Color Play – an international conversation of quilts from PIQF 2012

The Pacific International Quilt festival always includes a wonderful array of quilts and I really enjoyed this year’s selections.

Each year my favorite exhibit is the International Entries of the World Quilt Competition, a collection of quilts made in many different countries

I went to this part of the show first because it always offers a wonderful variety of style, design and color.

Unfortunately, the lighting at the venue is very poor for a quilt show. It has very high overhead lights that shine right in your eyes whenever you try to look at the work. (and makes your neck hurt, too!) Even so, my photographs captured some of the vibrant and exciting colors on display this year. (Much better than my iPhone photos of last year!)

When I’m photographing a quilt show I take a photo of the whole quilt, a close up, and one of the card displayed with the quilt so that I have details about the work for future reference. (And so I can share what the quilt makers say with you, my dear readers.) I’m sorry to say that I didn’t photograph this quilt’s card, so I can’t share the information with you. If you do know who made this amazing work please let me know in the comments section!

As I was organizing this photograph for the blog I noticed the letters above each colored section. They spell out TSAB – I wonder what that’s all about. I didn’t see them until I posted the photo!

The way the strip sets are sewn and the raw-edge flaps and the color movement is all very intriguing.
The cut away section of the circles is really wonderful, too!

It is almost like there is a conversation going on with the first quilt and Norma Keeley’s work shown here, both quiltmakers are using raw edges and flaps sewn into the quilts to make interesting statements. I like this approach and I think both of these quilts are very successful in engaging the viewer.

I also really like how the stitching and beading in Keeley’s work (above) add additional layers of visual play.

Orna Shahar’s Twilight seems to be another addition to the conversation being played out in these vertical stripe-set quilts. This work includes fabric with embroidered stitches and other textural elements, yet in this case the colors are of a more limited palette.

This year’s show was a virtual panoply of stitching – I have never seen so many quilts with such tight and intricate quilting.

That being said, I think Rita Hutchens’ Tube Stitch Fractal Quilts are an amazing combination of color, design and stitching. She reports that she made these quilts (and quilted them) on a home sewing machine – this fact just blows me away!

Another quilt that really intrigued me was this applique piece made by Rachel Covo from Israel.

The strips of landscape from the sky to the water, with the building in between is also a variation of the layering conversation.

Turning our layers on the side and swirling them around the floral fabrics, Susan Wessels’ Flight of Fancy is a jubilant display of color and texture.

I love what she wrote about this improvisational work (below).

The delightful monochromatic Hues of Amber is a visual feast of color, design and texture. From our very own Billings, Montana, Karlyn Lohrenz has created a Vitamin D-filled masterpiece.

The quilting was as intense and exciting as the design!

Some of you will remember when I wrote about circle quilts last year. This fabulous quilt  is a tour de force from Germany’s Christel Pietschmann

The colors are amazing and the simplicity of the design is sublime.

And last but not least is this spiderweb quilt from New Zealand. The funny thing is that I had already found this quilt on Pintrest and put it on my Yummy Quilts board!

My photo shows the colors in this quilt so much better than on Pintrest!

I’ve really been wanting to make a spiderweb quilt and this really inspires me.

You might know Chris Kenna’s work called Green Fire. I had seen it in last year’s PIQF, but I didn’t get a useable photo of it, but take a peek at the close up!

You can read more about the Green Fire quilt on Tanya Brown’s Blog.

Oh the fabrics and colors in this quilt… I’m in love!

I wonder what the conversation will be next year.

What will you add?