Highlights of the Pacific International Quilt Festival ! (part 2)

The Pacific International Quilt Festival is the largest quilt show on the west coast of the U.S.A. Many thanks to our good friend, quilt artist Bonita McFadden, for her excellent photos. Let us know which quilts are your favorites !

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The Musicians, 76 x 62, by LeAnn Hileman, Arizona

LeAnn explains, "The Musicians is my interpretation of my photo of these two gentlemen playing classical music on a rainy day in San Diego [California]." LeAnn's original design is hand appliqued and sewing machine quilted.
LeAnn has done an excellent job of using very subtle neutrals to depict the lighting on the musician's faces and the shadows behind them.

Coming Through by Cindy Brown (California), quilted by Sheila Connolly

Cindy notes, "This quilt is paper pieced using the Elephant Abstraction pattern by Violet Craft.
Orange is my favorite color. I want to thank Dawna Harrison for helping me pick out the material and Sheila Connolly for the machine quilting. I love that you have to get close up to see all the beautiful quilting. " All of these shades of orange provide a beautiful contrast and highlight the strong geometric components of this fun pattern.

Jazz Sax, 63 x 50, by Colleen Pelfrey (California), quilted by Sandra Bruce

Colleen writes, "I always wanted to play saxophone. When I was in the fifth grade, I told my dad I wanted to play saxophone, and he said, 'Great, we already have a clarinet you can start on!', so I ended up playing the flute into adulthood. The whole time I thought, 'That'll be the day when I can play saxophone!"

Close-up, Jazz Sax

Colleen continues, "When my fifth grade son wanted to play sax, I said, 'Let's buy two saxophones!'. Guess this is the day!" Colleen's original design is machine pieced and longarm quilted. These gold and cream tones work perfectly against the dark background, where very cute musical note symbols were quilted by Sandra Bruce.

Log Cabin Courthouse Steps Quilt, circa 1900 (Unknown Maker; San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles)

From the time of 1900-1910, this lovely antique quilt was a gift of Jennifer Berthold to the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. The pieces were hand-stitched to a foundation, then machine quilted.
The notes from the museum say, "At first glance, this quilt appears typical in every way to quilts made around the turn of the last century. However, a closer look will reveal quite a bit of interesting 'restoration' work. A variety of very contemporary fabrics have been systematically and carefully appliqued over a number of the 'steps' throughout the design."

Don't Worry, Be Happy by Colleen Granger  (California)

Colleen remarks, "I started with a pile of hand dyed fabrics from Always Unique, and I used my Ninja Star paper piecing pattern to create the rings.  Finally, I just had fun quilting. "

Close-up, Don't Worry, Be Happy

To us, these pretty shapes look like bright spinning wheels of colorful candy ! We appreciate the sense of motion and energy in Colleen's quilt.

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Bonita McFadden for Quilt Inspiration.

Highlights of the Pacific International Quilt Festival: Day 2!

The Pacific International Quilt Festival (PIQF) is the biggest quilt show on the West Coast of the US. We had a great time at the 25th annual show, held last week in Santa Clara, California. There were nearly 1000 quilts on display from around the globe. Here is Part 2 of selected highlights of this year's show!

Please note: We're selling beautiful quilting and crafting books and fabrics at low introductory prices on e-Bay! Check out all our new listings!
Also, we're continuously posting free patterns on Twitter !

Carnavaal, 74 x 52", by Thom Atkins, Santa Cruz, California

Thom Atkins notes, "I started with a kaleidoscope pattern from 2004; I had the pieces cut but not assembled. I also had lots of purple tear drop crystals I wanted to use. I was inspired by some pictures of Venetian Carnival masks, and my kaleidoscope morphed into a headdress. Then I created the lady to wear it and a window frame for her to look out."

Closeup,  Carnavaal by Thom Atkins

"Carnavaal" is an original design which is machine appliqued and long arm quilted. The elaborate embellishment with crystals gives this work a very glamorous, sophisticated look.

Street Tunes, 48 x 40", by Deborah Ann (Yakima, Washington, USA)

Deborah Ann says, "The passion that Ray has as he entertains people in The Loop of St. Louis, (an historic neighborhood in St. Louis, Missouri), inspired me to share with others."

Close up, Street Tunes

Deborah's original design is machine pieced, machine appliqued, and sewing machine quilted. Even though these fabric shades are mostly neutrals, there is still a lot of contrast and energy to this piece.

Draft Horse Classic, 74 x 57", by Linda Lasich (Grass Valley, California, USA)

Linda notes,"The Nevada Country Fairgrounds produces annually in September, the Draft Horse Classic, bringing all breeds of draft horses together. It's a fabulous event that I commemorate with this quilt. "
Draft Horse Classic was inspired by the Material Matrix technique by Sandra Bruce
which involves interpreting a gridded photograph with fabric.

Detail, Draft Horse Classic

Linda's original design is machine pieced and long arm quilted. This artist has done an excellent job of selecting both light and dark fabrics to depict both the draft horse and the background.

No L, 71 x 70",  by Janet Stone (Overland Park, Kansas, USA)

Winner of the Yuko Watanabe "Best of Show" award, Janet Stone writes, "Inspired by quilt collector Bill Volckening's antique New York Beauty quilts, I thought the large sashing interection blocks would be a great place to put the letters. Except letter "L", that is. Being fearful of curved piecing, [I made sure that] all the curvy pieces are appliqued."

Detail, No L

Janet's original design is machine pieced, machine appliqued, and sewing machine quilted.  This meticulous workmanship is certainly deserving of the Best of Show award.

Apis Mellifera, 44 x 49", by Barbara Lange (Germany)

"Apis Mellifera" is the Latin name for the Western honey bee, the most common of the 40 species of honey bees world wide. Barbara notes, "Bees have been a major topic in my work for the past few years. Insects in general are the most successful species on earth - without them, our life would not be what it is."

Detail, Apis Mellifera

This lovely embroidery work in clear tones of orange-yellow provides a stunning contrast with these pure shades of cyan blue.

Reinventing the Wheel, 60 x 65", by Erin Davis, S. Napier, S. Cureton, C. Calvert, J. Ramsey, M. Capron, and J. Passell (Morton Grove, Illinois, USA)

This is a 100% English Paper Pieced color wheel quilt and has 11 blocks by Erin Davis and fellow members of the Get Your Hex On bee. The original design is hand pieced and machine appliqued.  Every color, except one, was a Kona cotton fabric. It was longarm quilted by Melissa at Sew Shabby Quilting.

Detail, Reinventing the Wheel

Erin Davis explains, " As a relatively newer quilter, I've been very much drawn to the modern quilting movement, but as I work within that realm, I've been increasingly influenced by past styles and traditional techniques. I like to call myself a 'modern traditionalist'. Rather than seek to work with a particular quilt pattern, i chose to design a more unique approach by playing with geometrics  and palette. This......quilt has served as larger inspiration in other projects I've completed."

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration.