Miniature quilts in Vlaardingen

[janestarz]

The Dutch Quilter's Guild is organising a show of miniature quilts this week in Vlaardingen. And since a colleague of my mom's (who was interested in quilting and I lend her a book) was helping to organise it, mom and I went down to Vlaardingen to visit.

I picked up my mom in De Meern because she has some issues with her car and isn't comfortable driving long distances. It was nice for her to just ride along and relax, and Aurum ate the kilometres happily. It might have been quicker if I had driven by Breda, but nowhere near as "gezellig"!

The show hosted miniature quilts of 30x30 cms in the theme "Holland". Of course tulips and windmills featured high on the list, sometimes as abstract as a single- or double windmill block, sometimes as obvious as an actual windmill in a painting-like quilt. Rows of colourful blocks signifying the "bollen streek" (bulb region, the floriculture from mostly North-Holland). Surprise themes were bright orange quilts, kissing farmers, and the oranje tompouce. My favourite was the two farmers in clogs, made by Dini Sprik from Harderwijk (shown here to the right). It just reminded me of my grandmother and breathed the Drentish atmosphere.

As guests on the show there was the collection "Seasonal Gardens", which was on loan from various Quilt Guilds from all over Europe. No less than 17 countries represented! I must admit most of my pictures (which were made by phonecam, because I didn't bring my Canon) are from this collection. All of these breathed a particular atmosphere, and the details were amazing! I am always very impressed at the number of techniques quilters (of this level) use. Appliqué, beadwork, hand- or machine embroidery, their use of colour and texture.





First picture, top row: Panel of 16 miniquilts all from the same country. 'Normal' patchwork with embroidered butterflies on the larger panels, folded flowers with button hearts, felted flowers with a bead as heart all stacked on top of one another to create a 3d-effect, stained glass windows effect because of black borders, flower petals folding out from the quilt as a loose layer and hand-embroidered french knots for a flowered arch....

Second picture, top row: Lovely effects with machine quilting: from cobwebs to kittens.

First picture, bottom row: As artful as a painting: a combination of dyed fabric, hand- and machine embroidery. The muted colours look like an aquarel painting. The trees were completely hand-embroidered (the right half of the picture is a detail, but it came out a little blurry).

Second picture, bottom row: Layers upon layers of green leaves stacked on top of one another, creating a 3d effect. Loose threads add an extra dimension as roots. A single ladybug hides between the leaves.

The show runs until Sunday 29th of March, so you can still visit! More info here.