Pacitif International Quilt Festival 2014

Pacific International Quilt Festival is a quilt show that I like to attend every year.

It's a short drive from where I live, so dropping in for a few hours is low hanging fruit and a serious treat for the eyes.

This year was no exception.

I took lots of photos of quilts, ribbons won, and info sheets about the quilts and the people who made them.  The quilt above is called Celestial Splendor and was made by Rachel Wetzler of Illinois.  It was stunning in person, as were many other quilts but this was one of my favorites.

A highlight for me was meeting (In Person!!!)  Nancy Brown, amazing applique artist.  It was like meeting a rock star for me.  You can see some photos of me with her and the ladies who helped do the applique on the quilt that was in the show this year.  It was another one of my favorites and I took a lot of detailed photos of it.  There are San Francisco and animal themes in the block designs.

Here's a link to all the photos I took at Pacific International Quilt Festival 2014.

I didn't photograph all the quilts, only the ones that either won big awards or really inspired me.

Oh right and if you missed the previous nine years of the show (unlike me!) and want to see another oh say...four or five THOUSAND quilt photos from PIQF...well - look no further!!  Perhaps you should make yourself a cup (barrel?) of tea first.

PIQF 2013

PIQF 2012
 
PIQF 2011

PIQF 2010

PIQF 2009

PIQF 2008

PIQF 2007

PIQF 2006

PIQF 2005

PIQF 2013: Pacific International Quilt Festival

PIQF (Pacific International Quilt Festival) 2013 has come and gone but not without the notice of myself and hundreds of other happy onlookers.

I took a lot of photos, not of all the quilts, but of the ones that really caught my eye and some that stood out as being really notable.  I was a bit more rushed this year than in other years.  It's soccer season with the kids after all.

When you look through the photo stream for the most part the photo of the quilt is first, and the name of the quilter and details of the quilt come after that with photo of ribbons awarded as well if they got one.

I did a small bit of shopping.  More on that and links to my personal top 10 favorites in an upcoming post.  

For now, enjoy PIQF 2013.

Oh yes, and if you're looking for eye candy from other years, you can find hundreds if not thousands of photos from the last nine years of this event in my PIQF Through The Years flickr collection.

Tokyo Great Quilt Festival 2013 - More!

Photos are still being posted of the Tokyo Dome Quilt show.  

All of them are a little different, and in their own way amazing:

Julie of My Quilt Diary has several posts. They are all 'do not miss them'! Part 3 has the most blue and white quilts - some of my favorites:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Cynthia at A Quilter By Night has photos of different quilts, equally amazing.
My favorite quilt of the show may be this one - called "To Those Who Have Become The Winds" - so Japanese, so beautiful.

I do also love the octopus quilt though.

Part 1
Part 2 
Part 3

Thank you to those lovely photographers who let us feel like we were there too.

I'm doing a little spinning of some merino and silk fiber from A Verb For Keeping Warm.  We'll see if I can make something interesting out of it. 

Verb has started to dye indigo fabric.  I'm looking forward to running into it in person sometime.  Would make for some awesome quilting.

Tokyo Dome Great Quilt Festival 2013: Eye candy

Are you looking for quilting eye candy, or real candy?  

How about a photo of some Japanese lollipops make in Kyoto to kick off my favorite post of the year about (duh!) the Tokyo Dome.

Did you visit the biggest quilt show on the planet this year?

Or did you want to?  That would be me of course.

The Tokyo Dome Great Quilt Festival is perhaps the most bountiful feast for the eyes that a quilter could hope to come upon.

Although I didn't make it there this year, one of my best friends did go, and it looks like a lot of other people went too!


- Lynett Anderson visited and posted several really great photos at her blog.

- Queenie also was there and took some incredible photos too.

- eQuilter is another good place to stop by for some Tokyo Dome eye candy.

 - Blossom Heart has a photo matrix that may blow your mind.

- Robots-Dreams flickr set has a awesome collection of images from the show.

If you went, and you're posting photos, please do let me know so I can add your link the list here.

For those of your keeping score at home, this is the 7th year I've been blogging about other people's photos from the show!

Next year it will be MY photos you're looking at.  I'm going to find a way to get there.  Beware, I might be hiding in your luggage.

