These are not your grandmother’s quilts

From a recent post in UNT's INhouse:

Naomi S. Adams is accustomed to being one of the youngest people at quilting shows. But at age 34, this [Studio Art-Fibers] graduate student in the College of Visual Arts and Design is helping to shape the future of quilting as she earns worldwide recognition for her unusual designs.

Adams won the Future of Quilting Award at the November 2010 International Quilt Festival in Houston. The award was sponsored by Tin Lizzie 18 quilting equipment manufacturer and was part of the judged show, “Quilts: A World of Beauty,” of the International Quilt Association. She earned $1,000 and expenses.

Adams created her quilt, Diamonds (see right), by using three unusual quilting methods - dying the batting used to make four quilts, cutting them into crescent-shaped pieces and gluing the pieces to a fifth quilt.

The resulting three-dimensional quilt is 35 inches wide-by-42 inches high and stands out three inches from the wall.

Her quilts are not functional in the traditional sense, she said. She sleeps under a regular comforter - not one of her own creations - but she does have her quilts covering nearly every inch of the walls at her home. The only functional quilts she’s made are baby quilts for her sisters’ children, she said.

Adams also won the Olfa Okada Young Designer Award at the American Quilters Society show in 2008. Her work will be shown at Quilt National 2011, a juried international art quilt exhibition, May 28 through Sept. 5, 2011 at the Dairy Barn Arts Center, Athens, Ohio.

Adams graduated from Denton High School at the Ryan campus and then earned an undergraduate degree in interior design from Washington State University. She plans to receive a master of fine arts degree in studio arts from UNT in May 2012.