PIQF-2013, Part 2

Finally-my last post of photos from Pacific International Quilt Festival 2013-enjoy!

I’m finally catching on-anything by Sandy Curran catches my eye. Here, in “Human Beauty”, she deliberately chose unrealistic colors so that the viewer sees the play of light and shadow on the human body without being distracted by the humanity of the figure. Beautiful.

Again, Sandy Curran, this time this gentleman “HOPE” is her subject. Sandy says he believes in something greater than himself and he is faith, hope, belief. This was appliqued and hand painted.

Phyllis Cullen says she chooses to do her family album out of fabric and thread! This depicts her daughter with one of her boxers. She used light and shadow so effectively in this piece.

Julie Scribner based her “Mere Color” quilt on an Oscar Wilde quote: “Mere color, unspoiled by meaning…can speak to the soul in a thousand ways.” This piece was so impressive in person. It happened to sit catty-corner from my quilt and people seemed to go back and forth between the two a lot. Amusing, my quilt with no color and hers with vibrant color! I would absolutely love to have this quilt.

Words cannot convey how delightful this is….

Lynn A. Hawley created “My Stars and Sprigs” based on colors that spoke to her, and her fabric choices ran the gamut from contemporary to reproduction. She used color so skillfully here-just love the mustards, blues, greens and reds all having fun together.

It was quilted by Kris Spray-what harmony!

I neglected to get the maker’s name on “Grapes and Roses”-if anyone knows the name, please write me. She says she used a single piece of “Lumiere” and played with the gradations of the fabric to highlight her applique.

Wow!

Susan Bianchi based “Sunflower Pilgrimage” on Annie Leibovitz’s method of overlaying multiple photographs. She took one of her husband’s photos, fractured it, printed them onto tissue paper and fused them upon her quilt.

Not everyone can skillfully use manipulated photography on quilts, but this is brilliant-I love the tiled effect.

How can you view this without thinking how absolutely charming it is? Vonda Mathews created “The Field Mouse’s Habitat” using: hand dyed and commercial fabric, hand and machine embroidery, paint, beads and needle punching. When someone uses that many techniques so effectively in such a diminutive piece-that is talent!

Movement, calm, and whimsy, all in the same piece. Gail Dentler used thread painting, fabric painting and confetti play to create “California Sunflowers”.

Pat Durbin used just machine applique and quilting to make “Inner Strength”-I am guessing she also used hand dyed fabrics to get the play of the light on the walls. This totally brings me back to my Grandparents farm…

Sarah Ann Smith hand dyed all of the fabrics used in Conversations I. I was really drawn into this piece. It’s not just about the conversations between people, but the conversations between the architecture and landscape, the sea and the sky, the artist and her materials, the viewer and the art. She quilted words throughout the piece-pretty cool!

I never get tired of cherry blossom quilts and someday I want to see them in Tokyo in person. Etsuko Iltaka created “Cherry Blossom Festival in Tokyo” using machine and hand applique as well as hand and machine quilting on this beauty. It is so gorgeous in person and so beautifully executed.

Anne Sheikh created this stunning coat, “Seascape” by combining felting, machine stitching and hand dyeing. She started out with white wool (!) and hand felted fibers to create the “lace” edging, then needle felted and machine quilted various silk fibers onto the coat. The pieces were then shibori dyed and the coat assembled. Amazing!

Rachel Clark had a series of “Out of the Crayon Box” coats at PIQF and this was my favorite. Rachel excels at the use of vibrant color, but I loved this comparatively subtle coat made all in brown/neutral fabrics. It’s just so lovely and organic, I loved this coat.

You can’t attend PIQF and not see some spectacular wearable art. Funny, even at Houston, a much bigger show, there is not nearly as much wearable art on attendees as there is at PIQF. I think part of the reason is the influence of the Peninsula Wearable Art Guild-oh if I just had time for one more guild…. I spotted this spectacular scarf on Giny Dixon-it was fabulous with her orange tunic!

I should be reprimanded for posting this photo but I just can’t help myself. This was just the coolest garment and I asked the wearer if she could hold it out so that I could try to figure out its construction. It turned out to be way too complex for me to figure out. I grimace at my photo-this woman was very tall, lean and elegant and looked stunning in this piece. I would be happy to be just one of the three in that description, giggle! She was willing to share and show the garment to me-I’d love to have one but it surely would have to be scaled down for my height.

This fabulous creation was made entirely from men’s shirts! She did not work from a pattern but instead collaged her way through this.

Isn’t that just the coolest thing? There were lovely details like this throughout the garment-it was so clever and so very wearable. I’d love to have one of these also.

Hope you enjoyed your tour of PIQF 2013!