Quilt Show – Page 5 – Artquiltmaker Blog

PIQF Part 1

My day yesterday left me rather cranky and irritable and if that comes through on this post, I won’t publish and will see if I can uncrankify it. Work has a way of sucking all the good feelings I get from a few well deserved days off right out of my system.

Anyway.

I took a day and a half off of work last week and went down to Santa Clara to the Pacific International Quilt Festival to visit the Renewed Jelly Roll Race, which was on display. TFQ and I usually go and she missed a year last year. We got ourselves organized again and were back in the saddle this year – sort of. Our trip was abbreviated a little because of family obligations for me. Despite having less time to view the quilts, I think we both agreed that we saw plenty.

I am concerned that once the 49ers stadium is built, the parking will no longer be free or there will be no available parking on game days. I look at these next few years as, possibly my last chance to go to the show. Yes, I am being melodramatic and borrowing trouble. I’ll get over myself.

The show was not as crowded as usual on Thursday and Friday, but I thought the preview was more crowded. I loved not having such large crowds on Thursday and Friday, because it was much easier to take photos. However I was concerned about what that meant for attendance numbers. Both days, I saw lots of white hair and not many strollers. I didn’t attend on Saturday or Sunday, so I’d like to know if you saw more younger quiltmakers on those days.

In terms of quilts, the show had the same look – lots of landscapes and portraits especially. I noticed lots of pattern quilts being shown, especially quilts made from patterns or classes by Judy Niemeyer. I still took a lot of photos.** I wonder about entering a quilt made from a pattern. What do you think about that? Should the quilt have been altered in some way or is it ok to enter a pattern quilt in a show that is an exact replica of the original?

The Best of Show winners were in the “more is better” philosophy. I apologize for being snarky, but I think design counts for something and since I heard a podcast on what judges look for, I have been disillusioned by Best of Show quilts. Still and all, there was lots at the show from which I was inspired. The stitching is still getting better and better and there was a lot of hand work to satisfy that craving.

The vendors were meh. I had put myself on a strict budget and it wasn’t difficult to keep to it. There were a few things I would have bought, but, in general, the offerings were old and expensive. I saw only a few vendors carrying Jelly Rolls, Layer Cakes and the like and the variety of choices was slim. One vendor told us it was very hard to receive the ‘baked goods’ that you actually order and that Moda does one run of them, sends what it can and does not reprint. I suppose I can understand not reprinting the “baked goods” as they have so many lines coming out each year. I, personally, cannot keep up with all the lines and have kind of given up on getting the newest latest and greatest.

I did see quite a few of the Tonga Treats and Bali Pops, which I thought was interesting and didn’t remember seeing last year. I really liked the colors from the Macaron line of fabrics by Hoffman, but didn’t buy any. I still might. Still, I wanted to see what was new and exciting in the quilt stuff department and just didn’t get that fix satisfied. I bought a little fabric, some dotty buttons, a couple of swivel clips and D ring sets and a Tonga Treats pack for a project I have in mind.

The SD card went bad on my camera while I was at the show. Fortunately, I only had about an aisle and a half left. Unfortunately, it was the aisle with New Quilts of Northern California on it. TFQ took photos of the last quilts, so you will have a complete set of the photos *we* liked. 😉

I bought a new SD card, but the camera can’t seem to read it. I like my camera and think it takes good photos. It will be hard to create interesting blog posts when I can’t take photos. I’ll have to deal with that problem sooner rather than later.

There were quilts in the various special exhibits that I liked. There was an exhibit of quilts inspired by the floors at Bristol Cathedral, including a smaller version of her quilt, Cosmati Stars, by Judy Mathieson. This is an offshoot or further examination of an exhibit we saw a few years ago, also at PIQF, of mosaic floor tile inspired quilts by Christine Porter.

