RISING STAR QUILT SHOW 2010
Featured Quilter, Nancy Wasserman
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Each year, the guild features a Quilter or Quilters as a special part of the show. This year we are featuring Nancy Wasserman, an accomplished quilter and long-time guild member. The purpose of the featured quilter exhibit is to explore the work of a representative member of the guild in some depth. We hope that this will give visitors to the show a deeper insight into quilting as a highly individual art form.
At the quit show, Nancy spoke about the history and construction of the quilts that she selected for the show.
This is what Nancy has to say about her quilting:
My first attempt at a quilt was 28 years ago before the birth of my first child. I put together yellow and green gingham blocks, used a large zigzag stitch to raw edge appliqué simple bears and then finished it off with pre-packaged binding. A few years later, I met a woman who made her own templates, hand pieced and appliquéd her blocks, hand quilted the sandwiched layers, and even made her own binding. It took her over a year to complete just one quilt. It would be a long time before I could become a real quilter like her!
It was just after my third child was born that I found out the Recreation Department offered quilting classes. Unable to commit a whole year to one quilt just yet, I waited until my daughter entered first grade before signing up for Jane Norberg�s Beginning Quilting class. Later, I took all-day classes taught by local and national quilters at "The Quilter�s Gathering".
I learned how to make my own templates and piece by hand before moving on to rotary cutting, rulers and a sewing machine. I believe that having acquired the basics first without the use of tools, allows me to see which methods would work best in the construction of my quilt tops. I continue to take classes, because there is always something new to learn. It�s not necessary to have a finished quilt as a result of a class you�ve taken; sometimes it�s enough to have gained a different technique, the use of a new tool, or a helpful hint and come away with a sample you can refer to later.
My quilts reflect the wide range of styles, patterns and classes that interest me. I�ve hand and machine pieced, appliquéd, and quilted. I�ve made traditional, sampler, art, abstract, baby, and original quilts. I�ve used 30"s, plaids, cotton basics and Batik fabrics. Sometimes it starts with a pattern or parts of many patterns or it"s the fabric that directs me. I love working with Batiks, especially for hand appliqué. I favor blue and its compliments, but use the other colors as well. I do not like Paisley�s, but have learned that often it�s what you consider "ugly fabric" that�s needed to make the quilt work.
Click on the pictures to see larger images of these quilts by Nancy Wasserman .
Mini Square Dance 1997
Featured Quilt 18.5 x 18.5
Machine Pieced, Machine Appliquéd
The process begins with a pieced grid of squares. A template is used as a guide to cut the grid apart and the new squares are sewn together again. This new grid is cut up once more to form the final quilt top. This quilt is a bonus miniature quilt from the leftover squares of the second cutting. From the book, "Square Dance: Fancy Quilts From Plain Squares" by Martha Thompson.
Shifting Connections, 1998
Featured Quilt 56 x 31
Hand Pieced, Machine Pieced, Machine Quilted
I originally started with the idea to make a watercolor quilt to reflect the seasonal colors of the mountains outside my NH home. I disliked the results until I switched around the fabric pieces and made a color wash quilt. The colors of the mountains shift from muted summer greens and florals to the vibrant golds, oranges, and red of autumn. The quilt was constructed using the technique from the book "Awash With Color" by Judy Turner.
Thirties in 3-D, 2000
Featured Quilt 64 x 65.5
Machine Pieced, Machine Quilted
A traditional tumbling block quilt made with 30�s reproduction fabric. By using a 9-patch block for each side, the 3-D effect continuously changes from block to star to block again. There are six color groups and over thirty different fabrics with no color repeats in the stars.
Window With a View, 2000
Featured Quilt 46 x 35
Machine Pieced, Machine Appliquéd, Machine Quilted
An original design created in a class I took with Katie Pasquini Masopust called "Ghost Layers & Color Washes". This quilt also appears in her book by the same name. The quilt design was created from two separate photographs I took on our honeymoon. One over the roof tops of Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia and the second from the Island of Rhodes in Greece. The design, color wash, and large overall �ghost� archway are independent, yet connected to one another. This quilt also was accepted in the 2003 Annual Fabrics of Legacies National Quilt Exhibit in Fort Collins, Co.
Robert's Quilt Two, 2004
Featured Quilt 85.5 x 78
Machine Pieced, Hand Appliquéd, Hand Quilted, Machine Quilted
I wanted to make an all-Batik quilt and adapted a pattern from the book, "Thinking Outside The Block" by Sandi Cummings with Karen Flamme. About the same time, my son Robert moved to an apartment and upgraded from a twin-sized bed to a queen. I now knew how large this quilt would have to be.
Later when selected for the New England Quilt Museum�s 2005 Piece de Resistance exhibit, I needed to concoct an inspiration for the quilt, so I wrote that the design suggested the mountains and rivers of NH where our family has spent much time. By the time it hung in the museum, it evolved to also represent the terrain of Wyoming where Robert was living at the time. Soon after, the quilt was selected for the Mancuso World Quilt & Textile On Tour: Summmer 2005. In the December 2006 Quilter�s Newsletter issue, a photo of the quilt appeared along with the sentence "If quilts grew in size congruent to their stories, Robert�s Quilt Two would be a king-sized whopper by now."
Blue Flamingo Baby, 2010
Featured Quilt 32 x 26
Machine Appliquéd, Machine Quilted
This past January, I spent a week with quilt teacher Grace Errea, studying the application of value and color while creating this Flamingo pattern she provided. I chose to use blue values and complementary colors. Construction included raw, turned and "free" edge appliqué techniques. A relative of mine had quite an issue with this quilt, focusing on the fact that Flamingos are pink, not blue.
Feathered Dance, 2010
Featured Quilt 96 x 80
Machine Pieced, Machine Quilted
A few years ago I saw this scrap quilt top hanging on a wall in a vendor�s booth at the Quilter�s Gathering. It pulled me in and I had to make it. I purchased the kit and almost immediately began cutting the fabric into strips for piecing. I thoroughly enjoyed practicing my free-motion feathers using the techniques I learned from quilt teacher, Sharon Schamber. Pattern name, "Wild Irish Rose" by Carrie Nelson.
Chicken Diversity, 2010
Featured Quilt 32 x 62
Machine Pieced, Hand Appliquéd, Machine Quilted, Hand Embroidered
I really enjoy working on hand appliqué projects. Over the years, I�ve combined many techniques which have resulted in the process I currently use. I love "building" the units ahead of time before positioning them on the background fabric and sewing down. Pattern name, "Garden Party" by Maggie Walker.
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