PIQF - Pacific International Quilt Festival

Last Friday my husband and I traveled to Santa Clara CA for me to attend the PIQF show for the first time. This was the 27th year, but the first year I made it down there. It was so worth the effort. The quilts were beautiful and from all over the world. There were almost as many vendors as there were quilts. Everyone wanted to see the vendors, so seeing and photographing the quilts was easy. Here are just a few.

A Spring Twist  by Karily Bue Lohrenz Billings MT

Adrift by Nora Dean Hekkers

Adrift up close. Note the long stitching.

All the Way Around by Sigrid Simonds

All the Way Around - up close

 Note the hand quilting on the above quilt. Plus the write up states it is rusted and painted cloth. Unique.

The following three pictures are the Best of Show. Stunning quilt! It is called Marie's Treasure by Marilyn Badger of St George UT.

Changing Gears by Jan Soules Elk Grove CA

 The above quilt is by a fellow member of the River City Quilt Guild of Sacramento. She always does beautiful work.

Denied by Laura Fogg Ukiah CA

 With politics running so amok right now, I applaud the above quilter's take on what is happening in America.

Checker Cab Company by Debbie Mackay

Elephant by Cindy Brown

Color Play by Letitia Chung San Francisco CA

Color Play (up close)

Note the hand quilting on the above quilt. It is what made the quilt.

Color Play One by Irelle Beatie Summerland CA

Creamsicle by Natalie Gore Concord CA

Diamond Effervescence by Beth Nufer and Clem Buzick Brookings OR

That Will be the Day When I'm Inspired by Nordic Knitwear! by Diane Steele Davis CA

 The above quilt was made by a friend of mine, Diane Steele. She was the designer and leader in our shop's Block of the Month many years ago. She does fantastic work.

Erin by Sandy Curan Newport News VA

Everyone Will Wear in Hanbok as Usual by Jin Chang Seongnam-si, Kyunggi-do Republic of Korea

Freedom from Taiji by Lys Axelson Big Bear City CA

 The above quilt represents an event that takes place in Japan where dolphins are herded into Taiji Cove and slaughtered. These few were able to escape. I first heard of this just a couple of years ago when my granddaughter showed me a video of the slaughter. This should stop. Fishing is a sport. There is no sport here. I applaud the quilt maker for making this statement.

Gooseneck Barnacles by Heidi Lindsay Suisun City CA

 The above quilt was a reproduction from a picture made by Brandon Cole. It was all in red and white. The quilter made her original quilt in reds and whites but found it was hard to determine where one gooseneck barnacle started and one ended, so she redid the quilt in rainbow colors. Stunning.

Gossiping Ducks and Hungry Tiger by Linda Anderson LaMesa CA

The above quilt is of a percussion group using instruments from the Tang Dynasty.  She informs us the back and forth exchange of sounds between "gossiping" ducks while a "growling" tiger (the drums) waits nearby.

Halloween Happiness by Jone Lewis Riverside CA

 Halloween is always a draw for me. I have more Halloween fabric and quilts, for that matter, than any other. I do love this quilt. Look at the bat inner border.

In the Old Way by Linda Anderson LaMesa CA

 This looks like a large photograph. This is a stunning quilt in its composition.

Jane at the End of the Rainbow by Frances Ledenbach and Margarita Wilcox of Round Rock TX

 The above and below pictures are of the same quilt. It is a large quilt, but those blocks are tiny. I love the material used as it makes it look like some of the blocks are pieced even smaller than they appear. Good planning.

Happy Trails by Renata Beason Craig CO

Happy Trails up close

Happy Trails up close

Happy Trails up close

 The above four pictures are of a Block of the Month kit I purchased a couple of years ago. Mine is partially completed. In the quilter's write up she states she also purchased hers some time ago and just finished it. I don't know where she bought her pattern/kit from. I bought mine from Stitchin Heaven in Texas. I have purchased more than one BOM from this shop. Since I live in California and they are in Texas, it is all done through the mail. They are great. You can still purchase this BOM from them at www.StitchinHeaven.com. 