PIQF 2012: Another good quilt show

Pacific International Quilt Festival, or "PIQF," is one of the larger quilt shows in the US, and I'm lucky enough to live almost next door to it.  

This year, there were many incredible quilts, but of course I had my favorites.

I cannot walk by an album quilt without snapping a photo of it.  There seemed to be more of them this year than in other years.

A quilter who I met there last year, Laura, had her Dear Jane quilt in the show, and it was stunning.  She used only two fabrics in the entire quilt.  Such discipline.  Such a beautiful result.

 
I did not know many people personally who had their quilts hung up, but there were the usual famous folks like Mary Mashuda and Nancy Brown.

There were some interesting vendors there, but I only really picked up a couple of small things.  Ok, a very affordable antique quilt top also found its way home with me.  Nothing that I couldn't fit into my purse though.  More on the interesting goodies soon.

Meanwhile, sit back, relax, get a cup of coffee (you might need it) and enjoy the vast amount of photos I took for you and posted on flickr.  Note there are a couple of hundred of them so skip around as you see fit.

I photographed the quilt first, then the ribbon and information on the quilt.  I didn't always photograph the information sheet...mostly I did that when there was an award or when I was really enjoying the quilt and wanted to make a note of the story behind it and the quilter.

PIQF 2012:  Slide show and flickr set (490 photos)

I was especially inspired by the work of: 

Cheiko Baba (Traditional Japanese village quilt)
Rita Verroca (Baltimore Album quilt shown above) and
Yoshiko Katagira (featured quilt artist from Japan - insane fish quilt).

And if you just want some beautiful photos to watch while you eat your lunch, you can get a lot of inspiration from the historic photos of this show.  

Below are links to all the photos I shot and posted over the last 7 years. 

If you look at them all, you have either been reading my blog for waaaay too long, or you are my mom, who faithfully looks all my photos every single year.

PIQF 2011

PIQF 2010

PIQF 2009

PIQF 2008

PIQF 2007

PIQF 2006

PIQF 2005

Voices in Cloth 2012 - more peaks, and Bricks By the Bay 2012

Yes, that was Roberta Horton in my last post, good eye smartie pants Kathie and Quilt Inspiration.

I enjoyed the Voices in Cloth 2012 Quilt show so very much.  I ran around with my trusty friend Marianne and my camera shooting grab shots here and there.  Here we are above (I'm on the right) in the Verb booth.  

Those quilts behind us are mine.  Left one may surprise you - yes, finally I assembled all the modern house applique blocks I had into the start of a quilt top.  Right one is hand applique using Oakshott fabrics.  They shimmer.

I put photos I took of the quilts in a flickr set for you here, so enjoy.  Click here for slide show of all photos.

We also attended the first ever Lego convention to hit the California Bay Area over last weekend.  Some of the creations were awesome.  I cannot help myself from uploading another flickr set of that - check it out here - Bricks by the Bay.

In other quilty news:

I love this print from the To Market To Market by Robert Kaufman - Apple fabric: sometimes I find their fabric lines very mainstream and not unique enough for my taste, but not this time.  I'm a sucker for apples.

Have see seen reviews yet out there on Denyse Schmidt's new book Modern Quilts: Traditional Inspiration? I'm sure folks are in love.  I don't have a copy but her work is stunning and unique.

If you're thinking of a re-org of your fabric stash, check out the inspirational stash of Sarah Fielke over at The Last Piece blog - very pretty.

I also ran into photos of Nani Iro's fabric collection for 2012: oooh-la-la, pretty.

Lastly, not quilt related, but due to my obsession with Polaroids, I just adore this candle in the shape of a retro Polaroid.  I can almost hear the noise that the camera makes when a photo comes out.

Voices in Cloth 2012

Today I spent the greater part of the day at the Voices in Cloth quilt show.

It was located in Richmond, CA, just north of Oakland and was put on by the East Bay Heritage Quilt Guild.

Lucky for my sons and husband, they were 'saved' by a tour of the U.S.S. Iowa (a battleship) that was literally just across the street.  I think they had a great time there, and I will confess that I actually enjoyed having some time to look at the quilts with my friend Marianne.