Improvements the Mancusos need to make:

Replace black drapes behind quilts with white drapes. It will make the space seem lighter and larger as well make it easier to take pictures.
Include a special exhibit of Modern quilts (perhaps the Modern Quilt Guild should organize it?) to draw in more of the Modern quiltmakers.
Encourage vendors to bring new stuff.
Consider moving the show back to the City in order to provide more options for public transportation, which would, in turn, increase attendance.
Create a category for bags and other small accessories.

**I will be uploading all of the photos to my Flickr account, but it will take me some time. There is a link above, but you will need to return later to see them all.

QuiltCon Block Entries

If you have not already sent off your blocks for the QuiltCon block design challenge, it is too late. I sent mine in earlier and wanted to share what I created with you.

You can find the original directions at the QuiltCon/MQG blog.

I bought a set of fat quarters from Pink Chalk fabrics. I bought FQs from Pink chalk, because they were a bit cheaper than the other vendors (did not include the white) and I like the Pink Chalk customer service. It is ridiculous for me to try and save a few bucks. I buy enough fabric to insulate my house, but I have my moments of sanity.

The colors, which were selected by Elizabeth Hartman of ohfransson fame, are:

Kona Cotton Cyan
Kona Cotton Azure
Kona Cotton Candy Green
Kona Cotton Lime
Kona Cotton Chartreuse
Kona Cotton Buttercup
Kona Cotton School Bus
Kona Cotton Tangerine
Kona Cotton Medium Grey
Kona Cotton Coal

I wasn’t very fond of the yellow. It is too wishy washy for me. The orange in the upper left hand corner shows up very red on my screen, but it is orange.

I thought some of my Block-a-Long blocks were pretty modern, so I entered some of those. The first one was a block I named Four Columns Squares (Block-a-Long #52). I did rearrange the columns a bit from my original post, because I wanted to take advantage of my perception that the modern quiltmakers like assymetrical quilts (blocks) as a general rule.

I found the 12.5×12.5 unfinished size to be unwieldy for me. Most of the blocks I make are much smaller. I didn’t have to make them 12.5″x12.5″. I could have made them 12.5″ by whatever width I wanted, but I didn’t do that.

I also thought it would be a good idea to make the same block in two different colorways. I also included a printout of how the block would look in a quilt.

I wanted to make several, but read the directions and found I could only make 3. At the time I found that out, I had already made two, so I thought I had to select the third carefully. Instead what I did was send in the two as the same pattern in two different colorways. Clever, eh?

Well, it won’t be very clever, if I get disqualified.

I was thinking about the rules saying that blocks could be any width. I kind of wanted to try a different width than 12×12 finished, so I reduced one of the Block-a-Long blocks by not making all the pieces. I think it looks very similar to the block I used for FOTY 2009.

If you remember, that is a block I found in a book by Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle. Not sure which one anymore. 2009 was pretty long ago, especially in the number of quilts I have finished.

I am pretty pleased with this one. I added one print, as you can see just to add a bit of interest.

I found that a fat quarter pack ends up being a lot of fabric. If I count up, what I bought was 2.5 yards of fabric. That is a lot of fabric and I really didn’t want it hanging around, so I made more blocks.

3 is the limit, you say? Yes, you are correct, but what I did was count QuiltCon entry block #1 and #2 as the same block in different colorways. I sent them off as such and then finally got around to making more blocks towards the end of June. I didn’t post this back then, because I didn’t want anyone copying my work. Shocking, I know, but it happens.

This one is more asymmetrical, but is not wonky in the Gwen Marston style. I just couldn’t do it.

I was glad to get this out of my hair. I don’t expect anything, but hope the judges will choose one of my blocks. If not, they will go to a good cause.

Stay tuned for more about the BAMQG block challenge that I worked on as well.

I’m A Winner!

Several BAMQGers got together and entered our Kona Challenge quilts as a group. My friend, Kathleen, went to the county fair today and sent me an email saying that I had won 2d place in our category!

I couldn’t believe it. I don’t make my quilts to win prizes, but when I do win a prize it is VERY exciting.

I am planning on going to the fair next weekend. I need my chocolate covered banana fix! I always spend a lot of time in the quilt pavilion and can’t wait to see what my quilt has been doing while it is out of my hands.

I don’t know what the hierarchy is for prizes, but I think this is the best prize I have won so far. I, once, won Judge’s choice and another time I won an Honorable Mention.

I am not going to become rich and famous from quilt prizes, but I can’t tell you how excited I am that I won this prize. Yay!

EBHQ Show

On Saturday (National Quilting Day!), I went to the Voices in Cloth Show, which is put on every 2 years by one of my guilds, the East Bay Heritage Quilters. Friend Julie of High Fiber Content, Mom of Mary’s Art Musings and TFQ of No Scrap too Small made up my carpool.

It was a great show! I would say that the overarching theme that I saw was color: GLORIOUS color and not just in the Kaffe Fassett way. The colors of the show were colors that I use and I realized that it must be the light in our area. The bright colors can stand up to the bright light we get.

The location was new and I was reluctant to go, but I couldn’t back out after promising to drive 3 other people I would drive them. I am glad I went. I wasn’t able to take the train, which was a big downside, but aside from the quilts being gorgeous, the space was wonderful! There were huge windows and lots of natural light that made for a pleasant viewing experience and showed off the quilts to their best advantage.

We had a respite from the rain, which poured down in buckets yesterday. I was glad, because although I could have taken our heavier car, I didn’t really want to. I don’t drive it much so am not as comfortable driving it in heavy traffic. I am glad I had the option.

The clouds were still dark and looking like they would let loose anytime. The clouds made for beautiful views out the windows. I could see at least two bridges and some of the islands.

One of the first things I did was drop the Food Quilt off to my quilter. She had a booth at the show and I was so glad to see her. She is down until at least April 18, so I have time to bring two more quilts over. I have FOTY 2011 and the Stepping Stones in the queue. Also, perhaps, with any luck, I can finish The Renewed Jelly Roll Race and bring that one to her, too. That is a lot of quilting in a month!

I am not sure if this quilt by Carolyn Brien is my favorite of the whole show, but it does epitomize the color and vibrancy of the show.

This is a great, classic pattern. Carolyn said that she was inspired by the cover of Kaffe Fassett’s book, Quilt Romance.

The food situation was a little dicey. For me, I always bring something, because I never know if there will be food I can eat. In this case there was a restaurant next door to the venue. They supplied the box lunches, but we went into the restaurant to sit down for awhile. It was over an hour from the time we walked in the door until the time we had food set in front of us. Some of my companions were about to start gnawing on their own limbs by the time the food arrived. I wasn’t really very hungry and there was very little on the menu I could eat, so I wasn’t terribly enthusiastic about the meal anyway. The restaurant near the venue is a great idea, but they just did not have enough tables and waitstaff to accommodate the crush of quiltmakers. I think next time they should arrange for the gourmet food trucks to come. That would be awesome!

One thing I was asked to do was a beading/embellishment demo.I am not sure why they pegged me for beading (perhaps someone saw Kissy Fish?), but it was fun. It lasted about half an hour. I showed them what I do, which is VERY basic, answered questions and then was done. I am embarrassed to say that I did very little preparation. I got out the Garden quilt and decided to use that as an example. I meant to quilt it, but just didn’t take the time, so I went ahead with the demo without the quilting. I did tell them to machine quilt it before beading is usually the best route. It was fun and I was glad to have recently completed Kissy Fish, so the process was fresh in my mind.

I also did a bit of fabric damage and bought some beads. I actually have some ideas for some of the pieces. I seem to be falling into the grey fad. I bought a large piece of a background grey on spec (lower left corner). TFQ bought some as well. She will test the pattern I am writing with it and some Bali Pops Tonga treats.

All in all it was a good day. I am glad I went.

Road to California 2012

I took myself off, with TFQ, to Road to California this past weekend, which is in Ontario, California. I have never been to this show before and it is touted as one of the largest quilt events on the West Coast. I am spoiled by having PIQF in my backyard.

