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Ruth Powers

Email: Ruth Powers
Website: http://www.innovationsquilts.com

Ruth started quilting in 1989, expecting to hate it, but found that she loved all aspects of it, especially the designing. Her first quilt incorporated traditional blocks with an original landscape. She still does some things that are pretty traditional -- especially for her pattern company, INNOVATIONS (founded in 1994) - but even those lean toward innovative design. 

What she really loves though, is to create one-of-a-kind quilts, often pictorial.  Her greatest inspiration comes from nature, as that is the thread that weaves throughout the works. Nature, fabric, books, words, architecture--inspiration is everywhere, often found in places where you least expect it!  Competitions and challenges also inspire Ruth and she has enjoyed some wins in major shows, including her recent "Best of Show" at IQA, Chicago 2006 for her quilt "Early Birds".  She belongs to IQA, SAQA, AQS, KAQ and several local guilds and groups.



Early Birds
38"h x 49"w
2006
The Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection
 Artist Statement: Robins and tulips, those ubiquitous harbingers of spring - what better way to celebrate spring than these robins in the tulips?

Exhibits:
IQA Chicago Celebrate Spring! 2006 Best Of Show
KAQ Covers Blown, Topeka, KS 2007


Tribute To A British Spring
38"h x 49.5"w
2006
Private Collection

Artist Statement: Inspired by memories of springtime in England and Wales, and a photo I took while visiting there. The meadows were filled with new life, lambs and daffodils!

Exhibits:
IQA Chicago Celebrate Spring! 2007 First place
IQF Houston, exhibit of Celebrate Spring! 2007
Solo Exhibit, Rodeo Days, Burlingame, KS. 2007

Techniques: Machine pieced, machine quilted, commercially printed cotton fabric, cotton batting, various threads


Watermelon Wine
69.25 x 55"
2006
$6200

Artist Statement: I love finding just the right commercially printed fabrics to portray my visions in abstract realism!

Exhibits:
IQF Houston 2006
AQS, Paducah, KY 2007 - Third place Pictorial
KS Inaugural Family Day Celebration,Topeka, KS. 2007
Solo Exhibit, Rodeo Days, Burlingame, KS. 2007

Materials and techniques: Machine pieced, machine quilted, commercially printed cotton fabric, cotton batting, various threads

Lady Godiva
47.5"h x 38.5"w
2006
$2500
Made for and accepted by Fiber Arts Connection of Southern California’s “She Made Her Mark” Exhibit

Exhibits:
Quilter’s Hall Of Fame, Marion, IN. 2006 Third Place

Materials and techniques: Machine pieced, machine quilted, commercially printed cotton fabric, cotton batting, various threads

Eve
60"h x 41"w
2001
$3000

Created for the online challenge "Legendary Women".

Materials and techniques: Machine pieced and appliquéd, hand embroidered embellishment, machine quilted.

Bathsheba - Preparing the Bath
22"h x 22"w
2003
$1500

This piece was made for the "Women Of Biblical Proportions" exhibit currently touring.

Artist Statement: I wished to depict Bathsheba at moonrise, her beauty gilded by the golden light of the moon and reflected back on her from the wall behind her mosaic tub.  The feeling of her being in the out of doors is emphasized by the various foliage fabrics used, and I knew that I wanted to use a warm palette of predominately rusts and purples. I enjoy the challenge of finding just the right commercial fabrics to portray my subjects in a realistic manner.

Materials and techniques: This work is pieced, not appliquéd, except for her heel and ear. It is free motion machine quilted in various metallic and rayon threads. All of the fabrics used are 100% cotton, as is the batting.

The Old Homestead
56"h x 49”w
2006
$4500		 Artist Statement: Once someone’s dream home, a place to start a new life in a new land. Now the ravages of time and weather have taken their toll and it is just another abandoned ruin. Imagine it in it’s prosperity, the love within it’s walls and the children in the Sycamore tree. A dream home still, to the wild creatures who surely live there now!

Exhibits:
IQF Houston, Tx 2006 Tactile Architecture
IQA Chicago 2007 Tactile Architecture
Solo Exhibit, Rodeo Days, Burlingame, KS. 2007

Techniques: Entirely pieced by machine, the seam lines purposefully do not meet so as to add to the abstract quality of the work. Heavily machine quilted on my Bernina with various cotton and rayon threads which serve as much for embellishment as to hold the layers together.

All images on this page and site referenced to Ruth Powers are copyrighted by 
said artist and cannot be used or duplicated without the artist's consent.