Steamboat Springs — The quilts David Taylor creates don’t even look like quilts.

Depicting nature scenes around Steamboat Springs, the award-winning pieces look more like paintings on cloth. They also looked good enough to garner two first-place awards at the International Quilt Association’s annual show Nov. 19 in Houston.

Taylor won first place in the Art-Pictorial category with “Christmas Chickadee” and first place in Art-Naturescapes with “A Year Under the Aspens.” Those quilts were among 375 finalists in a competition that attracted 657 entries from across the world.

Taylor said scenes around Steamboat inspired both quilt designs. The chickadee was a scene he saw from his kitchen window, while the four aspens were found in four different seasons, at four distinct times of the day, from Fish Creek Falls, Buffalo Pass, Howelsen Hill and Emerald Mountain.

Only two entries are allowed per contestant, and each must be accepted by the show.

“I have been lucky over the past five years to have two quilts accepted every year,” he said. “But this is the first time they’ve both won a big blue ribbon.”

Taylor won one first-place ribbon last year.

Taylor’s Web site, www. davidtaylorquilts.com, shows many of his quilts and includes information about future shows.