 

Hocuspocusville by Beverly Rognlien and Victoria Weins Lincoln CA

 Again Halloween will attract me every time, as will embroidery projects. This is both.

Keith's Doodle by Cynthia Cox of Reno NV

Keith's Doodle up close

Kelly, the Irish Cow by Carole Olsen Monterey CA

 There are just never enough cows in a quilt show. The quilter states this cow seemed to want to follow her home while she was in Ireland. Sometimes you just have to adopt animals into your life whether it is by taking the animal home with you or making a quilt from your pictures/memories. Love it.

Ford-Long Lasting by Linda Jensen Hidden Valley Lake

 Same with the cow, there cannot be too many old trucks in a quilt show either. Especially the old weathered ones. This truck truly has character.

Little Brown Bird by Robyn Phelps LaMesa CA

Marble Track by Claudia Scheja Werne, NRW Germany

Mouse Trap by Joan Barker Vallejo CA

Miss Ellie Priscilla in Pink by Jeanette Boulet Canada

 Now you might think you have seen the above quilt already posted here. But you would be mistaken. The other one was in shades of orange. Look back towards the top of this post.

Modern Ulu by Connie Johnson Sayler and Nancy Lee Chong Medford OR

I love the simplicity of this quilt. Yet if you think about it, it is not that simple. Well done quilters. I looked up what Ulu means, but there are several definitions for the word. Look it up for yourself and you determine what the quilts meaning might be.

The Musicians by LeAnn Hileman Glendale AZ

 This is one of my most favorite of the show. It is so realistic in nature.

My Rhodie by Andrea Brokenshire Round Rock TX

 The above is the close up of the one below. It is a stunning quilt and the thread play on it is marvelous.

My Rhodie

Native American Sturgeon Backs by Ruthanne Rocha Miranda CA

Octavia Reaches for the Light by Vickie Lord Dunwoody GA

Octavia Reaches for the Light up close

I love how the quilter shows this cephalopod going from the dark depths into lighter waters.

Reflections of Cape Town by Cynthia England Dickenson TX

 I love how this quilt looks like it has water sitting in the foreground. Good job.

Orca's Tale by Angie Tustison McKinleyville CA

 If you have ever lived around a Border Collie, you find they are exceptional dogs. In fact I doubt they think they are dogs at all. At least mine thinks she is closer to human than dog. Other than her barking. She does love to bark.

This quilter told a remarkable story of her Border Collie, Orca. She stated in her write up that she was 18 when she got this adorable black and white puppy. She was told their life span was between 12 and 15 years. To an 18 year old that is a long time. In a dog's life, not so long. As I read her story about Orca, I realized my time with our dog, Mochi, is not going to be much longer either. She just turned 9. I took a picture of this quilt and texted it to my husband, daughter and granddaughter, all of whom help take care of Mochi. As I was typing Orca's story to them along with the picture, I was sobbing with the realization that within maybe 5 years, I will have to say goodbye to my beautiful dog, too. Thanks for bringing me to today, Angie.

Orca's Tale up close

Orca's Tale up close

The Oxymoron by Gina Boyd Davis CA

 Just wondering why it is an oxymoron. Because it is a crank sewing machine? Hmmm. If it works, it may come in handy some day if our power goes down.

Samba Selfie by Randa Mulford Mountain View CA

Absolutely lovely.

Route 66 by Mary Boyer Rancho Cordova CA

 I am sure I am not the only one who buys fabric, patterns, kits and has all the intentions to finish them. The above quilt is a pattern I bought several years ago. I love embroidery. I love retro trucks and motorcycles. I am not crazy about doing lots of flying geese. So guess where I am with finishing this quilt top? You probably guessed. I have all the embroidery done. Just have to do the connecting stars and flying geese. Some day I will get it done. My colors are darker. I really loved how this quilter used a soft brown version. I also love how it was quilted with the Route 66 logo throughout the quilting. Some day I will post mine completed and beautiful, too. [I hope.]

Sea Breeze by Joanne Baeth Bonanza OR

Sea Breeze up close

Seasoned with Time by Karlyn Bue Lohrenz Billings MT

 As stated earlier, there is plenty of room for old trucks in a quilt show. I love the name chosen for this one.

