Inspiration Sunday (6) - via the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach

One of the coolest exhibits at the International Quilt Festival was one called "Twelve by Twelve".  It challenged 12 artist to make a small quilted art piece based on a theme word or color palette chosen by each member, in turn, every 2 months.  They plan on publishing a book Twelve by Twelve: The International Art Quilt Challenge.

Part of what made it so cool, was that it was the same 12 people, creating for 4 years by my math.  All that was required of them was they create a 12 inch by 12 inch art quilt within the theme for the 2 month time period.  I like the idea of dabbling in art quilts from time to time, and a 12 x 12 size is not a huge commitment.  It would be extremely fun for a bee!

Yeah, yeah, lady, show us the quilts....

Surprisingly, we were allowed to photograph the quilts.  I wanted to go crazy, as they were all wonderful, but I tried to show some restraint:

This theme was "BlueWhiteBlack".  Starting at the top left, going down, then right: "Blue Meditation on Balance" by Deborah Boschart of Crofton, Maryland; "Hello! It's you again!" by Kirsten Duncan of Townsville, Queensland, Australia; "My Tree" by Francoise Jamart of Louvainla-Neuve, Belgium; "A Feeling for Snow" by Brenda Gael Smith of Copacabana, NSW, Australia. Back to top middle: "Winter Night" by Gerrie Congdon of Portland, Oregon; "Mt. Hood in Winter" by Terry Grant of Portland, Oregon; "Broken Dishes Completed" by Kristin La Flamme, of Waipahu, Hawaii; and "Stacked Blueware" by Terri Stegmiller of Mandan, North Dakota. To Top Right: "Stolen" by Helen L. Conway of Merseyside, UK; "You Know How I Feel" by Diane Perin Hock by Healdsburg, California; "Streaming Blue" by Karen Rips of Thousand Oaks, CA; and "Reboot" by Nikki Wheeler of Poulsbo, Washington.

Here is a close up of "Mt. Hood in Winter" by Terry Grant

It is so interesting to see where each artist took the theme.

This group's theme was "Mathematics".

The top one is called "Fractal Tree" by Deborah Boschert of Crofton, Maryland, the second "What Were the Odds?" by Kirsten Duncan of Townsville, QLD, Australia (she attempted a random placement of colors, but the human mind tends to desire patterns in randomness).

This Mermaid was part of a "Water" Theme:

She is called "Splish Splash by Terri Stegmiller of Mandan, North Dakota.

I admit, I took a lot of pictures of tree quilts.  This one was part of the theme "Community".  I just love the colors.

It is called "Brunswick Street" by Kirsten Duncan of Townsville, QLD, Australia.  Seems I snapped a lot of her quilts.

They even had a "Dandelion" theme.  This one was my favorite of the group:

"Blowin' in the Wind" by Diane Perin Hock of Healdsburg, California

I know I only snapped a few of my favorites, but you can see more at the Twelve by Twelve website, or in the book that is available.

Well, are you inspired to try your hand at your own art quilt?

Jen