CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (Mike Banos / 03 Aug) Top Filipino quilter Myrl Lehman Tapungot of Cagayan de Oro City was selected as semifinalist for the AQS 2006 Quilt Exposition on August 23-26 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee.
Tapungot has been chosen to join 328 others in this annual contest now in its sixth year, offering $38,000 in cash awards. Tapungot's quilt, La Renaissance en Pastel, measures 74 inches wide by 74 inches long, and hundreds of hours of work.
Her entry was chosen by a three-member jury for the final judging. Three quilting authorities will judge this elite group prior to the opening of the show. The individual quilt named Best of Show will garner the AQS Best of Show award and $7,500 cash prize.
Regardless of how her the quilt places in the final judging, it still joins all 329 quilts to be displayed at the annual quilt show which brings more than 25,000 quilters, collectors, enthusiasts, and vendors to Nashville each August.
Quilts are no longer relegated to serving as mere bed covers. Many of these works, made with fabric and thread, are designed as art for the wall, according to AQS President Meredith Schroeder.
The quilts in this year's contest are from around the world and feature beautiful palettes of color. Entries are from 41 U.S. states and 7 other countries, including Canada, Germany, France, Korea, Japan, the Netherlands with only the Philippines, represented by Tapungot.
There are four categories in the judged contest: Quilter's Choice, O My Stars, On the Wall, and the Ultimate Guild Challenge.
In addition to the contest, there are six special exhibits of quilts: Cutting Loose, quilts by the Studio Art Quilt Associates, Teacher's Showcase of Quilts, Oh Wow! Miniature Quilt Collection from the Museum of the American Quilter's Society, Dresden Plate, New Quilts from An Old Favorite, Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece, and Quilts That Saw Us Through the War, antique quilts from WWII.
Sewers will also have the opportunity to stitch at the Baby Lock USA Quilts for Kids booth to make charity quilts for children.
Tapungot and her company M. Dean's House of Design, have previously placed Cagayan de Oro City and the Philippines in the map by winning top prizes in quilt competitions.
Barely three months ago, she brought honors to the Philippines by winning first prize in her category at the 2006 AQS Quilt Show & Contest held April 26-29 at the Paducah Expo Center in Paducah, Kentucky which was dominated by entries from the U.S. and Japan.
Myrl Lehman Tapungot's entry, "Mystic Beauty II", won first prize in the Bed Quilts Category Group - Mettler(r) Imported by A&E, Inc. Second was Sagacious Sisters by Sagacious Sisters, Marysville, WA while third was Flower Symphony by Aki Ueda of Aichi, Japan which however, is also reportedly made by Filipino quilters from Gusa.
"We have been around for many years, and we have been winning awards for quite a while. We compete in the group quilt category, and as you might imagine it is harder for group quilts to compete with other quilts because they are done by several different hands, therefore different stitches," Tapungot wrote in a statement posted in her website http://www.mdeans.com
"But in order to offer large works to the general "quilt loving" public, we have to do our quilts as a group and team effort. Some of our quilts can easily take over a year of dedicated effort to complete. We pride ourselves in making quilts with near perfect, identical stitches, and even experts using magnifying glasses find it difficult or impossible to tell the difference."
Tapungot stressed that while she designs and directly supervises all the work done on her award winning quilts, it is a collective effort by M. Dean's House of Design, a small family business that started in 1984 in their residence at Villa Ernesto Subdivision in Gusa village in Cagayan de Oro City.
"We employ some 150 handicraft people in the making of our beautiful quilts, all done by hand, to achieve that special look that can't be duplicated by any machine." Tapungot stressed. "This is a long, intricate process, because we do some of the finest stitching in the world. However, for maximum strength and accurate alignment, all of our piecing is done by machine."
"We guarantee all of our quilts 100%," Tapungot asserts with confidence. "If for any reason, you are not satisfied with the quilt you ordered, we will fix it, and if it can't be fixed, we will either replace it or cheerfully refund your money."
Although almost all of her quilters did not have any previous experience in quilting, M. Dean's established a family tradition among the quilters she employs who sometimes have three generations of their kin quilting together the award-winning designs in their homes.
"Many of our quilters' main source of income is farming, and quilting provides a valuable source of supplemental income between planting and harvesting," Tapungot explained.
"Most of the quilting is done in the traditional way, in the employee's individual homes, providing scores of families in our area additional income and stability. This also affords the homemakers a chance to earn income while caring for their homes and families."
Tapungot is not bothered by the country's lack of a tradition in quilting, which was pioneered in Cagayan de Oro by another Filipino quilter from Carmen, Ellen K. Delgado and the Oro House of Patches.
"We have set up shop here off the beaten track and have grown independent of what is going on with the rest of the Quilt world. We offer original designs and methods few have the means or skill to do. We think you will agree that our Trapunto MAGIC is a complete departure from other more traditional Trapunto Quilting. We make lovely three dimensional Quilts that will please the eye, the hand, as well as the heart. "
Tapungot and M. Dean's House of Design have won many awards over the years, the most significant of which include "Le Mariage d' Eryn", 1st Place in the Group Quilt category at the Houston International Quilt Festival held Nov 4-7, 2004 ("An amazing Trapunto quilt inspired by my lovely granddaughter and the hope that one day I will be there to see her wedding).
“Enchanted Doorway II”, 1st Place and Judges Choice award, Group Quilt Category, International Quilt Association's Quilt Festival at Houston, Texas held Oct. 21-24 1999; which again won 2nd Place, Group Quilt Category at the 17th Annual Quilt Show and Contest of the American Quilter's Society, Paducah, Kentucky, April 25-28, 2001.
“Baltimore Album,” 1st Place Viewers Choice Award, 3rd Annual Quilt Show held in Mt. Angel Brewery, Mt. Angel, Oregon, February , 1999 ; "My Garden of Dreams", GINGHER AWARD for "Excellence in hand Workmanship", Viewers' Choice Award, American Quilt Society in Paducah, Kentucky, awarded a $10, 000.00 dollar prize in April 1997 and now exhibited in the American Quilters Society Quilt Museum;
Purple Lilac Bouquet, 1st Place, Quilting in the Teton's Trapunto Category Viewers Choice Award 1993; Small Myomi, 1st Place, Lampasas Quilt Extravaganza, Lampasas, Texas; Texas Star, 1st Place, CPQG, Texas, 1993; and the multi-awarded Rose Lilac Bouquet, 1st place and Viewers Choice Award, Misty Mountain Quilters Guild, August 1993;
1st place , Wall Hangings 36" or less category, 22nd Annual Northwest Quilters Guild, March 1997; 1st place, Okefenokee Quilt Fest Ware CO Chapter, Georgia, Council on Child Abuse, 1992 and 1st place, Lane County Fair, Oregon 1997 (competing in the "Applique, trapunto and alphabet quilts" category).
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