I have mentioned the quilts, but not delved in, so here we go. Again, if you forgot or are new here, you can view my set of PIQF 2012 quilts on Flickr. I have been uploading them in dribs and drabs. It takes time to add the names of quilts and makers and I am not inclined to spend all my free time uploading photos. It might take me weeks to get through that, so go and look, read my blog, then go back to Flickr and look at more quilt photos later.
As I said, the Renewed Jelly Roll Race was at the show. Sharona, of New Pieces, encouraged me to enter last year and the encouragement followed me to this year. Friends gave me lots of nice comments about seeing it there. It was hanging straight, too, which was a relief. Thanks for your support, friends and all.
While I did whine a bit about the various aspects of the show in one of the previous posts, there were some good quilts there.
I saw quilts by friends. Amy won an award. Pamelala had three quilts in a new style on display. Awesome to see her artwork evolving. Maureen’s jar quilt was in a primo location. Kathleen had her Wonky 9 patch in the New Quilts of Northern California exhibit with mine. Marie had two quilts, one was a lovely pink quilt. Yes, I am feeling the pinky love lately. I do see another pink donation quilt in my future. Chris had two quilts in the show, both continuing her explorations in quiltmaking. Marci G really showed off her computerized machine quilting expertise in her quilt.
If I had to choose, I might pick this quilt to be my favorite of the whole show. I really like certain types of flower quilts and this one has the added bonus of great colors.
I like the spray of flowers. The artist also machine quilted additional leaves, etc, I think, to lighten up the piece. If she had appliqued them on, the piece would be too heavy. As a result, there is a space between the sprays and the leaves. Again, as a reward to viewers who look longer and closer, the machine quilted leaves fill in any gaps that might show.
TFQ and I often ask each other, when visiting a quilt show, what quilt made an impression on us or what quilt are we thinking about. As shocking as it may seem to you, Julie Kuto’s Civil War 9-Patch is the quilt that I thought about the most during the show.
I am not thinking about this quilt because of the fabrics, as they are obviously not my style. What I liked about this quilt was the combination of 9-patches and 4-patches. The 9-patches are about 6″. I didn’t have a ruler with me, so I didn’t measure. The 4-patches fit next to each square of the 9-patch, so they must be 2″ finished and on point. Small, yes, but not impossible and great for scraps. I would love to see a lot of people make this quilt, or the 9-patch/4-patch combination in different fabrics. It is always so fun for me to see different interpretations of quilts.
Julie does a great job with contrast in the 9-patches. I would want the 4-patches to stand out a bit more than they do , so I would pay attention to the contrast. When I say ‘stand out,’ I don’t mean jump out as the primary element of the quilt. I mean I would like the viewer to know that I went to a lot of trouble to piece 4-patches that small! I would want them to blend into the temperature of the quilt in general.
As an aside, Julie’s quilt, while not my colors, does not depress me like some quilts made in the Civil War style do.
I thought this was an interesting quilt. I think it is one of the most well done pieces of this style that I have seen.
There is the right amount of color. The black does not overwhelm, e.g. the artist paid attention to the ratios of black and white to each other, which helped make the quilt successful. There is the right amount of color. I also like it that there are some curves and that the pieced strips mimic each other, provide continuity, without duplicating each other.
The quilt looks very sheer in the white areas, in that you can see the seams. I don’t think it detracts from the overall look of the quilt, but I think I might have done something differently.
I think the piece is hand quilted, though it may just be partially hand quilted. I like the way the lines show up. They are also spaced enough to add interest without looking done by a computer. I like it that the viewer can see them pretty well (contrast of thread and fabric is good).
There are a couple of things I like about Hanami. The most is important is the flowers. The varying size of the flowers creates a lot of movement in this piece.
There are some flowers behind the more prominent top flowers made from fabric that blends into the background more. These flowers are a surprise reward for looking closer at this quilt.
I also like the stitching in the center of each of the flowers as well as around the edges. The stitching adds a lot of interest to the main flowers, which are mostly made from solids. The stitching relieves the flatness that can be a quality of solids. It is machine done and Ms. Harris did a great job.
I try to find something good in all of the quilts I view at the show even if they are not my style. I noticed that stitching is still very popular. I will venture out on a limb to say that there was more hand stitching this year than I remember. I could be wrong, though. I don’t actually count quilts with various techniques.
Here is a selection of links from past PIQFs so you can compare some quilts:
