PIQF 2009: First Impressions

I went to the preview for the Pacific International Quilt Festival 2009  this evening. It was only 1.5 hours long, so I didn’t get to see everything. Some first impressions:

There were a lot more bolts of fabric than in previous years, as opposed to kits and fabric packs. I was pleased to see that I would be able to buy some yardage, if I want. There were still fabric packs.

Many of the vendors from past years were there and I saw a couple of new ones. I was nervous that the vendor hall would be empty because the Quilt Festival in Houston is on at the same time.

People didn’t seem to be buying much and I heard a vendor say that most people just look on the preview night. I bought one FQ. 😉

I went to the preview to take photos when it wasn’t busy. I intended to take as many as possible, but I started taking them and just felt depressed about it, so I stopped and, then, only took pictures of quilts I really liked. I still managed to take a few hundred pictures. One thing I learned from this experience was that I need to make quilts – at least show quilts – that are interesting. I need to make quilts that people haven’t seen before. That is if I want to show quilts in the future. That is not to say that I have to show my quilts and that I can’t make any kind of quilts I want. I think if I am going to show quilts they have to be special and interesting.

Lots of landscapes and realism type quilts. There was one with a castle (Rheingau?), a triptych of big leaves, another of redwood trees, an Italian Piazza, etc.

The colors used in the quilts are a lot brighter; the quilts are not as depressing as they have been in the past. A few tree quilts, but not as many as last year.

The World Quilt Competition Quilts were very interesting as usual.

Reef Quilts/Patterns (not sure of the name) has some tote bag patterns that I want to look at more closely. They look like they are large, have plenty of pockets and interesting detailing without being too strange.

by Debbie Bosio & Yvette Ebaugh
by Debbie Bosio & Yvette Ebaugh

There was beautiful machine work again, especially sheer types of embroidery. I am not sure of the name, but it is the kind of embroidery that the newer model machines do.

Pamela Allen's Cinderella Making her Getaway
Pamela Allen's Cinderella Making her Getaway

Pamela Allen had a Cinderella quilt, which I thought was great.

There are some pretty Christmas fabrics with fun motifs in non-traditional colors such as turquoise, soft green cream and a light pinkish red.

FOTY 2008 at PIQF
FOTY 2008 at PIQF

FOTY 2008 was there and it didn’t look like I thought it would.I like the location where they hung the quilt. That wave on the bottom makes me crazy. Perhaps I am just nervous about having two quilts there? I didn’t see the Nosegay yet.

Response #35

Purple Journal Page
Purple Journal Page

This isn’t the response I wanted to put up. The prompts are stacking up, however and I was starting to get anxious. As I looked through the journal pages from the  A Work of Heart session/class, I found this page and thought you might enjoy seeing it.

I worked really hard on the studies for a drawing response to Purple that I can’t just let go. Look for another Purple response some day.

Friendly Art Blog

My mom has started her own blog. She said she wanted to do it, so I helped her get set up on Blogger. She is going to talk about quilts, drawing and other kinds of art that she does on Mary’s Art Musings. I told her to write every day for the first week or two so she got into the habit.

Go take a look at what she has up so far and leave a comment. Thanks!