I ran into this extremely famous and talented quilter(above) and she gave me the pleasure of photographing her next to one of the quilts she had in the show.  Anybody know who she is?  I'm sure you have at least a book or two that she has written.  I probably have more than 2 of them.

More on the story behind this mystery quilter's awesome quilt, and the show itself soon, including a flickr set of quilt photos...some ideas for upcoming shows...my take on vendors there.  If you have the chance, get over and visit there tomorrow.  I have a couple of quilts up in the vendor booth by A Verb for Keeping Warm.

PIQF 2011: Market Goodies - Oakshott fabric

At PIQF this year I did not manage to visit all the shopping booths, but of course I had fun anyhow.


I never skip the Pinwheels booth.  It's brimming over with beautiful Japanese taupe fabrics.  By the time I got there, fabric was going fast and serious Japanese fabric addicts were snapping up the good stuff as quickly as they could.  I bought what I could get my hands on.  I think it was a mistake not going there first thing in the morning.


The above fabrics are from an English company called Oakshott from their Lyon line and as far as I can tell, these fabrics are not carried by any other shop in the US besides Pinwheels.  I wish I could pick them up at my local quilt shop, but alas...I get them each year at PIQF.


You probably need to see them in person to appreciate their true beauty.  In case you missed a look at the quilt top I made with them some time back...check out this post.


Other Daiwabo taupes were also there for the blissful taupe-a-holics and I'm using a couple of them in my next house BOM.  


Places I also enjoyed:

• YLI thread:  They had some new metalic + silk threads.  I have never seen these before so I got some to try.  They also had their hand quilting thread in a 2 ply, instead of 3 ply...so thinner.  We'll see if it holds up to my hand quilting strength requirements!

• Cindy's Antique Quilts:  If you collect quilts, this booth is a do not miss booth.  Her quilts are all in really nice shape and prices are basically market value.  There was a yellow lone star quilt here that I almost bought but I didn't want to have to eat ramen noodles for 2 weeks over it.

• Reets Rags to Stitches:  I like to play around with felted wool, especially hand dyed.  She had some cool colors and I picked up a few pieces.  I use these in the birthday crowns I make for my kids, and also in other kid projects.  The fun colors really scream 'kids!' to me.

• Morgan Quality Products:  I picked up hand quilting stencils here.  They have some very nice ones.  If you love to hand quilt, you will love their selection.  Lots of Amish looking designs which are my favorites.  I also ended up trying their soap stone quilt top marking pencil.  I haven't tried it yet, but am thinking of doing a test run soon to see if it really comes out.  I picked up a pack on their Bohin needles (from France!) to try some applique.  I found them too flexible for my needs so I'm going back to my Jeana Kimball ones.

Lastly, there was a flier to advertise the upcoming East Bay Heritage Quilters guild show - Voices in Cloth, so I've marked that on my calendar:  March 17-18, 2012.  I hear it's worth seeing.  I'm looking forward to checking out the special exhibit by the African American Quilt Guild of Oakland.

PIQF 2011: Pacific International Quilt Festival - wanna attend?

If you wish you could attend PIQF 2011 in person you have two options:

a)  Take a red eye to San Jose, California, as there is still time left: the show continues through tomorrow (Sunday).

b)  Save yourself the travel headache and hunker down with a nice cup of tea to view my latest photos....links below.

The show was pretty neat, and I really enjoyed going with my friends Marianne and Susan.  We saw all the quilts and most of the vendor booths. 

Overall, not a lot of hand work in the show, but that is the norm these days I think.  Some of the hand work we did see was awesome, and some of the machine work was also very beautiful.

The photo above is from an entry from Germany, called Annual Rings by quilt maker Petra Niermann.  Looks so Amish, but more modern with the rectangles.  I loved this quilt.

For your viewing pleasure:

Flickr set of photos here, slide show directly accessible here.  Just under 350 photos for you this year, so set aside a few minutes so you can enjoy them.

My favorite quilt in the whole show may have been a hand quilted beauty seen here.  Quilt maker Myrl Lehman-Tapungot.  No ribbon, boo!

If you have a favorite from the slide show, let me know which one it is.

A couple of highlights: 

There were also some beautiful Dear Jane quilts in the show which I included in my photos.  I met some 'Janiacs' who had not only finished one Dear Jane quilt, but had completed a 2nd one.  That's dedication for you.  They were super fun and one of the gals was the aunt of a quilt maker who had her completed Dear Jane on display here (also no ribbon - ??? Judges - what is going on?)?

I also ran into Annie Smith of Quilting Stash quilting podcast.  It was so fun to see her.  If you listen to her podcast already, you know it's one of the better ones out there.

Joe Cunningham was spotted there as well (he doesn't know me) but I did a double take when I ran into him. 

I'll cover more about the vendors in my next post.  There were some good ones and I picked up some interesting new things.

If the slide show of this year isn't enough for you, I have a lot of historic photos of PIQF through the years:

PIQF Photo Collection: 

1350 photos from the last 7 years of the show, organized by year, 2005 - 2011.

If that doesn't keep you entertained, I don't know what will.

Pacific International Quilt Festival 2011 - everything but the kitchen sink

Our visit to gramma's 90th birthday is over and fun was had by most.

The party itself was awesome, and it was great to see her. She really loved the scarf that I knit for her and we posed with her wearing it for a photo together.

My husband and little one managed to come down with a summer cold as we were traveling so they had less fun than some of us.

The boys did see fireflies for the first time though (we don't have them in California) so that was magical.

Speaking of magical, what to my wondering eyes should appear in my mailbox while I was gone but the Pacific International Quilt Festival 2011 catalog.

Time to mark your calendars: San Jose, CA on October 13 - 16th! Classes are open for registration. I was surprised that there was even a small amount of hand work classes listed, so that seems nice. There is also a class on how to photograph your quilts which I found very interesting.

Entries for putting your quilt in the show are due Sept 1. I don't think I'll be entering anything this year, since I'm planning on winning Best In Show next year with my taupe modern house quilt (ahem).

I'm going to attend again of course this year and will be taking photos for you, same as last year (and the year before, and the year before, and....you get the point).

Gifts from afar - Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival 2010 and Yoko Saito

The other day, I went to my mailbox to pick up a package sent to me by Foong Ming.

She is a quilter, a reader of my blog, and happened to also be going to the Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival last January.

Inside of the package were two books that she got there for me.

The first one is a catalog of all the winning quilts at the Tokyo quilt show. This publication is amazing and beautiful. Each of the quilts is a work of art and the photos are just stunning. I have always wanted to attend this show, and now I feel like I have been there. So very cool.

The second book is by Yoko Saito, called "Daily Quilt" - ISBN978-4-529-04780-7.

I was looking through this book, drooling all over the amazing taupe quilted item patterns. If you don't have this book it really is worth adding to your library.

While I was reading, thinking how sweet Foong Ming was to send these to me, I saw the first page of the book.

She had it SIGNED and ADDRESSED TO ME!!! by none other than the famous YOKO SAITO!!!

At this point I almost fainted, ran and showed it to my husband, and I'm now calling this book my favorite book in my entire collection.

Thanks again Foong Ming. You rock! Sending a virtual hug your way...all the way from California to Singapore.

Pacific International Quilt Festival 2009

PIQF 2009 has come and gone and I am a little sad that it's over.

The show was pretty good this year and I had a huge amount of fun.

I had the extreme pleasure of assisting Cindy Brick as the quilt appraiser for the show, so I got to see a lot of awesome quilts and learned a huge ton from her. She is really an incredible appraiser as well as quilt judge and quilt restorer. If you ever have the chance to meet her and have an appraisal done, I would highly recommend it.

After my day of appraisal assisting, I spent the next day running around with my camera and doing a little shopping. I didn't get a lot of things, but I did pick up a few cool items.

The quilts at the show were of course the real fun. I took tons of pictures for you (of course) but since there were so many quilts I only photographed the ones that I loved and the ones that I had time to run around and see. There were so many more awesome quilts that I wish I could have taken pictures of all of them.

That being said, if you did not get to go, please enjoy my flickr slide show:

PIQF 2009

Oh, and if you are new around here, I've been posting these quilt show photos for a while. Check out 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 if you like. (that ought to keep you busy!)

I have found 1 other set posted so far this year by GoDutchBaby here.

The above photo of the cathedral windows quilt has a very special twist to it - do you get it? The quilt is so beautiful in person and was made by Leigh Cabell from Denver Colorado.

The end is near....a sigh and a tear

The only other time I have felt this sad was when my maternity leave ended with our first son.

Next week is my last week off with our new baby, and I will confess I am a little more blue than usual.

I love each peach-fuzzy hair on his head, each teenie toe nail, each giggle and each fat fold. The last few months off have given us some incredible time together, and I have fallen in love.

My only comfort is something I learned with my first son. Even though you take them off to babysitting, they don't forget who their real mommy is.

I will do my best to enjoy this last week of fun with both my sons, and return to my job (which I actually do like very much) next week.

So what's a girl to do to cheer up?

Alex of Moonstitches also posted a wonderful slide show of the Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival 2009. Thanks Alex, and to all, please do pop over and enjoy her photos.

Kathie pointed me to Sew Unique Creations for Ecology Cloth. Mine just came in the mail. Now to plot what to do with it!

And lastly, for some quilty inspiration, I was looking at Susan McCord's Quilts. They are stunning.

Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival 2009

Each year in January I hope and pray that I can go to the Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival. I have yet to actually make it there; however, I will not wallow in agony.

No, no....no need to cry. We have the talented and generous Jennifer of Moving Hands Blog to thank for her awesome images and the incredible images on Flickr.

If you are a quilter, or an artist, or just a human being with a pulse...you MUST view these incredible photos. They are so inspirational. Jennifer, I cannot thank you enough for capturing these quilts so beautifully.

As you can see above, I am still working on learning to knit. This is my first attempt at a sock.

I spent my trip to Yosemite with a friend that said, "You know, you can buy socks, right?"

Yeah, thanks.

"Date That Quilt" Game

This afternoon I visited the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, California.

They have an awesome exhibit there right now called "American Quilts: Two Hundred Years of Tradition," and it runs through March 15, 2009. If you have the chance to see it, I would very highly recommend it.

As I walked through the exhibit, I did not look at any of the dates on the info signs next to the quilts. Instead, I tried to guess the year the quilt was made by using the knowledge I have gained during my quilt appraisal studies.

For most of the quilts, I was able to date them with 10 years of the date the museum had posted. A couple of them I was a bit off, but it was the solid fabrics that threw me. I'm still learning to identify the dyes used during various time periods.

The log cabin above was especially attractive. That setting is so pretty and the quilt was just striking in person.

Any of you care to guess what date it was made? I know it's tough with the picture being so dark. Hint - fabrics are all silks.

In other news, my sister just gave me this crazy pretty "binky bling" pacifier clip for the baby. It is made of Swarovski crystal and is the cutest baby gift I think I've ever seen. Perfect for the baby that has everything. I think I'll turn it into a scissor leash or something after he gives up the binky.

More on PIQF 2008

My favorite quilt from the show this year was by Nancy S. Brown, called Pup Art.

All hand applique and hand quilted. I hear she teaches classes at New Pieces in Berkeley. Note to self - enroll sometime soon!

Glad you liked the flickr set of this year's show. Of course I only took pictures of the quilts that I had time to see (given I had my 2 kids with me) as well as the quilts that I really loved. The pictures are by no means a full set of all the quilts at the show.

I also uploaded a flickr set of old photos from last year's show that I loved:

PIQF 2007

and for those who really cannot get enough...

PIQF 2006 and while I'm at it -

PIQF 2005.

And if you can sit through all that, then you'll have felt like you spent the last 4 years at this quilt show. Nuts.

Other shops that I hit on my second day -

Bonnie Blue Quilts: From Katy (outside of Houston) Texas. They have some incredible Civil War reproduction fabrics. My mom got us a pack of their purple fabrics to share. Oh so pretty.

Cindy's Antique Quilts: From Clinton, Oklahoma, Cindy's shop is more of a museum for sale than a shop. Her quilts are MINT and amazing. She has a huge stack of 1850's red and green quilts that will make you want to empty your bank account right then and there. I'm soooo on the brink of putting one on her lay away program. It is awesome-cool that she offers one. Will my will power (do I have any?) prevail?

On a totally different topic -

Hwireroad.org: My wild and crazy bay area best friend, Julie McDonald, is making a journey on her scooter from California to Washington D.C. to meet people and discuss the upcoming presidential election. Her story is quite interesting, even though I must admit I wish she would just come home soon and drive around town in an actual car or something. Check it out if you have time or just cannot get enough of American political issues.

Pacific International Quilt Festival (PIQF) 2008

We spent a good chunk of the afternoon enjoying opening day of PIQF.

Please see the flickr slide show that I put together for you.

I took a couple of pictures each of some of the quilts I was really in love with, so I need to warn you that there are just over 250 pictures in the show, so watch it while you quilt or something.

The quilt that my sister and I made for my mom with the taupe houses was hanging in all of its glory on the wall (above), in a very good spot actually.

It didn't win a ribbon, which didn't surprise me at all. I was surprised however at some of the awesome quilts that were there and didn't have ribbons, so I was in excellent company.

Most of the vendors that were there had nice things. Some of my favorites included:

Attic Heirlooms: They had tons of beautiful wools, and accessories. I was hugely sucked in by the amazing ladies that worked at the booth - so friendly! as well as their beautiful goods. All the way from Portland, Maine.

Bird Brain Designs: These girls had antique spools for sale at reasonable prices, as well as the usual yummy wools. Why am I so into wool? I think I'm addicted. I cannot stop. This shop was very bad for me! So pretty.

Pinwheels: Duh, taupe fabric central. I didn't visit their booth yet, since time was limited, but I'll be heading back tomorrow and checking them out in person. Cannot wait!! My buddy Holly who I ran into said it was awesome, of course.

Quilt Appraisal Class - day 1

Here I am at Road to California quilt show in Ontario, California, and I just finished my first day of classes on quilt appraisal.

Our teacher is Bobby Aug, a very experienced teacher and appraiser. I am learning a ton, spending time looking at antique quilts, and loving every moment of it. If you ever get the chance to take a class from her, I would recommend it.

My mom is here with me about to take some long arm classes starting tomorrow. It's a special treat to get to spend some time with her. I feel like I'm in high school again. She wakes me up with that same cheery voice that I remember so well. Ah, morning people.

Today we learned about replacement value of quilts for insurance purposes. I learned that most quilt appraisers will recommend against having a quilt appraised that is valued under around $200-$300. That was news to me, I thought you were supposed to document them all!

I also ran feverishly around the quilt show snapping up shots of the quilts. Will have to post on flickr...having oh so much fun. Stay tuned, more tomorrow.

PIQF 2007 Paparazzi - Annie Smith of Quilting Stash

It was a warm and lovely afternoon on the last day of PIQF 2007.

I was innocently and aimlessly wandering around the quilt show with my family, (waiting to pick up my quilts really) and who did I bump into?

The lovely, and talented Annie Smith. She whipped out her little camera and snapped a very cute family photo of us!

Annie of course, is my fav podcaster on the planet, and also publishes a beautiful blog on her web site www.simplearts.com.

I was thrilled to see her again, my husband felt like he had met a Hollywood movie star, and my son was more than happy to sing a little song for her.

You know I don't usually plant my face on the top of my blog...but if you're curious, you can check see her blog for the family photo. Blushing...I'm so honored! Thanks Annie!

PIQF 2007 - viewer's choice

At PIQF 2007, and at any quilt show, there is always an award called Viewer's Choice.

Anybody who attends can vote for the quilt they like the most.

The above quilt did not win viewer's choice at PIQF in 2007. In fact, it actually didn't win a ribbon at all.

However, because this is after all my own personal blog, with my own personal opinions, this quilt is by far my personal "viewer's choice."

It was made by Kiyoko Nakahara, of Japan. I was stunned by the beautiful hand work. Full picture of the quilt in my next post.

At PIQF there were lots of cool shops. Some of the ones I liked the most:

Quilt Crafts - notions like you would not even believe. I found my favorite zipper pull by clover here. Some of you asked where to get it, so wonder no longer.

Also found at Quilt Crafts booth was my FAVORITE tool for applique - it keeps you from burning your fingers as you preform your quilt shapes.

Pearl's Applique and Pressing Tool: $15.95

Oh so much more to share on the topic of PIQF 2007....stay tuned.