my art quilt debuts at International Quilt Festival

Today is a big day--- International Quilt Festival 2014 opens to the public! It's hard to express how excited I am to finally have an art quilt hanging at this show! This is a moment I've dreamed about for at least 10 years! No joke.

My quilt is part of the Festival Awareness special exhibition: "It's Raining Cats and Dogs."
Here is one section of this special exhibition on view at the International Quilt Festival, 2014.

Wanna Cookie? Teresa Duryea Wong, 2014. Hand applique, machine quilted.
FINALIST: Special Exhibition: "It's Raining Cats and Dogs."

Wanna Cookie? (Detail) Teresa Duryea Wong, 2014. Hand applique, machine quilted. 

This quilt took about six months to complete and I titled it "Wanna Cookie?" My art quilt is an original design based on a photo that my husband and I took of our beloved family dog, Chip. There are about 200 pieces of applique here, all completed by hand (edge turned, hand applique)! The image is machine quilted using tons of white, several shades of gray, and black thread ... all placed close together to resemble lines of fur. No quilting lines ever crossed and the back is almost as cool as the front.

Chip actually passed away in May. We miss him very much - he was part of our family for 14 years!

"Wanna Cookie?" is part of the International Quilt Festival special exhibition "It's Raining Cats and Dogs." This is the first juried exhibition I've entered... and my expectations were not high. In fact, I didn't really expect to be accepted, but I thought I'd at least learn by going through the entry process.

When you walk in the front doors for the 40th anniversary of International Quilt Festival, Houston -
the Ruby Jubilee - this is what you'll see.  It is the most stunning display I've ever seen at IQF in the 15+ years
I have been attending Festival. Just love it!

When the day came that the finalists were supposed to be notified, I had not heard anything. Kept checking email throughout the day... nothing. Oh well. Then, finally, about 5 pm, the email came. My quilt was selected as one of the finalists. Big smile!

a Selfie

The rules for entering do not allow you to blog or post pics of your finished quilts on the web. So now, the giant "hole" on my blog gallery page can be populated with my Chip quilt! See my previous blog post on this.

Anyway.... It's hanging. I'm standing in front of it. Some of my family will be here to see it... bummed that our daughter in New York won't be able to see it. But the exhibition will travel for 2 years, so maybe it it'll make its way to New York! Hope so.

Here are my two favorites that are among the 30 finalists in this exhibition. (sorry I don't have the artists names... I will get those when I go again and add them!)

Here is my "artist's statement" (written earlier this year, before Chip died).

I am reminded of the competition’s theme every evening when the streets in my urban ’hood start ‘raining dogs’ and their owners. My dog, Chip, is quite old now and when we go out for walks, everyone asks me how old Chip is because he walks very slowly and his gray muzzle stands out against his black fur. He looks just like a distinguished, old man. So as I laid awake at night thinking about this quilt, I wanted to find a way to capture him in his elder years and show all the variation of black, white and gray fur with fabric and thread. My inspiration for this quilt was David Taylor’s “Maynard” art quilt. I saw “Maynard” years ago and I never forgot it. For this quilt, we photographed Chip and I made an original pattern based on the photo. I hand-appliquéd hundreds of tiny pieces of fabric and then meticulously machine quilted it by placing the thread in the same pattern as the fur. My intention was to capture Chip’s calm, happy personality. As my husband and I had him “model” for the camera, I asked him: “Wanna Cookie?”  His response is forever captured.

Just to end on a positive note... we can never replace our beloved Chip, but he is immortalized in my art quilt and I am so proud!

We also adopted a new dog a couple months ago... a 12 month old bundle of love and energy. The puppy chewing count so far: three pairs of shoes, one bath robe, and one remote control! Yikes! Luckily we have cured him of chewing our stuff... and he is a happy puppy. Maybe there is another art quilt in here... I have about ~100 photos (not joking!) to choose from. This one is my favorite so far!