Quilter from Kansas wins festival’s top prize, $10,000
The top prize-winning quilt at this year’s International Quilt Show/Houston is a vibrant, fresh twist on the traditional.
Janet Stone of Overland Park, Kan., won the $10,000 Handi Quilter Best of Show award Tuesday night for “Ewe Are My Sunshine,” a striking sampler quilt with a mix of flowers, sheep, letters of the alphabet and a glowing, orange sun.
The quilt features raw edge applique with a blanket-stitch edge; Stone quilted it at home on a sewing machine.
In 26 squares, bright flower designs are embellished with bits of alphabet ribbon, one letter per square.
“Sunshine” is the 15th in a series of 26 alphabet quilts Stone plans to complete.
“I’ve always loved the alphabet,” she said. “My mother was in the printing business when I was
a kid, and I was always fascinated by how many ways one could design letters.”
Patt Blair, one of the three judges who picked this year’s winner, praised Stone’s combination of creativity and technical skill.
“There’s so much joy and whimsy in this, coupled with infinitely excellent work,” she said. “It’s just so breathtaking — every little area that you look, you see something special.”
Stone’s bright color choices and careful attention to detail, from piecing to embellishments, were what put “Sunshine” over the top, said judge Pat Yamin. “It really was the best of the best,” she said, “because it encompassed all of the things we look for.”
Stone also won a $1,000 Merit Quilting Machine prize for a different entry, an alphabet quilt titled “No L.” Both of her pieces have a traditional-looking style that incorporates bright color and a bit of fun.
“I like to take traditional quilts and twist them, kind of shake them up,” Stone said. “But I think they all have a traditional base to them.”
This is not the first time Stone has won a major prize at the Houston festival.
In 2013, she won a $7,500 Founders Award for “A Letter Bit of Baltimore,” an alphabet quilt with a design inspired by the traditional Baltimore Album style.
Half of this year’s eight top prizes went to international quilters, including two from Japan: Junko Fujiwara won the $7,500 Founders Award for “Brilliant Rose,” a traditional rose pattern, and Ayako Kawakami won a $5,000 traditional artistry prize for “My Sweet House with Kirara,” which features a significant amount of handwork.
Peter Hayward of Spain won a $5,000 innovative artistry for “White Holes,” which uses interwoven strips of fabric to create a 3D effect.
And Australian Gillian Shearer won the $7,500 World of Beauty award for “Eager to Learn — Afghanistan,” a quilt inspired by a 2011 photo of two young girls striving to study at a new girls’ school in Afghanistan.
Melissa Sobotka of Richardson, who won Best of Show in 2013, won a $5,000 prize for “End of the Spin,” an art quilt that features an assortment of old yarn spools, all rendered in brilliant color.
About 60,000 people are expected to attend this year’s quilt festival, which opens to the public at 7 p.m. Wednesday and continues through Sunday at the George R. Brown Convention Center.