Road to California is a nice comfy sort of show, but more like a large guild show than “one of the largest quilt events on the West Coast”. Also, there were a lot of vendors. I would say 2/3s of the space was for vendors.

Speaking of vendors, Eleanor Burns was there. I actually saw her doing her demonstrations! I chatted with her a little bit in the course of a humming bird demo she was doing. She is not the stereotypical haughty celebrity. She was very nice, smiled for everyone who wanted to take a photo and chatted amiably. She is obviously well schooled to being ‘on’, because I saw her continue to smile and demonstrate while listening to someone who whispered a question into her ear.

The majority of the floor space was given over to vendors and the vendor representation was very good. Not only were there vendors I hadn’t seen before, but the vendors were cheerful. I find the vendors at PIQF to be quite surly, so this was a nice change. I was pleased to see Quiltin’ Cousins from Pismo Beach. Shawn, the owner, was really nice and friendly and we went back to her booth a few times to look at everything. We met her at Long Beach in 2010.

I saw a 1930s book that included a pattern called Cowboy Stars (on that table with the pastel quilt on it), but I didn’t buy it. I hope to find it at the library or find the pattern in one of the Kansas City Star books or in EQ7. It has some nasty diamonds and triangles, so I don’t plan on starting it anytime soon.

TFQ bought a pattern she called “not a pineapple” that was really called Licorice Allsorts (the black background quilt on the left). It does look like a baby Pineapple and I am eager to see how it is constructed.

The quilts were good. Different types and styles than I normally see. TFQ pointed out to me, quite rightly, that the fabrics being snapped up from the vendors – yards of Kaffe Fassett and Philip Jacobs blooms, Moda charm packs and Jelly Rolls, lines of 1930s fabrics – were not represented in 90% of the quilts we saw. We walked back through the show and found the quilts made from solids, tone-on-tones, and batiks predominantly. See if you agree from the photos I took. Yes, there were a few quilts with prints, but very few. What are you doing with those lines of fabric you buy? Do you buy fabrics to collect? What are you using for your current quilt?

There was virtually no representation of Modern Quiltmakers at the show. I have to say that I have used a couple of ‘modern’ lines lately and those quilts will probably never see a show. I am, frankly, too lazy to do the paperwork to enter quilts into shows. I used to do it all the time, but the things they ask seem to pointless and a recent entry found the sponsoring organization to be so disorganized I had to essentially send my materials in twice. Still, I am not seeing the quilts like I make, so perhaps I should carve out some time to enter shows?

I bought a few little trinkets. I don’t buy many patterns, so that cut out a whole shopping niche. There were books in which I was really interested, but want to check out from the Library first to see if I REALLY need to add them to my collection. The fabric was a free gift from Quilt in a Day and I think the ruler will be good for making scrap blocks. TFQ bought me a bottle of buttons to replace those I have been using to embellish card holders and Christmas stockings. She said it was part of my birthday gift.

Now for the sentimental drivel. You can stop reading now if you are only interested in quilting. The show was great. Getting away was great, but I was very pleased to come to my dear DH, who picked us up from the train, had dinner ready and made a birthday cake (yes, my birthday was Friday, in case you missed it). I have been sick on and off for a month and am still hacking up a lung. If the trip hadn’t involved reservations and flights, I probably would have cancelled and stayed home. I enjoyed myself, loved the quilts, enjoyed the vendors but was very pleased to come home to my house and my family.

PIQF 2011

Last week, I spent Wednesday night and Thursday all day at the Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara. This is the first time in several years I have not rented a hotel room and stayed down there with TFQ. I stayed over Wednesday night with a friend who lives nearby so I wouldn’t have to drive back and forth, but I came straight home after the show closed on Thursday. As you read this I am presenting at a conference, so I had a lot to do on Friday and Saturday to get ready for the conference.

The Zig Zaggy quilt was part of the New Quilts for Northern California and I was pleased to see how well it was hung. It really hangs straight, too, which is always a thrill.

