dreaming@echonyc.com

if i saw a thousand quilts in paducah (and who knows how many there actually were?), there were maybe twenty i wish i'd made. these might be the top three. click on the tiny image to get a bigger picture.

crescendo, by carol taylor, pittsford, ny

this one interested me mostly because of the intricacy of the background. each little square in the background is, oh, about an inch square, if that. and every place you see a square or a circle in the background, that's appliqued on. the wavy lines are couched — colorful cording held in place by zigzag stitching. i also really like the gradients in the quilt from dark to light and back again.

spangled star banner by susan k. cleveland, west concord, mn

this one is incredibly precise in its workmanship. what the picture doesn't really reveal is the exactitude of the piecing; the feathered star in the detail picture is probably about 6 inches and perfect. the binding has several very thin strips of piping in it, the appliqued circles are about the size of a quarter and absolutely round, and even the machine quilting is utterly controlled. i was surprised by how much i liked the muted color scheme. every color in it is sort of off (rusty red, murky teal), while i tend to prefer clear primaries.

wildlife, by ellen highsmith silver, rye, ny

i don't have a picture of the entire quilt, which is okay — the charm of this one is really in its details. it's an appliqued quilt featuring dozens of amusing little animals, done in a folk art style. every time i looked at it, i found something new to smile at. although it didn't win a ribbon, this quilt constantly had people around it, taking pictures and saying, "oh! look in the corner...!" i particularly liked the mother opossum carrying her babies, the mother bird feeding her babies, the red-winged blackbird among the cattails, and the quail and oreo cows (yes, oreo cows).