$1,000 was awarded to Terry Sargent Peart from Road Sponsor, Carriage Country Quilts, for her Best Use of Color winning quilt, Carolinas.
Unconventional Quilter
Terry Sargent Peart “very rarely” follows a pattern. When she sees a quilt pattern that intrigues her, she will make it into her own, changing a thing here and a thing there, making it the size and colors she wants. This is as true today as it was in 1978 when she made her first quilt. At that time, Terry had seen a quilt kit advertised in a magazine and thought, “I don’t need to buy that, I can make it myself. This was before rotary cutters and rulers. I used cardboard templates and traced around them for every piece. I thought I was so clever. There weren’t many books available, so I would have to figure out the pattern and measurements myself. Luckily, I like math and drafting.” Those developed talents proved themselves when she won Best Use of Color at Road 2020.
Quilt Show Regular Entrant
Terry has entered a quilt into the Washington State Fair every year for over the past 30 years. At first, she was “really thrilled just to get a Participant ribbon and free admission to the Fair.” Over the years she has won a few ribbons at the Fair and eventually some bigger shows too. Road to California’s 2020 winner for Best Use of Color, Carolinas, was juried into Quiltcon 2019 in Nashville and in Quiltcon’s 2020 show, winning third place in Piecing.
Making Best Use of Color, Carolinas
Carolinas, was inspired by a trip Terry and her husband made through the Carolinas, spending a few days with relatives in Charleston. They returned home on October 5th. Terry thought about making this quilt to commemorate their trip. In order to submit the quilt to Quiltcon, she had to have it done and photographed before November 30th. She finished it with about a week to spare!!!
Photos and sketches of things Terry and her husband had seen and done on their trip served as the foundation for the quilt. Terry transferred her sketches into simple drawings using Electric Quilt. She recalled that by abstracting them, some of the sketches were barely recognizable.” She printed each block out and then enlarged them to 15 inches. Next, Terry transferred the blocks onto freezer paper and used those as templates for each piece.
The blocks represent some of the things they saw, including capital buildings, a horse carriage ride, historical buildings and architecture and landscapes. The color palette was unlike anything Terry had done previously. The colors were representative of the bright sun, the colorful flowers and trees, and the sea of the Carolinas. After Terry had made a few blocks, she realized the quilt was becoming too colorful so she went back and swapped out some of the colors for neutral greys which, she learned, “helped the colors to be more vibrant.” Terry shared that she didn’t have a set plan when she began this project; she just picked the colors as she made each block with concern about how it would look next to its neighbor color.
Winning Quilter at Road 2020
Terry wasn’t able to attend Road 2020. She asked one of her friends, who was working in a vendor’s booth, to take a picture of Carolinas hanging in the show. The first picture Terry’s friend sent back was just of a description of Carolinas. Terry reached out again for another picture and the second time, her friend sentthe “real picture of my quilt and the fact that it had won ‘Best Use of Color.’ I was totally surprised to win such a great award. I was just thrilled that the quilt had been juried into the show!”
Most of Terry’s winnings for her Best Use of Color quilt was used to attend Quiltcon in Austin, Texas. Terry said that trip, “was a lot of fun. I went a little crazy in the vendor mall. We had to figure out a way to get all that extra stuff home in our luggage without going overweight!”
Moving On
Terry related that she is currently working on a series of quilts based on the number Pi (3.14159…). She has made several iterations and has a few more in mind. After she exhausts her ideas on Pi, Terry is “Thinking about exploring artist, Bridget Riley’s work. A lot of Riley’s paintings almost beg to be interpreted into a quilts.”
Congratulations, Terry Sargent Peart, for winning Best Use of Color at Road to California 2020. To read more about Terry, please visit her blog.