I didn’t hang around my quilt for hours, but the few times I passed by, I saw people studying it and taking photos, which is also always a thrill. I was with my mom and Julie part of the time. When we visited my quilt they gave me lots of kudos and told everyone within hearing distance that it was my quilt. I was embarrassed, but also a bit happy.

Angela’s Kona Challenge quilt, Kona Color Waves, was hung nearby, also as part of the challenge. It was so great to see it well hung. The color choices she made really work well. I hope she hangs it up in her house so she can admire it. I also hope other people are inspired by it.

BAMQG was well represented at the show as Kathleen’s sunflower quilt was hung there also.

I really enjoyed the World Quilt Exhibition this year. There was lots of good imagery, many, many Israeli quilts and great designs.

CQFAers were represented as well. Caroline had her landscape quilt in the show, prominently displayed at the end of an aisle. Marie had two, yes TWO quilts in the show. One was a Pineapple made from Hawaiian fabrics and the other used hand dyed fabrics. We helped Marie at her first meeting figure out how to proceed with the hand dyed quilt.

Some trends I noticed were: surface design appropriate to the quilt, lots of amazing quilting and stitching, again appropriate to the design and not over the top. I also lots and lots of portrait quilts. It was interesting to compare the different face techniques. There were also a lot of landscape quilts. I got the impression that people are no longer exploring their machines, but know what they can do and are doing those techniques well.

For a long time, I didn’t get to see my friend Faye, but I would get to see her quilts in the World Quilt Exhibition. Then, as her husband became more ill, she wasn’t able to enter quilts in the show either. Her husband, sadly, died a few years ago after a long illness and I have gotten to see her as she spends about 2 months near me every year now. I was also pleased to see her quilt, Stars, Curves and a Touch of Yellow, in this show.

The Quilt Show has a video up of various quilts. If my link doesn’t work check the Quilt Show’s Daily Blog for October 14, 2011.

My purchase downfall was Tsukineko inks and Perl Cotton. There was a booth at the show selling inks with tons of colors and I couldn’t resist adding to my collection.

Red and White Quilts

If you haven’t seen the Red & White quilts at the NYC Park Armory and you are within commuting distance, go see them! Admission is free!!!! A couple of friends have gone to see them and have said that the exhibit is amazing. It is only there for a few more days. Make the time!

3/31/2011 Update: Here are some (there are many, many articles on this exhibit) news stories about this exhibit:

Financial Times: Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts, Park Avenue Armory, New York. By Simon Schama
NYCtheblog: Amazing Display of 651 Red and White Quilts by Paolo Mastrangelo
New York Times: Finally, Mrs. Rose (and the Public) Can See All Her Quilts by James Barron

Manteca Quilt Show

I keep referring to not having enough time to sew recently. I could go into a whole dissertation about what is enough, but the short answer is: I haven’t found what enough is.

I have been doing quilt stuff, just not sewing. I talked about the BAMQG meeting, the Primal Green viewing and the SFQG show. My last other quilt event from earlier this month was the Manteca Quilt Show. Manteca is a small town about 1.5 or 2 hours from where I live. My mom lives out there and I want to encourage her to join up with other quiltmakers in her area. It is a small show, but they had great quilts and a nice vendor mall. You can see all the quilts in my Flickr set.

All over the hall were different little displays of embroidery. We would never see this in a larger quilt show. It made the show seem very homey. I especially liked this pattern. I am a sucker for baskets.

There were probably about 100 quilts. Many of them were Sampler quilts. I have a soft spot in my heart for Sampler quilts. I think that Sampler quilts are a great way to learn to make quilts in a class setting. I know that method is not in favor at this time. This guild makes Sampler quilts. There were a number of star samplers and Christmas Samplers. I think they had different block exchanges, but I don’t know for sure.

Above is one of the best sampler quilts I have ever seen. I love the use of the Provence fabrics. This style really shows off the fabrics well. The maker has really shown the power of blocks by her use of fabric.

The block above is similar to the block I used in the Frosted Star quilt. I really like the corners, too.

I also like this star, which looks complex because of the angles and also because of the use of fabric, but upon further examination is really doable.

One of my favorite quilts was the quilt above because of the great secondary pattern created by the combination of two blocks. I also like the colors. using yellow as the neutral is awesome!

You can see that one block is a 16 patch and the one next to it is an hour glass pattern. It is a great use of these two blocks together. Also, the joyful use of color is wonderful.

I was really impressed with the piecing of this group. There were some simple quilts and beginner quilts, but a lot of the piecing in a large majority of the quilts had some element of creativity or complexity. The picture above shows a quilt that had one large piece of fabric in the middle and then this lovely star border. If you look closely, the star border can be dissected to show that it is easily recreatable.

Primal Green Viewing

Last Saturday I went with all of my CQFA colleagues to view the Primal Green Show. I forgot my camera, so the photos are from others or from the day I went to check on how the hanging was going. That day was a gorgeous day in The City, which meant a lot of glare inside the fabulous Main Library!

I really enjoy this group and the picture above shows what a great group we are. The photo also includes the librarian with whom we worked to get this show mounted. Maureen’s husband was kind enough to take the photo for us.

The photo above shows the 5th floor Government Information Center. The left case has Virginia’s quilt. Behind the lighted kiosk are three quilts, Terri’s, Maureen’s and Soyoung’s. I found out at lunch last week that Soyoung does most of her work by hand and that small quilt took about 100 hours!

The curators at the library are wonderful. They came up with this great signage. The quilts are spread out all over the 5th floor, so the sign on the bottom very nicely shows where all the quilts are hanging.

My quilt, Change of Seasons, is the tree in the middle of this case.

The librarian was able to secure the use of this case as well, even though it wasn’t in the original plan. This extra case allowed the quilts above to be included in the show as well.

My Red Journal and Bron’s Bird Nest, both 3 dimensional, were placed in this table case along with two smaller quilts. This case is slightly to the right off the elevator.

This is the quilt with the arrangement of the signage.

The standing case shows a number of quilts and indicates the entrance to the Stegner Center. Again, the glare was a problem with the photography.

The Wallace Stegner Environmental Librarian is the sponsor of this show. The Stegner Center is a gorgeous space with a view overlooking City Hall. The two quilts in this case looked gorgeous with City Hall behind them. Unfortunately the glare did not make them easy to photograph.

The roses (left) quilt is the first quilt and the sun quilt is all made from recycled tie fabric acquired from a tie factory. The use of color is excellent as well.

The Library is a very public space so all of the quilts are in locked cases. This is a different kind of look for a show. The arrangement really gives the show the feeling of the art show that it is.

The quilts are in the window alcove on the right and straight ahead and to the left.

Over a hundred ATCs were made for the show. We thought they could be used to decorate the bottom of cases, but the curators chose to frame them in groups. I have never seen ATCs framed before and I like the effect very much.

In the same hallway, the educational material was also on the wall.

Since the Library is an educational institution, we asked a group of members to create some educational materials showing some part of the art quilt making process.

The educational materials were designed to go in a table display. The curators decided to put them on the wall, presumably to include the 3D objects in the exhibit as well.

The above educational frame shows the making of applique pieces using freezer paper.

After viewing of the quilts, many of the members went to lunch across the way. We were treated very well and were allowed to sit for a long time. We were given place cards and I was pleased to participate in a wonderful conversation with my colleagues.

The Gang of Three (Nancy, Maureen, me) also decided to award a grand prize to one of the people who contributed to our collection of ATCs for the show. For that drawing, C&T Publishing, via CQFA member and C&T Education/Communications Manager Lisa Fulmer, donated the majority of the prize: Inktense pencils, a book and a few other things. I added in some embellishments and beads. I also made a journal cover to include. Caroline was the winner. I hope she enjoys her prize. We really appreciate everyone’s participation in making this show a success.

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