PIQF #5 New Quilts of NCalifornia 10-19-09

New Quilts of Northern California is an annual exhibit of quilts from members of guilds that compose the Northern California Council of Quilt Guilds. It is a juried exhibit. Unfortunately, their labels don't give size, so if I forget to estimate at the time I take the photo I have to guess.

Be sure to click on the images to enlarge.

I estimate this quilt is about 22"W x 26"L

It is difficult to see against the black background, but the bottom edge forms a point.

Black glass leaves make a nice counterpoint to the flat cotton and add a bit of sparkle.


The word Hukilau immediately brings images of the movie "Dirty Dancing" to my mind. And I think this quilt does resembled the nets with their floats in the water.

I guess this quilt is about 48"W x 52"L.

14.25"W x 48"L

Somehow I missed a detail shot of this quilt - it is heavily hand embroidered with matching ? perle cotton?. The texture is wonderful. Perhaps it will show in the enlargement.

Wabi-sabi is the Japanese art of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in nature. "Characteristics of the wabi-sabi aesthetic include asymmetry, asperity, simplicity, modesty, intimacy, and the suggestion of natural processes." From Wikipedia. Also check out http://tinyurl.com/556dz2

What a marvelous collection of Japanese blue and white fabrics. This is the lower portion of the quilt, it is very long and lays out on the floor, so people can't get too close. .

Roberta has added many horizontal strips of (possibly) Japanese silk in mostly red values.

If you enlarge the picture by clicking on it you will be able to see that the flowing quilting lines are machine stitched in dark blue thread and hand stitched in red, white and dark blue perle cotton. This is a quilt in which you will discover something new each time you look at it.

PIQF #4 Two Contemporary Quilts 10-18-09

The label above is the one given by PIQF.

I was surprised to see this quilt in this Quilt Show - I would expect it to turn up at Quilt National.

This label is from the group that juries, labels and hangs the Special Exhibit "New Quilts of Northern California". It is very odd that some of these labels have lots of information and some have just the quilt name, the name of the quilt maker and the town where they live - even though the quilt makers were asked to submit further information on their quilts - and they did! I was not the only viewer who was disappointed.

This is very interesting, but to me it is not a quilt.

This detail is the third block down on the left side.

I can't count the number of people who have commented, "Someday I'm going to make a New York Beauty," including myself! Since Karen Stone started selling the foundation papers there is almost no excuse for not doing it.

This is a vibrant, colorful quilt. Something went awry with my camera skills, but I think it is so wonderful I had to share it with you, even in this diminished image.

I think the 'spiky' border is my very favorite and I have used it on a number of quilts - this color combo also always appeals to me.

PIQF #3 Some Pieced Quilts 10-17-09

Apologies for this late post - we had computer gremlins last night. Del

Some of my friends enjoy seeing pieced quilts, so today's post shows three pieced quilts of varying design aspects.

I have lived in SCalifornia for over fifty years, but I have not forgotten the long grey, drizzly winters outside of Portland, Oregon, so I can appreciate Mary-Margaret's desire to have a little Springtime in her quilt.

Her quilt is nicely square, but sometimes it is just not possible to stand exactly in front of a quilt to take a picture that shows off all its fine points. Mary-Margaret does very nice work.

I took two detail shots, one with flash and this one without. The flash completely wiped out the detail of the feather stitching, so I show you this photo which is not correct in color, but shows the free motion feathers.

Rebecca Rohrkaste's quilts are always a little bit different and usually bright colors. I appreciate her whimsical look at the back side of a brick wall - sort of like 'Toys in the Attic" that come alive in the night to assume a "human" life.

Notice that the sashing changes from orange to pink.

Carol defies the "rules" by experimenting with different techniques and combinations of those techniques.

Be sure to click on the picture to enlarge. It appears that she has couched yarns to fabric before cutting squares, giving a different texture to the surface of her quilt. Notice that she has used thread in different values or hues to stitch down the smallest squares and circles.

PIQF 10-16-09

I find the labels almost impossible to photograph clearly, but I am not willing to retype them into a new format and transfer that to Blogger. I think you can make out every word, even if the pictures of the labels are less than adequate.

Barbara has captured the feel of 1939 very well - I can believe that this lady is off to Catalina!

The eyebrows, the lipstick, the great hat - all are appropriate to the era.
I don't find a website for Barbara and the only work of hers I have seen before was traditional.

The Mancuso shows all have a theme, this year it was, "It's the Getting There...". So all the quilts supposedly express something to do with that. Some labels seem to have very little connection to the quilt, although this one slightly connects. One odd thing I noticed this year is that there were almost no teachers/designers credited on the labels. I don't know if this is something the Mancuso brothers have decided to do or that nobody (and I find this hard to believe) acknowledged the direct connection of their work to the teacher of a workshop or the designer of the original pattern that has been used - modified or not. I don't believe quilt makers should be anonymous, nor should their teachers or the originator of the design used.

Phyllis quilt won the Best use of Color in the Wall Quilt category.

This quilt has an irregular shaped bottom, so the white that you see is not part of the quilt, but the background drape.

A closer shot of just the pelicans. You may click on the pictures for a larger view.

Pacific International Quilt Festival 10-15-09

This large quilt festival, known as PIQF, is held annually in Santa Clara, CA, which is near San Jose. I don't know how long I have been attending - maybe fifteen years. For about the last ten I have stayed with my friend Mary in San Juan Bautista, about an hour's drive south of Santa Clara, so that we could go together. We usually have one or two of Mary's friends along, but once we arrive at the show we agree on a time to meet for lunch and then split up to see the quilts at our individual pace. At lunch we decide what time we will head for home. This afternoon I was completely pooped out before I had seen very much of the show, so I waited for the others whilst sitting on a comfortable sofa in a quiet nook of the lobby. I hope I have more zip tomorrow, so with that in mind I will only post a few quilts I chose arbitrarily from the pictures I took today.

Karen has dealt with a serious illness in the past eight months, so I am happy to see one of her quilts.

The background is the curtain from which the quilt hangs. The quilt itself is just the nest hanging free from a branch. Since I am so enchanted with my "bowls" shape, with pieces cut in a similar manner, I am always interest in other artists work with the same shape. I wonder how this would look not on black, but on a wall color one would find in a residence - Navajo white, beige, yellow, etc.

Franki is a friend of several years and I am participating in a fiber postcard exchange she organized and directs - see: http://www.postmarkdart.com/. I purchased one of her Ginkgo quilts (15" square) last year at the Alliance for American Quilts online auction. It has a textured background and is very lovely.

To appreciate her excellent technique and the beauty of the materials she uses, you must see Franki's work

"in-the-fabric"

Here is a close-up that shows the intricate thread work on the leaves. I previously posted about Franki's work last year at: http://delquilts.blogspot.com/2008/10/more-piqf-quilts-10-22-08.html

More quilts from the Festival tomorrow and Saturday and.......??

Rain on I-5 10-14-09

Time for the Pacific International Quilt Festival! Which requires a drive up to Mary's in San Juan Bautista - it was unavoidable that today was the day. The first rain Southern California has had since last winter - February, maybe. When I posted last night it was already raining, but with the newer windows I couldn't hear it! Rain off and on all night and this morning, but not much wind in our neighborhood. I managed to diddle around getting ready and doing things I should have done days ago - my usual procedure for a road trip!

It rained through Pasadena and across the foothills (where the fires were so bad) along the 210 Fwy. Then I turned onto the I-5 and started up into the mountains when I hit REAL rain. But it didn't last long. In the Lexus the windshield wipers come on automatically when rain is detected - they are well trained as they came on periodically during the entire 5-1/2 hour drive!

At this point I could see the edge of the storm off to the northeast - the pavement is wet, but it is spritzing more than actually raining.

Down in the valley the clouds were low and slanting sunlight shining through the openings was quite lovely

The cotton is currently being harvested. Here is a truck loaded with one of those huge "bales" of cotton that I have shown previously lined up along the edges of the picked over cotton fields.

See: http://delquilts.blogspot.com/2007/11/driving-i-5-again-11-15-07.html

Not many cars on the road, but trucks, trucks and more trucks. Here is a row of nine. They kept pulling out to pass each other and the half dozen or so cars behind would pile up. I do think some truckers like to do this. Sort of "throwing their weight around."

Will it RAIN? 10-13-09

Clouds gathering in Southern California look as though there might be rain.

The wind whipped the trees and high velocity gusts are predicted.

Great baggy grey clouds with just a spot of sunlight shining through.

I drove to San Clemente this morning for Surfside Quilt Guild meeting and the rain really came down for awhile sometime between 10am and noon, but that was all the rain I saw today. A few little spritz on the windshield on the way home around 2pm.

I do feel sorry for the families in the burn areas, they are piling sandbags and lining up K barriers in the hope of diverting the mud and water flows from their homes. These words which appeared recently in Wordsmith's A-Word-A-Day could certainly apply this week!

Pluviophobia/Ombrophobia - Fear of rain or being rained on.