Laurie Tigner with Road’s owner, Carolyn Reese[/caption]
Laurie won first place for Traditional, Wall, Other for Cameo Rose.
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Cameo Rose made and quilted by Laurie Tigner[/caption]
A whole cloth quilt, Laurie used a technique that she continues to learn about. She chose batik because when she painted over it, it gave the fabric a look of stone with shadows and provided the sculpted look of a real cameo. Laurie tried three times to get the appearance she wanted. At one point, being discouraged, she threw the quilt away. Her husband rescued it out of the trash. Laurie took the piece, squished it in a ball and threw it in a corner where it stayed for 3 months until she heard that HMQS needed another quilt for their show. She added ”tons more color” to finish the piece and turned it in. To Laurie’s amazement, Cameo Rose ended up winning first place in the Wall Quilt category. Then it won first place at Road 2016. Laurie has promised the quilt to a friend after she shows it two more times to get back the time and money she put in to the project.
Laurie won another first place honor for doing the quilting on Janet Stone’s winning entry, This One’s Four Ewe.”
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“This One’s Four Ewe” made by Janet Stone and quilted by Laurie Tigner[/caption]
Janet is a close friend of Laurie’s and asked her to do the quilting. Laurie confided that she was “scared to death” to work on the quilt knowing Janet’s status as a master quilter. Laurie “lived in fear” that she would bring Janet’s reputation down. When Laurie heard the quilt had won first place for Traditional, Large, Applique, she was so relieved. “I didn’t humiliate myself.”
What were Laurie’s first impressions of Road? “Huge” and “Friendly.” She was particularly impressed with all the attention to detail.
Laurie’s Road classes all focused on using her Inktense Fabric Painting technique. She said she loved her students in her classes. “They were the best.” One day, Laurie remarked how she couldn’t believe how wonderful California oranges were compared to the oranges she got back in South Dakota. Laurie was totally flabbergasted when the next day, one of her students brought Laurie a bag of oranges from her tree!! “I didn’t expect that.”
To learn more about Laurie, please visit her web page.
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Posts Tagged ‘Winning Quilt’
Meet Laurie Tigner: Road 2016 Teacher and Quilt Award Winner
Wednesday, April 27th, 2016So You Want To Make a Winning Quilt? 2015 Outstanding Traditional Quilt
Friday, October 2nd, 2015 My Brunette Whig was made by Gail Stepanek and quilted by Jan Hutchison. They received $5,000.00 from sponsor, ABM International, Inc. / Innova
So You Want To Make A Winning Quilt? Road 2015 Outstanding Innovative Quilt
Thursday, September 10th, 2015 Kathie Beltz and Mara Novak were awarded $5,000 by sponsor SewBatik for their winning entry.
So You Want To Make A Winning Quilt? Road 2015 Marie White Masterpiece Award
Tuesday, August 18th, 2015 On This Winter Day was made and entered by Nancy Prince. It was quilted by Linda French.
The Marie White Masterpiece Award is sponsored by Road to California in memory of Carolyn Reese’s mother who was a co-founder of Road to California. Nancy Prince and Linda French were awarded $7,500 for winning this category.
Nancy’s love of quilting began when she was 16 when her grandmother made a crazy quilt for her out of her grandfather’s wool suits. Due to family commitments, it took a long time before Nancy could start quilting. About 20 years ago, with her children grown, she finally had the time and opportunity to begin her quilting adventure. Nancy made traditional quilts for about 4 years but found that the repetition from making the same block over and over again was not for her.
Her journey into thread painting was quite by accident. Sixteen years ago, during a hiking trip in the Smokey Mountains, Nancy’s husband took a photograph of a waterfall. Appliqué was her passion at the time and she wanted to make a memory of the time spent in the Smokey Mountains. The waterfall created a problem because there was no movement in the selected fabric. Nancy thought that a bit of thread and a zigzag stitch could give some movement and direction to the water. There was a lot of trial and error but she finally got the stitches to look realistic. An overhanging bough was Nancy’s next challenge. Long story short, she figured it out and as they say, “the rest is history.”
On This Winter Day was inspired by Nancy’s love of period clothing. She was infatuated with the way of life during the late 1800’s, especially the mode of transportation. About 8 years prior to beginning On This Winter Day, Nancy had made a late 1800 winter competitive quilt. She loved the winter attire on the people and the cozy feeling she got when looking at the quilt. Plus, that quilt did well in competition, so her choice for a new quilt was quilt simple: another winter quilt.
It took close to 7 years, approximately 2,000 hours, and in the vicinity of 75,000 yards of thread to complete. Making the quilt was a journey of passion, commitment and the inevitable ups and downs. For Nancy, “there were days of tremendous highs and other days of great frustration, so much so that there were times I thought about giving up. But I had worked too hard and taken too long to give up and I am certainly glad that I journeyed on through the highs and lows.”
