Silk fabric and American Quilters Society, Grand Rapids, Mi.

Silk has been coming in and out of my life a lot in these last few weeks, starting with my natural dyed silk from hibiscus flower and vinegar.. I left this piece in the dye a couple of weeks (with the little piece of wool). After washing it I have this wonderful mauve brown. I'm thinking of ordering some raw silk from Dharma and playing around natural dyeing it.

My girlfriend Cathy O. just finished piecing this wall hanging (Karen Stone pattern). It is made from neck ties from all the men in her life, her husband, son, brother, father and father in law. It is beautiful, pictures just don't show the wonderful richness of silk.

Last Wednesday I went with my girlfriend to the AQS traveling quilt show in Grand Rapids, Mi. the following are just a few of the highlights. I've been quilting and going to quilt shows for almost 30 years so I'm always drawn to new ideas, not that I don't love the old traditional quilts but here are a few pictures of things I loved.
We'll start with an exhibit of Claudia Pfeil's quilt journey. She started like most of us with traditional quilts made from cotton. This exhibit showed her quilts in progression right on to the silk quilts she's creating now.

They all were beautiful but here a couple of my favorites.

This magical mermaid castle has so many details.

And lots and lots of machine quilting.

Beautiful mermaids,

and sea horses.

Fire and Ice.

Full of beautiful quilting and glass beads.

I don't remember the name of this tropical one,

full of tropical fish,

and beads.

The men were back from Egypt demonstrating their hand applique.

The use large needles and scissors to do very intricate
 work.

They had 30 or more pieces there for sale. Wish I brought one home with me, maybe next year.

This was a cute display with large spools of thread

and needles. The booth was selling their specialty needle.

This is Max Hamrick a natural dyer from Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. He gave a lecture about textile dyeing in colonial times. He has a new book out called Organic Dyeing available through AQS.

This piece was in the show, it is all thread work!! Looked like a painting.

This was a cute  wallhanging called Zucchini. It shows how it takes over most of the year in a gardeners life.

This piece was interesting it is made with felted wool and needle-felted.

It's a picture of a cave, Baudelaire National monument.

This was a merchant from California Carol Ziogas who deals with Japanese textiles. Her shop is called KimonoMomoI. Loved her booth.

Lots of old and new kimono fabrics. This is her blog if your interested www.theardentthread.com.

I bought this piece from her. It's the collar from an old vintage kimono from early 20th century Japan.

It is hand woven cotton, double ikat (kasuri). indigo.