible environmental damage we humans in our folly and greed, continue to inflict on our planet.
Artist’s statement:My work is primarily image driven with the intent to tell a story, trigger a memory, or elicit an emotion. The exquisite photographs of Lewis W. Hine (courtesy Library of Congress), taken in the early 1900s, have inspired me to create a series of pieces, including this quilt. I hope this work deeply touches the viewer, reminds them of someone or something they may have forgotten, or compels them to linger, just a moment longer.
Artist’s Statement:This quilt was created from a series of photographs taken at Yellowstone’s geyser basins. The distorted reflections, ripples, patterns of light and floating elements create a mesmerizing world.The repetition of stitched lines, the patterning of grids and block arrangements, the resulting bas-relief effects of stitched, layered, quilted silk cloth allow me to tell a multi-layered story of my impressions of the experience of gazing into that world.
Quilt Surface Design Symposium Award of Excellence
Artist’s Statement:This came from a photo of my dad and his sister having a conversation on the sidewalk in the late thirties. Since they are on two panels they can be switched to positions of agreement and disagreement.
Artist’s Statement:Shifting between binary opposites and the counterbalancing that ensues interests me. Visual elements up close which are flat, transform into images that from afar become spatial. The textual characters on this work also follow this avenue; as single characters in the form of virtual keys, into words, into a series of words so that slowly a mental image is built. This, combining the past with the present, is the basis of this work.
Artist’s Statement:In the past few years I have been exploring the marriage of digital arts with textiles. It is important to me to significantly alter the digitally printed fabric with stitching to bring out the depth in the piece. I try to pick an image that would be much more alive as a quilt than if it were printed on paper or canvas. Salt & Pepper came from a photograph I took in a restaurant in Seattle, Washington. The image, which I heavily manipulated in Photoshop, depicts the universal table “set-up” in cafes everywhere. Drawing on the quilt with the machine-quilting line gave me immense pleasure as I brought a dimensionality to the quilt.
The whole collection is documented in Quilt National 2015: The Best of Contemporary Quilts, published by The Dairy Barn Arts Center. There were 689 quilts submitted by 378 artists from 44 states and 19 countries including 3 Canadian provinces. Jurors Rosalie Dace, Ann Johnston and Judy Schwender selected 84 quilts by 84 artists. The exhibitors represented 33 states and 8 foreign countries. In this exhibition 30 percent of the exhibitors are first time Quilt National artists. There were 14 awards granted. In addition, the People’s Choice award will be chosen by the visitors to the show.
Artist’s Statement:“Action and reaction. My artistic process is often an interesting combination of the two. After finishing a series of pieces working with bright colors I felt drawn to work in a severely limited palette. I narrowed the value range. My work is primarily concerned with the formal considerations of composition. The quilted line and the thicker couched line, both an integral part of my current efforts, grow out of the underlying structure. The title appeared.”
Artist’s Statement:I majored in ceramics and spent almost 20 years operating my own business. I am revisiting the classical pottery forms of the past, this time in fiber, using the medium to push the traditional shapes in new directions. The title refers to the traditional Chinese ginger jar shape that inspired this work.
Artist’s Statement:“Red suns at night is a fisherman’s delight” refers to sunlight shining thru a high concentration of dust particles. This indicates high pressure approaching and bringing good weather. As the wife of an avid salt water fisherman, we always wished for good weather and good fishing.
Artist’s Statement:In 1972, Edward Lorenz asked: does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas? Chaos theory describes systems that are predictable for a while and then appear to become random. The flapping butterfly wing represents a very small change in a pattern of behaviour initially…however this can cause a chain of events leading to large-scale phenomena. Had the butterfly not flapped its wing at that time, the systematic pattern might have been very different.
For those of us who work improvisationally, when a meaningful prediction cannot be made…is the pattern random?
Artist’s Statement:I have taken another leap further into minimalism.
Clean design and simplicity are my beacons, which is why I’m utterly drawn to midcentury modern furniture and architecture. This attraction is a clue to the path I’m on. In Blue Veil, large expanses of space have claimed a voice of their own with simple quilt lines scaffolding bold composition.
Artist’s Statement:My work is about our complex society, many disparate pieces held together by fragile bonds. We may think things are under control, but order naturally yields to disorder, solidarity becomes fractured, things start to fray around the edges.
Artist’s Statement:This quilt illustrates the Chinese government’s September 2012 Filial Piety Act, wherein children are now legally required to care for their aging parents. Before the Communist Revolution, elders were revered as national treasures; afterward, many were abused and neglected. China’s history since the 1949 Communist Revolution is filled with attempts at social engineering. Their 1980 One-Child policy appears to have reaped unintended consequences for China’s capital market reforms, thus making this ironic law necessary.
Artist’s Statement:Rocky Trail is part of my Journeys series. A journey can be real or imaginary, the distance, any length. Choose any destination. All means of transportation are possible, from one’s own feet to spaceships. In this quilt, I explore rocky terrain, its variety of color, texture and scale, its visual and tactile properties, and their emotional and physical impact on the traveler along the way.
Quilt Surface Design Symposium Award of Excellence
Artist’s Statement:As a landscape architect I think three dimensionally while drawing and designing two dimensionally. This work takes it one step further and is literally a small cross section. Instead of drawing lines on paper I am using fabric strips as my medium. The fabric strips are creating my line drawing and graphically represent the bright texture of our earth’s subgrade. To me it is just like doodling.
Artist’s Statement:Texture, light and color all play a part in discovering the essential lines needed to flow across the stage with a sense of freedom. They disappear and reappear sometimes connecting, other times not.
