Even More Pacific International Quilt Festival XVII

"Valley View", by Pamela Druhen, USA

One last post of the quilt fest in Santa Clara. I found the winter scene above particularly striking.

I’m bowled over at how the snow is embroidered just so on each branch. With the fabric is all crumpled up under the arm of the sewing machine, it’s not like you can step back and examine your work like an oil painter could. I have never quilted, but I have sewn my share of garments during my teenage years. My guess is that your choices would be to:

A. Cut the thread, pull out the fabric, examine your work, then re-insert the fabric under the presser foot and start up again. Unlikely choice.

B. Straighten out the fabric as much as possible and then stand on a ladder to see the big picture. Equally unlikely choice.

C. Go blindly without examination. Impossible.

D. Use witchcraft. That’s it!

"Valley View", by Pamela Druhen, USA

You never know where a quilter’s gets her inspiration. This is Hurricane Katrina:

I laughed when I saw this quilt. I include this because I worked for a major credit card firm for thirteen years.

The Pacific International Quilt Festival also features quilts from all over world. This one got the top prize for Japan. It’s difficult to see on this photo but he gold fabric is matte metallic -- quite arresting, not overdone. The quilt is an interesting fusion of cultures: an American-style quilt with Celtic knots in a Japanese palette.

"Celtic Fantasy", Diane Abram, United Kingdom

One may wonder how all the elaborate machine-quilting is accomplished. These long-arm quilting machines are mechanical wonders. They are not exactly little tools you would tuck away in your crafting armoire. My sister and I have exhibited at book conventions and we high-five each other when we’ve finished schlepping all the books from the car to the booth. I can’t imagine putting together a booth like this. How big is their truck, how do they get all this equipment across the convention floor?

Wait, I may have just solved the mystery of the snow scene quilt. Do you suppose the quilter used one of these machines?

Any supplies you might possibly need to complete your quilts can be purchased here. Every shade of thread (check out the quilts hanging at the back of the booth): .

Fabric:

The competition is fierce in some booths:

Patterns. I love the long-suffering look on the husband’s face:

Buttons:

Vintage items are very popular, click to view the messages on these kitchen towels:

With 800 quilts and 300 merchants, this was just the tip of the ice berg. I hope you enjoyed coming along to the show with me!

Flickr slideshow here.

More Pacific International Quilt Festival XVII

As promised, here are more fabulous quilts from the festival. I'll start you off with another white-on-white quilt, this time machine-quilted.

There are other quilters who should join Overachievers Anonymous. There are those who can't seem to stop at making the front of the quilt beautiful, they have the need to embellish the back as well:

Then there was this huge quilt, note the bottom of it spilling onto the floor, made of impossibly small triangles:

From afar it looked like the small triangles were merely printed on the fabric, but no, upon closer examination, one can tell that they are all individually patched together:

This quilt I like because it appeals to my inner-recycler. The quilter was standing next to her quilt explaining how she made this. She started out with squares of fabric and cut out the quarter-rounds from one corner. Then she took the remaining piece, the negative if you will, and used it in an alternating pattern with the quarter-rounds. No waste!

There's something for everyone at this quilt show. Animals are a favorite subject. This one I included for tangobaby:

This tiger has the most contented expression on her face, like she's just had a great meal and is about to doze of for her morning nap.

The workmanship on this quilt was very impressive, thus the first place blue ribbon:

This mushroom quilt was one of my favorites:

"A Different View", by Kay D. Haerland, Australia

The details were incredible:

"A Different View", by Kay D. Haerland, Australia

"A Different View", by Kay D. Haerland, Australia

There were not one, but two embroidered rodents in this woodlands scene. The second one was inside the chantarelle:

"A Different View", by Kay D. Haerland, Australia

That's all for today. I'll have more for you next time. There's still time to go to the show, it runs through Sunday.

Pacific International Quilt Festival XVII

Viewers Choice - Manchester: "My Flower", Michiko Takakuwa, Japan

My mother and I went to the Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara this morning. It is the largest quilt show on the west coast featuring over 800 quilts, wearable art, and textiles. They also have 300 vendors who sell anything having to do with quilting or home sewing. Plus they offer workshops and lectures all weekend long. We spent just under two hours there, but most spend many more hours than that. This was the first quilt that "wowed" me:

I am not a quilter, my mother is, so please forgive me if I'm not using the proper terminology. I love white-on-white art of any kind because it emphasizes texture, form, and shadows. In quilting, it showcases the mastery of technique. This quilt is completely hand-quilted! Here are some close-ups:

When I showed these photos to my fourteen-year-old son, he asked for clarification on the term hand-quilted. "You mean there's no machine involved at all? That's retarded! That doesn't even look like fun". Ah, youth!

I do have to admit, this quilter is scary good. As in, if she was living in Salem three hundred years ago, they might have burned her at the stake.

Here's some examples of some great innovative, non-traditional quilts:

"Moon Garden" by Judy Coates Perez

Judy Coates Perez's quilt "Moon Garden" is the most popular photo of all my Flickr photos. Her blog is here. Her book "Painted Threads, Mixed Media Textile Art", featuring this quilt along with her other textile arts, is available here.

Best of Country Award: "Moonrise", Betty Busby, United States

I have more photos to show you but this is all the time I have for now. If any of you are within striking distance of Santa Clara, California, and you are even remotely interested in quilting or textiles, this show is worth attending. You can find more information here. More photos at Flickr here.