Quilt Match Manhattan 2014...the Winner!

I knew that Francis Holiday Alford would be making the trophy winner's belt, and I WANTED it.

It would be awarded to the champion of the designer match-up competition at the Quilt Alliance's Quilters Take Manhattan celebration and fundraising event last week-end in New York City.

This was the fourth year the Quilt Alliance has hosted QTM at the Fashion Institute of Technology's campus in the Garment District of NYC.  And it sold out! There were 350 attendees, Amy Butler was our keynote speaker, Mark Dunn presented beautiful quilts from his vast collection, there were live "Go Tell it at the Quilt Show" interviews, vendors, workshops, an after dark party at the loft of Victoria Findlay Wolfe....and the Quilt Match.  Lots of fun quilt-centered schmoozing and inspiration occurred!!!

But what was the Quilt Match?  3 designers were given 1 hour and a pile of fabrics they had never seen before, pins, fusible web from Mistyfuse, scissors, and a design wall.  We were each allowed to bring 1 yard of our own fabric of choice, and in front of the live audience, had to create a quilt top!  (To be sewn down later.)

My fellow contestants were John Kubiniec and, because our third quilter missed her train, a very intrepid audience member, Encyclopedia Brown, volunteered to fill in.

John and I were hamming it up, the day before...

We were on Meg Cox's tour of The High Line urban park (also part of the weekend's events). John and I became super new friends.  ;-)  Even if he did bring a banana peel for me to slip on on stage!  (He was kidding.)

But once the Match Up began, we were all focus.

My fabric of choice was "Pretty Day" from Shades Textiles, a sky fabric I have loved and used in my work for over 20 years.  So I knew I wanted to create a landscape quilt...Cherrywood Hand-Dyed Fabrics and Moda donated our "pallettes", which we were not allowed to see beforehand.  The Moda fabrics were in a style I NEVER use, so this was very challenging.

One hour later...here are the three quilts:

Encyclopedia didn't have her own fabric of choice so she used some Cherrywood for her background.  This evokes her Jamaican roots.

John brought a neutral solid for his background, and made a medallion style quilt with a whimsical floral basket in the center.

I indeed went for a landscape, and did my best to make color, value, line, shape, perspective, contrast and whimsical appeal work for me. Especially keeping in mind that this was going to be viewed from a distance, the audience needed to be able to "see" it from afar.  This was a designer challenge, after all!
The winner was decided by the audience's raising of hands!

Do I look happy, being attended by Mark Lipinski, the Match Up's emcee?  I forgot to put my shoes back on, having kicked them off in the frenzy of my hour designing.
Yes, I am happy!  The belt is mine!!!!!
I'll be wearing it at Quilt Market next month, oh yeah....

We had such a blast.  Thanks John and Encylopedia for making it so much fun.

And you might want to mark your calendars for Quilter's Take Manhattan next September! 
Learn about the Quilt Alliance,  and its mission of preserving, documenting, and sharing the stories of quilts and quilters everywhere.