PIQF 2011 10-21-11

As I said earlier there were so many quilts in this show that I did not see all of them.  I'm glad that Mary Leakey took these pictures and let me download her camera into my laptop because I only saw one of these quilts!

 

To me this quilt appears to be transparent, but since I didn't see it, I'm not sure.  I'm afraid I must be a little dense because I don't get the connection between the artist's statement and the quilt.  But I like it quilt - it is very 1956 to me. 

I like the effect of the dark "bits", but don't understand how she did them.  Fusing?  Marking? Something to experiment with someday.

 

Great color and the quilting does enhance the design.

 

When I saw this quilt hanging I wanted to twitch the two pieces closer together - I can't believe the maker intended to have such a broad black strip between them.  Of course, they were hanging on a black curtain, whereas in a normal display they would most likely be on a beige or off-white wall.  I like the design and the color.  And I enjoyed exploring this type of piecing a few years ago when I was actually making quilts.

 Corky is here for the weekend - such a great little guy - good company for me.  And a chance for his parents to sleep in.  Corky has ALWAYS been an early bird - but then we take a long morning nap.

PIQF 2011 10-20-11

I'm finding myself in a time crunch - trying to do too many things in a day.  Tonight I will just post a few quilts and hope tomorrow will allow more time for Blogging.  Thank you for your comments, I'm glad you are enjoying the pictures from this huge Quilt Festival.  Somewhere I read how many quilts were displayed in this 20th Anniversary year, but I can't find it now.  Maybe six hundred?  More than I could see in two days, I know I missed some good ones
 
I have two corrections to make on my 10-18-11 post:
The first is that I failed to tell you that the fabulous quilting on the raffle quilt for which I purchased tickets was done by Holly Casey of King City, CA.


And the 2nd correction/addition is this picture of the back of "Simply Santa Fe" by Cindy Seitz-Krug, which I posted on 10-18-11.  I took the picture out of order when I had the chance and didn't move it into its rightful place before I posted.  Although the back is not mentioned on the label, the white glove lady was showing it because it is hand stenciled with artist cut stencils and is quite lovely.

Jan is a friend from Surfside Quilters Guild who does excellent hand applique and especially enjoys the Piece O' Cake patterns.  This quilt received a 3rd place ribbon at this show.  Congratulations, Jan.  You deserve all the awards you receive, you are such an inspiration to quilters near and far.  

This is the only picture I took of the quilts in the "7" special exhibit.  I am an admirer of Eileen Lauterborn's quilts and have tried to purchase a couple, but someone has always been in line in front of me.  I'm not as fond of the colors in this one as some of her previous quilts I have seen.

 

 

I am just too tired to stay up any later - I'll try again tomorrow if I can find the time.  There are pictures of some of the Special Exhibits and the World Quilt Competition.

PiQF 2011 10-18-11

The theme of PIQF this year was "Time", which explains why so many of the labels have references to time.  I've always found the themes rather ambiguous and I know people who use an existing quilt and weave the theme into the statement with some pretty vague language.  Personally, I would rather know why they chose the particular design or color or technique or.........! 

Zena Thorpe makes exquisite hand appliqued,h and embroidered and hand quilted quilts.  Each is a special treasure to which she devotes a great deal of time. 

Perhaps it was twenty years ago that Nancy Crow switched to her "free cutting" technique.  At that time I thought Ruth McDowell's piecing techniques were the "new bold" leader.  It took me to the end of the 90s to try out "free cutting" with any seriousness.  I like what Sylvia has done on this quilt - even the heavy border seems to work. 

I lightened this image to show the quilting lines better. 

This is quite a large piece and the winner of the Best of Show in the World Quilt Competition XV.   

 

Another machine quilting tour de force.  But at least the quilting is not at odds with the basic quilt design.

 

 

I don't know how much money I have spent on raffle quilt tickets and I have never won one.  So, five or six years ago I pretty much just gave up.  But this one really appeals to me.  And again, the quilting relates beautifully to the design of the piecing - it was quilted by Holly Casey of King City, CA.  The pattern is very much like Ruth McDowell's "Painted Daisy" design in her 1994 book "Symmetry: A Design System for Quiltmakers."   But not exactly.

Friends usually chide me for not including many traditional quilts when I take pictures at QShows, so I looked for what I think are good examples of what is being done today.  I think there were more traditional quilts this year, but Innovative Wall quilts were the largest category.

I find the quilting motif on the right side with little puffs and curls especially pleasing.

There are always lizards, geckos, iguanas, etc., in big shows, but there did seem to be an abundance at PIQF this year.  They are quite colorful and usually very nicely quilted with their warts and bumps.

 

I will continue with the PIQF pictures until I have shown them all.

PIQF 2011 10-17-11

I drove home from San Juan Bautista today - it was an easy drive with light traffic and not too warm.  It was six hours with a stop for gas/Starbucks and a pit stop.  I made it here before the "rush hour" traffic, unloaded and returned the rental van, picked up the Lexus, returned home and took a nice long nap.  More about van rental later. 

About the pictures...   I take pictures of quilts that I like or think are interesting, but I also take some that I think will interest friends and some that have unusual or original techniques.  Going to any quilt show is an educational experience for me, so I spend a lot of time looking closely at the quilts.  Which is why nobody wants to tag along, I take too long! 

If you want to see more of a quilter's work you should first check the sidebar to see if I have posted their names.  Then Google the name followed by "quilt" to find references that are online elsewhere.

This is just a sweet quilt that incorporates a memory fabric to make it special to the maker.  The swirly background is a step above the usual meandering stipple that adds a lot of character. 

Nancy is a dear friend who makes truly wonderful quilts - this is the second I have posted this year.  It is so bright with perfect value steps in the colors.  Notice those little colored dots that pull the color into the black and white. I can hear someone saying "those are places to rest your eyes"!

www.nancyota.com

 

Jan made the prize winning quilt of Audrey Hepburn that I posted yesterday.  She has done a great job with this realistic iguana.  The leaves and Juan's tail overlapping the inner border create great depth.

Juan's crest is truly 3-D.

This quilt (and many others) has two labels because it was part of the main PIQF competition exhibit and also of the Special Exhibit of Quilts of NCalifornia.   I usually don't show both labels, but in this case they give entirely different information.  The color in my pictures is not true, but the best of the five full images I took.  The sky is actually more peach than yellow.  It is a very beautiful quilt, perhaps my favorite in this exhibit.

Notice the orange line between the hills and the sky - it makes a visual accent for the colors of each.

I think that one of the reasons the reflections look so real is that the black "poles" don't fit perfectly over the light colored reflection.  The little spaces at the ends create the hovering effect that real reflections have.

Great color in this quilt and interesting stitched outlines.  On my Pfaff 1222E, which is not a computerized machine, I can use up to DMC Perle #5 on the top so I don't need to work from the back.  One advantage to have a thirty year old machine!

Click photo for enlargement.

Very simple, very graphic - this is a memory quilt that will endure for several lifetimes and still be "new".

Another quilt from the talented Aileyn, a friend from Empty Spools Seminars at Asilomar.

Jean is Aileyn's sister and I also know her from Empty Spools Seminars.  They both do very nice work in  entirely different styles.  This quilt has a wooden "doohickey" just like on a real sailboat. 

Blogger will let me post only a limited number of images all together, then I have to add them one at a time, which takes forever.  Maybe tomorrow I will post several pages, so be sure to move down when you reach the bottom of a post.