Nancy remarked that “whenever I make a new competitive quilt, I want to try some new ideas and techniques not only so I don’t get tired of making the same thing over and over again but also so the viewer is not seeing the same thing from me with each new competitive quilt.” For On This Winter Day, Nancy discovered a new way to thread paint a design so that the thread looks “tweedy.” She also mastered Punch Needle to make the fur on the ladies and children’s coats look realistic. Other details included finding appropriate size leather, silver buckles and horseshoes for the horses to give them the realism they needed. Nancy raided a miniature store for trims, flowers and buttons to accentuate the hats and clothing. Nancy loves detail and believed that with On This Winter Day, that the new ideas and techniques she used greatly enhanced the realism of each thread figure and the quilt as a whole.
Nancy tells it best about what happened when she learned she had won her award: “I live in Orlando, Florida so there is a 3 hour time difference between Orlando and Ontario, California. I had carried my cell phone with me all day knowing that the winners would be announced that day. Around 10 PM Orlando time, I heard an email come in on my cell phone. I had pretty much given up hope at this point of a win so I was jumping-up-an-down excited and honored that On This Winter Day had won the Marie White Masterpiece Award. Knowing that this was an unbelievable award, I decided to fly out the next day to Ontario. So at 12 PM that night I am making airline reservations for a 6 AM flight the next morning.”
Nancy stood by her quilt and answered questions during the show. She thought it “was so rewarding and way more than just fun!! At the end of the show I was exhausted but elated. Winning an award is an honor at any show but winning the Masterpiece award at Road was a very special few days in Ontario for me. My husband told me after I had been home for a few days that he only saw the bottoms of my shoes because I was flying so high. It just doesn’t get much better than that!!”
Nancy and her husband plan on using her prize money to take a vacation. She is teaching on a quilting cruise to Alaska next year and her husband wants to go along.
What does Nancy plan to do next? “Currently I am in the planning stages of a new competitive quilt. Due to my teaching schedule, I don’t have concentrated areas of time to commit to the quilt so I can only work on it as time permits. Of course, I have some new ideas and techniques planned and yes, it will be another winter quilt but a totally different look. Hopefully this one won’t take me 7 years.”
Congratulations Nancy for winning the 2015 Mary White Masterpiece Award.
Nancy will be back at Road, teaching three classes in 2016. For more information on her classes, please go to our web site.
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So You Want to Make a Winning Quilt? Meet Sandra Leichner, Road 2015 Best of Show Winner
Tuesday, July 28th, 2015 Sandra Leichner, from Albany, Oregon, won $10,000 for her Road to California 2015 Best of Show Quilt, sponsored by Gammill Quilting Systems. Sandra started and finished her quilt in 2014.
How did you get started in quilting? When my children were toddlers, I could no longer balance my painting and their instantaneous needs. I had learned to do handwork, sewing and embroidery at a very young age and after seeing a quilting magazine on my mother’s sewing table, I realized I could focus my art and sewing skills into one creative outlet.
What inspired your winning design, Vivaldi by Moonlight? I wanted to make a different style of wholecloth and at the same time, challenge my skills to the fullest and beyond. I am known for my handwork skills and my machine quilting skills were inevitably overlooked because the viewer focus was always on my handwork.
I knew I did not want feathers etc. I wanted to create a totally original design in my artistic style using only machine quilting to create the overall design. Although it is a wholecloth, I have used a subtle monochromatic thread color palette to create added depth and incorporate more visual dimension to the intricate twining quilting design.
I had originally made this for my bed but the quilt became too fancy to allow my neurotic kitty Milo, who lives on my bed, to sink his claws into. So I decided to enter it and see what would happen.
It took you a year to complete the quilt. What did you learn along the way? This was an extremely difficult quilt to create using a domestic sewing machine. The quilt took six months to quilt and two months just to cut the trapunto. The hand embroidered dragonflies took one month alone to complete.
I used a jacquard fabric for the wholecloth and I will never do that again. It intensified the difficulty level by several percentage points. With a sewing machine, I do not have a large frame to keep the quilt sandwich taut and the tension always perfect so my fabric choices can make or break the experience. This almost broke me and more than once.
What was your reaction when you won Best of Show? Absolute dumfounded open mouthed shock—seriously. I had to read the email over and over a few times to see if I was misreading the news before I would let myself get too excited. Then I started running down the stairs and through the house to tell my husband. When I reached him, I paused and then said, “I better go check that one more time to be sure” and ran back upstairs to my computer to re-read the email again. Then I went crazy –bouncing around the house with supreme happiness crazy.
