PIQF Thoughts

Rice Freeman-Zachery’s book Creative Time and Space (look for a review soon!) says “I think artists need to see the work of other artists, writers-see movies, go to museums, go to a play on occasion. Nothing makes a person feel more alive than experiencing something excellently done. ” (pg.97)

So, I went down to PIQF in Santa Clara and had a look at some quilts and booths and vendors.

I am worried that PIQF is becoming an old person’s show. I didn’t see many, if any, Fresh Modern quilts.

People seem to be still working in a lot of brown, but the quilts didn’t feel as grim as in previous years. When I say brown, I don’t mean rich chocolate brown. I mean the kind of browns used for Civil War type quilts.

In this show I saw a lot of realism again, much less geometry. The geometric and blocks quilts I did see had a lot of really nice grid quilting.

The judges seemed to be looking for quilts with “more is more” and rewarding those quilts/makers with prizes. I wasn’t completely enamored with the judge’s choices, but I am sure they had their reasons.

There seemed to be a lot more quilts this year in general. I was glad to see the compention quilts, which was missing from the Long Beach show.

Joanna Figueroa in Fig Tree Booth
Joanna Figueroa in Fig Tree Booth

My best vendor experience was at the Fig Tree & Co. booth. Her staff is really friendly. Ms. Figueroa was there and nice and engaged with customers. I asked whether her bag handles (red dots!) would be on her website. She explained that they had bought out the distributor and were unsure of whether they could get anymore.They wanted a steady supply line before offering them. Good business sense! I also liked her honesty. I won’t be disappointed if I don’t see them there. The booth had a nice feel to it, a lot of energy. I hope she does well at this show. I found the Bella bag pattern there!

Elsewhere, in the vendor area, I was very sorry to see Custom Woodworks by Jeff going out of business for health reasons. I have long admired his cutting tables and sewing cabinets. I have never had the money to buy one, but it has always been on my list. I wish Jeff and his family well.

I noticed a lot of new styles of rulers and especially some extolling the virtues of no math. I am not sure how I would know where I was when putting together a block if I used one of these rulers, but I am sure they will be a big help to some people.

While a number of vendors were sitting morosely in their booths, there seemed to be a lot of demos going on. Sew Little Time Quilting had Nick Cowan there demonstrating a tool that takes the color out of fabric in a certain place so you can put other color back in. It is called deColourant from Harbor Sales.

I also thought the aisles were wider this year and Colleen at Sew Little Time Quilting confirmed that the booths were a bit narrower this year.

I noticed a lot of people buying yardage and the booths with kits only were vacant.

TFQ went back today for a couple of hours while I went to take care of some personal business. She said that the show was a lot more crowded and that a couple of the vendors were saying that they hadn’t brought enough stock. Apparently, at shows the last few years people haven’t been attending or buying and they are at this show. Glad to hear that the vendors are doing well!

You can take a look at some of the quilts by looking at my Flickr stream.

Author: Jaye

Quiltmaker who enjoys writing and frozen chocolate covered bananas.

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