Pacific International Quilt Show

 My friend Joyce and I went to PIQF last weekend. Usually this show is very well attended, wall to wall people.  Instead of fighting crowds of avid quilters looking for  just the right fat quarter of fabric, there were hardly any people there.  It made it very easy to take photos of the beautiful quilts that are always in attendance there.

Our Cutting Edge Quilt Group had a special exhibit entitled "Personal Journey with Racism". Each member created a quilt to express their individual experience with encountering racism. Below are some pictures from that exhibit.

On the left is Gay's quilt called Boxes and Kathy's called "Strange Fruit", based on the song

 sung by Nina Simone and others about black bodies hanging from trees in the south.

Mine is on the left, entitled, "I'm Just Trying to Fit In" about racial integration in schools in the 70's. On the right is Jeanne S.'s showing the ratio of Blacks to Whites

 in places she has lived and hopes for the future.

On the left is Paula's Quilt about her growing up in racially mixed Detroit and on the Right is Andi's about Redlining, which is a racial discriminatory practice in which lenders systematically

 denied loans to people of color.

On the left is Sara's, which is a very moving piece regarding the discovery in old family wills,  that her ancestors owned slaves for generations.  

On the right is another one of Jeanne S.'s about Asian Hate.

Pacific International Quilt Show - Santa Clara (PIQF)

Had a great time at PIQF yesteray. Saw wonderful quilts and artistry as usual.  There were more 'modern' quilts which I enjoyed. I find their construction techniques very interesting and especially like the ones inspired by artists of the modern period.

Here are some of my favorites.

Gazania by Evelyn Wickman.  Closeup  of center below.

Redwood Cathedral by Lyra Bobo

 Geometric Transparency by Cheryl Isbell

Love in the Digital Age by Kristin Shields

Closeup

Song of the Sea by Kathy McNeil

Closeup of needlework

Brush Fire by Christine Seeger

Griffonage by Susan Hotchkis

Closeup

From a special exhibit entitled "Wicked" based on the book, sponsored by Cherrywood Fabrics, this is a quilt by Kathy Durochik featuring deconstructed text.  Very interesting, as were many in this exhibit.

Pacific International Quilt Festival 2014

Yesterday I made my annual pilgrimage to Santa Clara for the Pacific International Quilt Show with a couple of good friends.  It was fabulous as always.  Here are a few of my favorite quilts.  Hope you enjoy them too.

Flowers of the Arab Spring by Susan Shie - Below is a detail.  This was a very moving quilt about the sad state of women in the Middle East who dare to speak their minds and demand rights.

Blockade by Martina Hilgert Vervoot

This piece had wonderful texture and lines.  I need to experiment more with 

 with those insertions of skinny lines. I took a great workshop from Rosalie Dace, as did this artist, where I first learned how to create those. 

Below are detail photos.

I like how the quilting stitch goes from a narrow line to the oval satin stitch.

End of the Spin by Melissa Sobotka.  

This quilt shows the ends of spools of yarn used for weaving the weft.

The closeup shows the great job Melissa did with raw edge fusing of the fabrics. 

 It won an award for best use of color.

My friend Isolde entered a quilt into PIQF for the first time, a beautiful one of Ulm Cathedral

Cutting Edge Show and Pacific International Quilt Show

Sorry I haven't posted in two weeks but it's just been a very busy time getting our house back to normal from the leak we had under our slab and I had lots of school related stuff.  Being a full-time teacher tends to be pretty full time.

Our Cutting Edge Fiber Art group had a great special exhibit at PIQF this weekend.  Here's a picture of one of my quilts there.  This one is called "Controlled Burn" and is made of arashi shirbori fabrics I dyed.

I think my favorite quilt there was this fabulous one by Kathryn Harmer Fox.  It measured 59" x 49" and was made up of many small pieces of fabric and threads, as you will see in the closeup of the eye.

Of course there were hundreds of other great quilts and too many vendors enticing all of us to spend more than we could afford.  I didn't go too crazy spending money. Being on furlough days has made me look very hard at what I buy.