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I know Pacific International Quilt Festival happened in mid-October, but I am just now getting around to posting about it. I do think it was the best year yet. I only had a precious few moments to look at the show but I did get some good photos of some pretty spectacular quilts. This one received the Bernina Award, which is essentially Runner Up for Best of Show. I have not seen work by Sylvia Gearegian before but this piece, Magnolia, took my breath away. I love her quilting, her use of color and texture, her expert technical skills, and…
Sometimes the visitors are as charming as the quilts! Check out this Future Quilter and her Mom at the 2013 River City Quilt Festival. She was proudly holding her own Personal Quilt the entire time and was delighted to be surrounded by quilts-who wouldn’t be? The River City show is one of my favorites and it’s the last show of the year in my area. I try to get there early to get the best picks from their boutique and I got a nice haul of hand dyed Radiance from the vendors. The show was a great mix of traditional…
Okay-so this was supposed to be done in time to carry to Houston, but we’re just not talking about that. In the usual way, I did take a fairly simple project and make it unnecessarily complicated. Would you expect anything less? My local quilt shop, Meissner’s Folsom, had a sample of this bag in the store and I was intrigued. The Bailey Island Tote has structure built into the bag that is not from stabilizer. I liked that’s it was soft to the touch yet still stood up on its own. The Bailey Island Hobo pattern is made by Aunties…
I had a “Tailgate Critique” yesterday! How did that happen?? Read on. I am Co-Rep for the NorCA/NorNV region of Studio Art Quilt Associates. We held our quarterly meeting on Wednesday in Danville, a San Francisco Bay area community about a 2 hour drive from my home. One of the very best things about the quarterly meetings can be the car pool. Ideas get bantered about, and we all get to know each other just a little bit better. As luck would have it, Wednesday’s commute was just me and the Pixeladies-Kris Sazaki and Deb Cashatt, two delightful and talented…
There was a bumper crop of spectacular minis in this year’s show. Keep in mind that miniature, as defined by the Festival, is any quilt that is less than 24″ on each side. I don’t think any quilt I have pictured here exceeded 14″ on any side. This little gem has been inked, painted and quilted. This is the prettiest “Dia de Muertos” quilt ever-look at how much detail there is in this tiny piece! This incredible quilt is all silk dupioni. George is the absolute master of the mini and now he is working in “micro mini”. His 1″…
I’ll have a couple of posts on the amazing quilts at the International Quilt Festival in Houston. Somehow there were some key quilts that I did not take photos of-grr! There was something for everyone in this show: Carol Morrissey interpreted a photo of roses sitting in her kitchen window and created this lively piece. The show does not give dimensions, but this is a pretty big piece and I just couldn’t get enough of it. I’d love to have this in my home. Cindy Henneke used commercial floral prints to depict the armadillos that wreak havoc on her garden.…
I am still trying to wrap my head around all the overwhelming emotions, activities and experiences I had while at the Houston International Quilt Festival last week. I taught 2 full day classes and presented at 3 other events during the 5 days I was there. I’m exhausted this morning as I write this-in a Good Way! Fellow teachers told me “Sleep when you get home” and most of them taught even more classes. Just to set the stage, the Houston Festival is the biggest quilt event in the world, with total attendance expected of 55-60,000 quilt/art/fiber enthusiasts. This is…
I am thrilled to share that my wholecloth quilt, “Morning Breeze” received a Second Place ribbon at Pacific International Quilt Festival last week! I can’t wait to get the judges’ comments back-I am much more interested in learning how I can improve than I am the kudos though. This is one of my largest quilts at 49″ x 69″. It is my belief that if you make a large quilt you’d better have something to say! I have posted some of these photos before but I will include them here again. I know my readers are visual and they need…
I think this is the first time in my almost 3 years of blogging that I haven’t posted at least once a week. Sorry-I’ve been busy doing less-than-glamorous tasks! I’ve also been playing with various ideas for the class sample for my upcoming “Reversible Christmas Table Topper” class. I’m happy to show that today: This is really easy and forgiving free motion work combined with some cut work-plain old cut work by hand, not on the machine with a gazillion dollar attachment! I used a red batik for the “back” and regular quilting fabric for the green front, fused them…