PIQF #17 The last post of PIQF quilts. 10-31-09

This is a very long post for me and I'm not sure I can stop posting pictures from PIQF '09 - I have images of some really wonderful quilts that I haven't shared. Maybe later in November when my brain and my life dry up and I have nothing else to talk about!

"Spontaneous occurrences" sounds like what I would like to have in my quilt making. But all those decades of traditional quilts just keep me UNspontaneous. This quilt makes me yearn to try for it again.

To me this looks like many colorful images shattered into many different shapes and then reassembled. Such fabulous color. And all the little refractions make the sparkle.


What a great combination of fabrics of all kinds. Surely the blue with the white "fingerprints" is an original of the artist - painted? discharged? maybe even screened?

Glowing red - fire? blood? sunset? Really a great quilt that would take a lifetime to discover every detail.

My good friend Mary submitted her 50 word essay about this quilt, but the powers behind the exhibit didn't print it for the viewers. As they didn't quite a few other artists' remarks. I am still wondering why. Some quilts transcend themselves when the viewer knows just a bit more about them and why they were made.

"Oliver is a wild caught Blue and Gold Macaw that was imported through Florida around 1971.
After the owner died Oliver ended up at the Peninsula Humane Society where Mary and her two grandgirls went to see him. He was in terrible shape, but the grandgirls and Mary's daughter thought he could be nursed back to health and they took him home in July 2004." He is now a healthy, talkative bird and quite beautiful, so Mary decided that a quilt was in order. She started it in Susan Carlson's class at Asilomar last spring. The wonderful realistic face with the thin black lines was created using that black and white spring onion fabric of a few years ago.

The fantastic machine quilting, including around each of the loose feathers, was done by Sharon Winters who sometimes teaches at Back Porch Fabric Shop in Pacific Grove.

There were a lot of painted quilts or quilts with some painting this year. The painting on this one is very effective. There is a lot of depth looking out over the grey ocean.

The children are nicely represented against the water.

I love the story behind this quilt, especially with the handwritten correction at the bottom of the label. After nine years work what an insult to have that glaring mistake for everyone to read.

The blue ribbon is for Best Handwork in the Traditional category. Even with my pink prejudice I think this is a sensational quilt.

And just look at the background quilting - each hanging square has a perfect little puff across the center, showing how even the stitches and the tension are. Amazing!

PIQF #16 Butterflies, a turtle and fish 10-30-09

Turtles seem to be popular the last few years, perhaps because some species are endangered.
Last year there was a turtle very much like this, but I looked and it is not the same one. They were both beautiful done with a very effective "seagoing" background.

NO PHOTO OF LABEL FOR THE ONE BELOW - SORRY!
IF IT IS YOURS, PLEASE LET ME KNOW.

This most colorful turtle appears to be on a background similar to diamond piecing done by Jan Krentz and her students. I think this is also an effective background for an underwater scene.

But I must admit that I took pictures of this quilt because of the tiny-weeny mouths on the fish. I don't know how someone can applique something so small and so smooth. Great applique.

There were also quite a few butterflies this year. I like this one especially.

The color is lovely and the stitch precise and even.

You will notice that this quilt with only three butterflies is enormous. I'm not sure I could live with such huge creatures, but I love the design and the color.

And also the idea that this is the third generation of butterfly quilts in the family.

This construction method looks similar to that of Terry Grant in Oregon. See how she does it at
http://andsewitgoes.blogspot.com/2006/04/my-fusing-method.html

PIQF #15 Last of the World quilts 10-29-09

We see the damage from the pine beetle everywhere I have been in the last few years. There are many species, both native and invasive. Invasive species are carried onto this continent via all wood products and those little souvenirs that thoughtless travelers hide in their luggage.

The color change from green and brown at the upper left to the blue/white/grey in the lower right is interesting. piecing diagonals in the borders gives a hint of the light shining through. Coreen has created very effective depth with her colors and values.

This is the block at the upper right with the pine needles in a golden green and the borers' tracks in a light thread on the dark trees.

I wish Ruth had identified the type of tree - I believe they are eucalyptus, but which of the over 700 varieties I haven't a clue.

This quilt and the next one are pieced using a complex piecing technique such as taught by Ruth McDowell. Ruth de Vos has learned her technique very well, no matter where she learned it.

I wonder how she created the shadows. If they are a printed as part of the striped fabric, she has cut them amazingly well. I suspect they are stamped or screened.

I don't know which quilt I covet more the one above or this one. Actually they would make a great pair, even if one is vertical and the other horizontal. The color is delicious.

This detail shows just how complex the piecing was. Even though the quilts are large keeping these thin lines in order takes concentration.

Part of the depth of these pieces is the change of color or value where the images overlap - leaf over leaf, flower petal over flower petal, etc. Very nice work all around.

Small Quilt Auction - 10-29-09

I have just heard about this online auction which closes on Nov 1 for the Virginia Quilt Museum. They are very traditional little quilts, but some very nice pieces. If not for your collection, how about for a gift? I have bid on a couple for that purpose. Since I don't do traditional much anymore and I know a few people who have not yet accepted the idea of 'art quilts' - perhaps you do, too, and could gift them with one of these little charmers.

http://www.vaquiltmuseum.org/eventAuction.php

The 'slider' on the right is hard to find in the black background, but it is there - keep trying.

And pass this on to people you think might be interested. Love, Del

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PIQF #14 Charming Quilts 10-28-09

This quilt won the Best of Country (Blue) ribbon for South Africa and somehow I did not take a picture of the entire quilt! You can see one on the World Quilt Competition site:

http://www.worldquilt.com/activities_detail.asp?id=124

I was so taken with this childlike image of a quail that I took this picture before the whole quilt and then didn't go back for a full shot. Isn't he charming?

Also in the quilt is this cat with the profile of some kind of goat.

Also this rustic little house in bright colors. On the right side is a person done with running stitch and a scarab beetle image.

I don't 'do' Christmas, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying Christmas symbols, art, quilts, etc. This is one of the most charming Christmas memory quilts I have seen.

There were many quilts that were painted or partially painted, many not very successfully, but this one is so delicate and endearing I didn't mind the very light layers of paint.

Some folksy angels flying over a star - one eating apples!

Dear little decorations on the tree include tiny angels , bears, balls, and little children.
Click on the pictures to enlarge.

PIQF #13 More World Competition Quilts 10-27-09

I was surprised to see this quilt in the Germany section - I never thought about Nancy Crow teaching in Europe! To anyone familiar with Nancy's classes this is immediately identifiable.

I find this very discordant, but interesting. To me the one horizontal black bar is the only 'eye resting' aspect. Looking closely at the quilting I think she was mistaken about not quilting more.

I admit - I don't understand this explanation at all, but I suspect some of you will.


A fascinating quilt that really stood out among those hanging near it. The fish are 'in school' but not regimented. The seaweed looks like trees.

The dancers are gleeful - even if they are lower than fish! It is as though the ocean and the land switched places. I'd like to have time to look more closely at this one.

This quilt won the Best of Country award (a blue ribbon) for the United States.

You can tell how very detailed it is. The ladies gathered around were remarking how hungry they were getting! Me, too. One would see something 'new' every time they looked at it.

The judges gave this one an Honorable Mention in the Innovative Category.

Since I am always fascinated by palm trees, I found this one amazing - a lot of depth and they really look like palm fronds from further back. It could be a window, couldn't it?