She Persisted in Her Quest to Reach the Shore and Sing the Anthem of the Sea by Sara Ann Smith Hope ME

Slipping Away up close

Slipping Away

 I failed to get the quilter's name on this one. Sorry. I do like to give credit where credit is due. I really like this quilt, as I love whales. My friend, Venita, recently took a trip to Alaska on a cruise ship. While there she found some great ideas for a quilt. I thought we could something like this into it. Thanks for the idea.

I jokingly tell people as I talk about our plans saying, "My friend went to Alaska, and we are going to make a quilt showing the things she saw." Some day I will go, too.

Solar Flare by Sandra Clark Fresno CA

 This beautiful quilt is a hand dyed single piece of fabric (except for the border) and then embellished. Beautiful quilt.

South Bay Beach by Nadine Kirk Torrance CA

 I love the ocean. I love this depiction of the coast above and below.

South Bay Beach up close

Starry Night on a Sunny Day by Heidi Proffetty

Starry Night on a Sunny Day up close

This quilt is just a bunch of small pieces of fabric put together into a beautiful scene. Great quilt.

The Strangest Vase that Ever Was by Alethea Ballard Walnut Creek CA

The Strangest Vase that Ever Was up close

 Boy, is it ever! [Look at the name above.]

Sunset Over Puako by Joy Palmer San Jose CA

Sunset Over Puako up close

Look at the quilting in the up close version above. Love the crab crawling along in the sand.

Water is Life, So Why Are We Doing This? by Thom Atkins Santa Cruz CA

Water is Life. . . .up close

 What a great statement this quilt makes! We are dumping so much garbage into our oceans that our progeny will be cleaning it up for an eternity. Those circles are actual bottle tops. Great job, Quilter.

Whooo? by Mimi Ghauri-Young Yountville CA

That's Life by Mary Landon Billings MT

That's Life up close

Tailfeathers by Marie O'Kelley Seattle Washington

As I said, these are just a few of the quilts at this show. It is an enormous quilt show. Plan on attending next year. The dates are October 17-20, 2019.

PIQF

Great Grandsons' Quilts

I have a new great grandson. His name is Gannon. I made him a quilt in less than a day. It was super easy, as I purchased a darling panel, added a couple of borders, quilted it, bound it and was done. Ta da. So cute.

I named it Octopus and More.

And the backing. Such beautiful paisley sharks and dolphins.

And my homemade label. I love making my own labels. I find free clip art that goes with the name of the quilt and insert it into a Word document. Then I type the information I want on the label, such as the name of the quilt, my name, if someone else quilted their name, the town it was made in and the year it was made. I have also begun including a short story, if applicable, about the quilt or the quilt's origin. I have also taken to signing the label with a sharpe pen after I print it out. I print the label out on Printed Treasures inkjet printable fabric labels. They work marvelously. Just follow the directions on the packaging.

Gannon has a brother that I also made a quilt for. His name is Parker. Here is his quilt:

 

This quilt I started over a year ago. It is is just strips of blues that I had and I sewed them together in one long continuous strip and then sewed them together. I then had some fish that I had cut with an Accuquilt cutter. I had prefused the material before cutting the fish out. I fused those down and then hand blanket stitched them down using gold embroidery thread. I really like how it turned out.

 

Even more I found the cutest backing. It has frogs swimming. Just too cute. A one year old, which Parker is, will love this backing probably more than the front of the quilt.

And again I made his quilt a label. Love it, too.

Keep on Quilting

New Halloween Quilt

I love to make Halloween quilts. In my stash, I have more Halloween fabric than any other theme! I just love the blacks, oranges and other colors that are associated with Halloween.

I make at least one Halloween quilt every year. I often give the older ones away after I make the new one. Here is my most recent Halloween quilt:

My dog, Mochi, loves to photo bomb my quilt pictures. She is almost always in the picture frame somewhere.

