The Pacific International Quilt Festival happens once a year for 3 days or so in Santa Clara, California. Even though it always happens during a week in which I have too much to do, I make time for it and trek down to it.
There’s the market hall with booths for days. The fat quarters! The luscious array of threads! Plastic templates! Patterns! Books! Gadgets! Sewing Machines! Sewing Machine tables! Long Arm Quilters!
Tempting, but the best part of the Festival are the quilts on display. These are just a few of the ones I enjoyed.
The creativity, skill, workmanship and beauty of the quilts is remarkable, freakishly so on some of them. A whole lot of them consist of more thread than fabric.
I cannot help thinking about the level of obsessive compulsiveness gathered in one hall during this quilt festival. Yeah, okay…takes one to know one?
And last but not least, I loved the sense of humor and lesson of this one – and as it happened the creator of the quilt was there as I was taking a picture of her quilt!
Her artist statement reads “I got the idea for this quilt while pre washing lots of batiks. I use Shout Color Catchers in each load. They turn such lovely blotchy colors when they absorb extra dye from the wash water. I machine pieced and quilted color catchers. I also drew on them with color pencils.”
Hmm. I think I’ll be pre washing more now.
Wow, these are all wonderful. Thanks for sharing.
these are AMAZING!
Love quilt shows. People do amazing things with fabric! Especially enjoyed the “Why Prewash?” quilt. I made such cute “I Love You” quilts in red and white for my 3 daughters for a Mother/Daughter weekend. After washing they were pink and red quilts. Still loved but certainly showed my lack of prewashing.
I know! – it’s always red that runs into the other colors!
Thank you so much for featuring my quilt and me! Great photos and ideas. The Color Catchers are
easy to sew and quilt. It’s a fun experiment.
Sincerely,
Joni Strother,
San Jose, California