I have been competing for ten-plus years and have many prizes but this one meant a lot to me. This quilt was a totally different technique focus and direction and I was thrilled that the judges got it. As with all my quilts, the closer you get the more detail you see.
What are you going to do with the prize money? College always sucks the coffers dry and this fall I will have two children in college so the money will definitely come in handy.
What are you going to do next with your quilting? I will go back to my “day job” of applique and designing applique patterns as well as continuing to teach applique and my embroidery techniques internationally.
The diversion of a wholecloth was fun and I am off on a new challenge to keep my quilting process continually interesting and prevent it from becoming formulaic and monotonous.
I will continue to step out of my comfort zone because if I don’t fail from time to time, then I am not discovering and learning something new that may lead to a prize like this one or the pleasure the process brings in making a quilt.
Congratulations Sandra on your stunning Best of Show quilt!!
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Wednesday, October 1st, 2014You may have missed our deadline this year to enter your promising award winning quilt for Road to California 2015 – 20th Anniversary Show competition, but there is always next year!!
Gail Stepanek began her journey of making an award winning quilt by taking a quilt class at a local church in the early 80’s. It was a quilt trimmed in lace. Four quilts later, she learned that there was supposed to be binding on a quilt. On the fifth quilt she made, she learned that she was supposed to make her own matching binding…not buy packages of blanket binding. “Talk about being a slow learner!” recalls Gail.
How did Stars to Mars come about? Gail likes to paper piece and she decided to try her hand at designing several stars. She didn’t feel that she was proficient enough to draft the quilt in EQ7, so she asked Barb Vlack to help her and Barb was kind enough to draft it for her. Gail learned that all she needed was one star pattern. By changing fabrics and sewing lines, she could create different looking stars. 
It took over a year and a half to make the top and her collaborative partner, Jan Hutchison spent three months quilting it. Road to California 2014 was the first show that Stars On Mars was entered in and we were overjoyed at winning such a great award. Jan and Gail shared the award money– $3,000 given by Handi Quilter. Gail has used her winnings to attend several quilts shows throughout the year. In fact, she just booked her flight to Ontario, California for the 2015 Road to California show!!
What does the future hold for this award winning quilt maker? Gail and Jan hope to continue their collaboration for years to come. She just received another quilt that Jan had recently finished quilting. Gail was burning the midnight oil to make the deadline for Road 2015 so watch for it in next year’s competition.
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So You Want To Make A Winning Quilt? 2014 Best Modern Quilt
Tuesday, August 26th, 2014Claire Victor won $2,000 for her Modern Quilt Entry, Lost in Space, from sponsor, Modern Quilt’s Unlimited
About 15 years ago, Claire Victor decided she wanted to sew her own clothing. Inspired by her mother who was a great home seamstress, she started taking lessons at her local sewing store, Hartsdale Fabrics in Hartsdale, NY. Downstairs in the store, they had a quilt shop; something she had never seen before. What she saw there was so much more interesting than any preconceived notion she had had of what quilting was, and they had classes! Because of her work schedule, she was unable to take a class at that time but she sent ahead and bought the Eleanor Burns – Log Cabin Quilt-in-a-Day book, picked out some fabrics and off she went. She figured it all out on her own, laughed a lot along the way, had fun throughout the entire process and never looked back.
What inspired Claire’s winning design, Lost in Space? “I am interested in geometric patterns, especially ones with illusion. The tumbling block is my “block of choice.” I do them every which way I can think of. Recently, I had the chance to join a hand sewing group at Monica’s Quilt and Bead in Palm Desert, CA and I started to learn appliqué. All the ladies were doing more traditional patterns which did not interest me so I designed my own, an elongated tumbling block. The group came up with the name “Lost in Space”. My favorite reference books are from Sara Nephew and Marci Baker. I had also been studying an old Katie Pasquini-Masopust book.
How long did it take to make your winning quilt? What did you learn along the way? “I decided long ago to never pay attention to how long it takes to make a quilt; I just do it until it’s finished. But if I had to guess, I would say three or four months. It was a great journey; since this was my first appliqué quilt. I was (and still am) having trouble with the technique but it was very interesting to figure out the design and combine machine piecing, English paper piecing, hand sewing and then machine quilting.
What was your reaction when you won? “My first reaction was complete disbelief, and then I cried (a little). You might wish and dream about these moments but believe me they come when you least expect them. Needless to say, once I recovered, I was extremely honored.”
Did you do anything special with your prize money? “Almost immediately I ordered a custom made Sew Steady Table and the rest just went into my general sewing fund.”
Where do you go from here with your quilting? “I just continue…open to future possibilities. After saying I would ‘NEVER do appliqué’ it has turned out to be so interesting and challenging. I can achieve things with appliqué that I could not with regular piecing. I am now working on my fourth appliqué quilt.