Like I said, I have more Halloween fabric than any other. So when I need to have a backing for this quilt, I went to my Halloween bin. Nothing big enough to cover the entire backing but lots of good sized pieces. I put them all together into this unique backing. The black was overwhelming, so I made some pumpkins to go on it. I also found an owl that I had made for something else and never used, so I adhered it to this backing. I actually like the backing as much as the front of the quilt. I wish I had some way to display both sides.  I may have to have it hung from the high rafters in my entry way. That might work.

I named the quilt Come to My House for Halloween, as you can see on the above label. I really like this quilt. I am not crazy about the quilting. I used a spiderweb pantograph. The quilt is so busy it is hard to see that is the design. Though I did show it to a friend and her 18 year old daughter. The daughter stated she really liked the spiderweb design, so I guess it shows up better than I thought. I am glad she said that.

So last night I was going through magazines that I keep with patterns I MAY work on some time in the future. I found three more Halloween/Fall quilts I want to make. Geez, I think this is an addiction!

Keep on Quilting

My quilts.

The last two days I have been going through some of my pictures looking at quilts I have made. I have listed several of them on the tab at the top of my blog that is labeled My Quilts. I will keep posting them there, so check back from time to time. There is no order how they are listed and not all of them are there yet.

Keep on Quilting

Amy Bradley's Camper Quilt blocks

My friend, Venita, and I are working on completing Amy Bradley's Camper Quilt. We fell in love with the pattern at first sight and decided to do our own personal Block of the Month, only we do it whenever we decided to get together and work on each block. The pattern has eight regular blocks and two extra blocks. We have done five of the regular blocks. This is my most recent one done:

Below is the front of the pattern. As you can see, Amy used a theme to her blocks so that they all looked alike. I was not sure how I was going with mine until I had completed two of them. I decided to make each one a little different depending upon the background fabric I chose.

The first one I did had a flamingo in it. I love this particular one. Because of the flamingo, I chose a background of palm trees and flamingos and then put my own flamingo by the camper.

The fourth one I did is below. I chose bicycles as my background fabric. On an outing after making this block, I found a fat quarter at a fabric shop that had bicycles in it. Bought it, brought it home and fussy cut a bike out and appliqued it next to the camper. Cute, I think.

For some reason, I did not take the other two camper blocks alone. I did take a picture to show Venita what the four I had done looked together. That was a concern for me since they are each so independent from the others.

The top two are the others I have not already shown here. I like them both. One is a forest setting background; the other has umbrellas, which the pattern had, too.

Each of the blocks will have fabric from the camper of that block sashing it. Then I have purchased (but have not received yet) fabric that has mountains, forests, rivers trucks, cars and campers throughout. I ordered it on line and should be receiving it soon. That fabric will be the sashing and border around all the blocks.

I am also making the block shown on the cover (see the picture of the pattern cover) of a family camping. There is also another block of an older couple camping. I will do that one, too. Plus I am going to make a block of a campground near a lake or river that has only tents. I have to design that one myself.

I am so excited to complete this quilt. Venita is getting ready to go off on her vacation, so I guess I will work on the block that I have to design while she is gone.

I will post progress as I go along.

Keep on Quilting

My quilts came back from Sisters

As stated in my previous post, I sent up some quilts to be displayed at the Oregon Sisters Quilt Show this year. It is the first year I have entered. I entered because I thought we were going to go up there. My quilts did and I didn't. Boo hoo. I would have loved to see my own quilts hung there, though.

I wound up sending up three more than I originally stated I was sending. After enrolling those two, I received an e-mail saying I could enter up to 10 quilts to sell in the show, too. I chose three more than I wouldn't mind selling and entered those, too. I sold two of them. I put decent pricing on them - meaning a lot less than it took to make them. But they sold. I got the check last week and it make me happy.

The best part is on the quilts I sent up, they sent them back with the information card that was attached to each quilt and a yellow ribbon with the show's name and year the quilt was entered. My plan is to sew the ribbons to be back of each quilt to carry that into their history.

I was so impressed with how easy it was to enter and receive back, that I plan on entering again next year. Maybe I will actually make it up there to see my quilts.

For more information on the Sisters Quilt show go to http://sistersoutdoorquiltshow.org/

Keep on Quilting