QUILT FESTIVAL SALT LAKE CITY SPECIAL EXHIBITS

Discovering an extraordinary quilt from Connecticut in an online quilt history forum, quilting friends from northwest Washington began the journey of The 1876 Centennial Quilt Project. Years later the journey continues, attracting new members who are creating more quilts. Enjoy their extraordinary efforts as they showcase and celebrate the challenge of replicating this significant and unique antique quilt.

Whatever your style…quilt colorfully! This annual judged competition is open to quilters working in any style, and who like to play with color to create a vibrant work! A $1,000 Best of Show Award and three $500 prizes each in Traditional, Modern, and Art categories will be awarded. Quilts are hand or machine, appliquéd, pieced, or wholecloth.

For more than 30 years, Karey Bresenhan and Nancy O’Bryant Puentes have been purchasing studio art quilts for the IQF Collection. The artists range from some of the most popular and well-known to the up-and-coming names of today. The themes/styles are as varied as the artists—landscape, color abstraction, narration, and interpretive.

Have you ever wondered what happens with a block exchange? A team of Handi Quilter National Educators made 12 blocks, kept one and swapped 11 with other educators. They then took the blocks and created an original quilt. See the fun layouts, color combinations, and the many different ways to quilt the same blocks in this fun exhibit of out of the box sampler quilts.

Karey Bresenhan and Nancy O’Bryant’ s book, Christmas Quilts, Christmas Memories, is a collection of colorful red and green quilts and heartwarming, often poignant, written memories of Christmas past by well-known quilters, teachers, and the authors. See many of those quilts from the book in this exhibit.

Even before social distancing to slow the COVID-19 pandemic, we find ourselves in a trying time where social and political issues have divided us, and sometimes personal connections to those around us are hard to establish. That momentary connection when eyes meet reignites the spark of humanity that connects us all. This exhibit invites you to lift your head, gaze into someone’s eyes, and make a connection to help bridge the distance.

This exhibition celebrates our feathered friends and the many ways in which they help sustain our delicate ecosystems. The exhibit includes contemporary, traditional, and studio art quilts. The quilts are traditional and art quilt interpretations of wild birds, details of their plumage, nests, eggs, habitats, song, food, and even bird feeders.

Frank Klein is a Texas art collector with an emphasis on the art quilt. His love of family, photography, and nature have developed a collection of fine art quilts that inspires the nature lover in all of us. The collection represents some of his favorite quilts collected over the last decade. The catalog for this exhibit will be available at the commemorative booth.

“Barn Quilts” are all over the U.S! Take a drive across rural roads and even cities and towns, and you will find quilt blocks painted on barns, silos, homes, fence rows, and other structures in bright, cheery colors…far larger than any stitched blocks! In this exhibit, take a “Sunday drive” with the family, and play your own game of "I Spy."

Explore the beauty of award-winning quilts from the artist Zena Thorpe. Her hand quilted and appliqué quilts have been exhibited around the world and she has been recognized as one of the hundred best quilters in the 20th century.

Quilters have long used blue to symbolize trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven. These new and antique blue and white quilts revisit the chosen gems that celebrated the 45th anniversary of the International Quilt Festival.

Quilt collectors Karey Bresenhan and Nancy O’Bryant Puentes took a trip back in time when they selected these antique pieced quilts from the International Quilt Festival Collection to showcase! Spanning generations of quiltmaking, these selections include everything from a Strippy to a New York Beauty from a mariner’s Compass to a Whig’s Defeat, and much more!

One of the most popular current styles of quilting is modern quilts. Artists have taken a traditional look and put a fresh, contemporary spin on it, often utilizing bold colors and inventive shapes. This juried exhibit features recent works by current members of the Salt Lake City chapter of the national Modern Quilt Guild organization.

In today's fractured, divisive world, connections —both intentional and accidental—are more important than ever. We are bound by love, rituals, family, and faith. We are also connected to our past, our community both near and far, and to nature. This exhibit celebrates what it’s like to be connected and find commonalities with others.

Our known world stretches far beyond what we can see with the unaided eye. Microscopes, magnifying glasses, and virtual imaging techniques reveal a world of great beauty and complexity beyond regular vision. These tiny details can provide us with an abundance of artistic inspiration. In this exhibit, artists were encouraged to explore a corner of the world at high magnification, capturing tiny wonders at the microscopic level, or by zooming in on a larger object to show its smallest details.

Laurene Sinema, an international teacher, quilt judge, fabric designer, and author of nine books, opened The Quilted Apple in 1978. It was the first quilt shop in Phoenix, Arizona. Her boundless people skills, motivational teaching, and impeccable handwork changed the quilt world forever! This exhibit showcases her outstanding work.

The Beehive State is home to scores of quilt guilds and groups which all celebrate their love for and creativity with the art form. The Utah Quilt Guild is the state’s largest, with chapters and members spread throughout its borders. Current work from members in guilds across the state are shown here.

When the incredibly talented Japanese quilter, Yukiko Hirano, passed away in 2010, her husband, Takeo Hirano, wanted to make sure that her work lived on for others to enjoy. These four incredible Baltimore Album quilts are on display together in a setting Mrs. Hirano would find fitting and complimentary for her exquisite work. Among the four quilts is Baltimore Album Quilt IV, which won Mrs. Hirano The Founders Award at the 2005 International Quilt Association Judged Show.