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So You Want To Make A Winning Quilt? 2014 Outstanding Art Quilt
Friday, August 22nd, 2014Lenore Crawford won $3,000 from SewBatik, sponsor of the Outstanding Art Quilt Entry
Lenore Crawford began using fabric as an art medium around 1995. She loved the warmth, texture, and value that fabric offers as compared to other media. It was fun for Lenore to create art quilts with fabric and see how far she could take the medium.
Lenore’s winning entry, Capturing Brittany was inspired by her many visits to France. She loved France’s ancient architecture ever since her first visit when she was 16 years old. To be able to create art with fabric that resembled it was very intriguing to Lenore. Being able to achieve a very realistic design that truly looked like the real thing in fabric was so exciting. This particular piece was inspired by photos taken in a village in northern France. A class of art students was sketching that day.
Capturing Brittany was mostly created during the winter over several months. While making the quilt, Lenore learned that she loved to add fine detail to her designs, making them seem even more realistic. She fuses tiny pieces to add some of the detail where it’s still feasible, and when the pieces get to be too small, she uses a little bit of fabric paint instead of fabric. Shading and detail is what made the design look more realistic.
What was Lenore’s reaction when she won? “I was very excited to win. This means to me that I am accepted by my peers in my field. It is also a very great way to advertise my work especially for teaching.”
Did she do anything special with her prize money? “I spent a good chunk of the money on a good quality espresso machine. I love good coffee and especially missed it after getting home from our trip to New Zealand last year where you can even find a fabulous latte at McDonald’s!”
What is next for Lenore and her quilting? “That is the question of the hour! I feel at this point I want to do something different. I like change. We grow when we change. I don’t know what it will be, but I will always keep creating more art because that is my passion. I would love to learn to use Photoshop to manipulate my photos I use to create my art quilts, but we will see. Running a business keeps me very busy with teaching all over the world, maintaining my stock, doing paperwork, coming up with new patterns and classes. Life is so busy and sometimes gets in the way of the creative process. I will take some time this fall to see where I want to go now.”
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So You Want To Make A Winning Quilt? 2014 Masterpiece Winner
Thursday, August 14th, 2014 Margaret Solomon Gunn won $5,000 from sponsor Moore’s Sewing Center for her Masterpiece entry, Big Bertha. 
Margaret started sewing when she was young, mostly making clothing. She made her first quilt about 25 years ago when she got her first sewing machine. Over the years, she didn’t quilt much except for making a few for gifts.
In 2007, she decided to try quilting again by using her scraps to make a donation quilt for Project Linus. And guess what? She got hooked on quilting once more!! Between 2007 and 2010, Margaret made over 100 quilts for Project Linus (and they didn’t decrease her stash hardly at all!!) Five years ago, Margaret bought a long arm and began a business quilting shortly thereafter.
Big Bertha was inspired by Margaret’s love for taking old patterns and modernizing them with bolder fabrics. She began the Dresden plates in the summer of 2011. By the time she had all the plates hand pieced/appliquéd, she noticed that there were Dresden quilt-alongs all over the quilting blogs. This really bummed her out as she likes to make unique quilts for shows. She ended up sticking the project in a box for nearly a year. One day, when Margaret was looking for something to work on, Big Bertha was the one closest to being ready to quilt, so she pulled it out and started to work on it again. It took four months to complete the top. The quilting was done over an eight week period, taking nearly 175 hours. Big Bertha debuted at its first show in 2013.
What did Margaret learn from creating Big Bertha? “I never want to make another quilt that is this large!”
What was Margaret’s reaction when she found out that she won the Masterpiece prize? “Quite surprised! It was the single largest prize I had ever won.”
Did she do anything special with her prize money? According to Margaret, “Looks like Uncle Sam will get a nice chunk, but basically no, not really.”
What is Margaret’s next project? “I always have several show quilts in the works…one in the design stage, one in piecing/applique, and one half quilted!”
Congratulations Margaret Solomon Gunn for winning the Masterpiece category, sponsored by Moore’s Sewing Center.
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Celebrating The Red, White, And Blue With Quilts
Friday, July 4th, 2014Whether used as a tablecloth at a potluck, a ground covering for a picnic, or as a blanket to cuddle under while watching fireworks, quilts are an important part of our most patriotic of holidays. And while these 2014 Road to California winning quilts probably won’t be used for such practical purposes, their colors and themes are fitting for such an honored celebration:
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Bias II by Alissa H. Carlton[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2050" align="aligncenter" width="593"]
The Price of Freedom by Kim Bruny[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2049" align="aligncenter" width="612"]
Intersections by Alissa H. Carlton[/caption]
Doesn’t this just remind you of Fireworks?
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Byrne’s Spiral by Beth Nufer and Clem Buzick[/caption]
Wishing you a spectacular Fourth of July.
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