North Sea Quilters: Irena Bluhm

During the Patchwork en Quiltdagen 14-15 February in Rijswijk we had the privilege to exhibit Irena Bluhm's Hawaaian Punch Quilt.

Irena Bluhm: "Hawaiian Punch"
54” x 54”
Cotton, cotton and polyester batting,
Cotton and polyester thread

Hawaiian Punch was started as a practice piece before stitching on my Paducah 2007 entry, but life did get in the way. My real Paducah entry has not been completed. I submitted Hawaiian Punch to the AQS Paducah instead and was not sure whether it would be accepted. It turned out, it was accepted and subsequently has won five awards at other shows. I used 100% cotton sateen for the top and backing and double batting
[polyester for the top and 80/20 for the bottom] to create the raised design effect. YLI variegated thread was used on the top and Maxilock in the bobbin. Maxilock was used for the background filler as well. After the quilting was complete, the color was applied using colored pencils and textile medium to make the color permanent. All flower centers are turned edge appliqué stitched using the needle position button on my Gammill® Optimum Plus.

This quilt won an Honorable Mention at Machine Quilters Showcase 2007, 2nd place Machine Quilting Excellence at Quilter’s Gathering 2007, 2nd Place, Innovative, Wall, Mixed at the Road 2 California 2008, Honorable Mention at Dallas Quilt Celebration 2008, Honorable Mention at Quilt Expo 2008 in Madison WI, USA.

Irena Bluhm is an award winning quilter, instructor, pattern designer and the author of 6 books. Irena is also a National Sales Representative for Gammill® Quilting Systems.

Irena Bluhm was born and raised in Poland. She moved to Germany in 1981 and then to the California, the United States, in 1991. After her husband retired in 2001, they purchased a 71-acre property in rural Antlers, Oklahoma where her large studio is located. With 18 years of garment making/design and 12 years of doing art for hobby, she has transitioned the experience in creating fine art and other skills into making quilts for shows and exhibits exclusively. Irena is very passionate about creating many different quilting design patterns, innovative ways of making show quality quilts, writing books and teaching.

Her enthusiasm is very contagious as she loves to share, encourage and inspire other quilters to try something new that they never thought they would be able to do. After long arm quilting for just a little over 1 year, Irena started teaching long arm quilting nationwide in March 2006 at many major venues MQX 2006, 2007, HMQS 2007, MQS 2007, AQS 2007 in Paducah, Innovations 2006 and 2007, MQS 2008, AQS Quilt Expo 2008 in Des Moines, Iowa, USA and Germany.

Irena is hoping that her encouraging nature, very contagious enthusiasm for creating art and what she loves to do is going to inspire many others to try her techniques. Some students, who participated in her workshops, are producing award winning quilts.

Since she started entering her work into major national and international quilt contests in 2005, she developed a strong and lasting passion for this art form. Her work has won 54 awards in national and international quilt contests. Among all awards, some of them are won at: IQF in Houston, AQS in Paducah and Nashville, Road 2 Ca, PIQF, NQA, MQS, MQX and Innovations to name just a few. She has designed hundreds of quilting patterns and only a very small portion has been published and is available on the market. She also has authored six books so far and more books are in progress.
www.irenabluhmscreations.com

Visitors in front of Irena Bluhm's "Hawaiian Punch" quilt

For the Patchwork and Quiltdagen festival in Rijswijk, The Netherlands, over the Valentine's weekend, we were privileged to bring together some of our favorite quilts from some of our favorite quilters to expose the Dutch quilting public to the possibilities of long-arm quilting. Many thanks to Jobina de Boer for making this exhibition possible. And many, many thanks to all our friends for loaning us their wonderful works of art to hang!

One of the purposes of the exhibition was to expose quilters here who haven't had the opportunity to travel to Birmingham or France or the United States to see the work of longarm quilters from other places. We found that people were extremely interested and asked lots of questions on techniques. They were also interested and sometimes amused by the motivations behind some of the works. Our friends have been extremely generous both with their quilts but also with the information behind them that makes the works more accessible to people on a personal level. Hopefully, quilters here in Holland now feel as though our friends are their friends as well!

To have a feeling of the exhibition look at the photos, taken during the exhibition in the Patchwork en Quiltdagen in Rijswijk!