Best of the Pacific International Quilt Festival 2019 (day 2)

Held annually in Santa Clara, California, the Pacific International Quilt Festival is the largest quilt show on the west coast of the U.S.A.  It features a wonderful variety of beautiful quilts! Here are some of the highlights of the festival. Let us know which ones are your favorites!

P.S.  For quilt patterns, books, and vintage collectibles, please visit us on E-Bay quilt-inspiration !

Rajah, 38 x 50, by Leigh Layton, Indiana

Leigh says, "Machine work and cats are my 'Quilty Pleasure.' I use both in my work. Rajah is a resident of a rescue center, and [this quilt] started as a photo."

Leigh continues, "[The photo] was manipulated with software and printed on fabric. Lots and lots of thread painting later, then quilted." We admire this very evenly and carefully done thread painting, because in person, it gives Rajah's face an almost irridescent, glowing look. Leigh's original design is all sewing machine quilted.

Looking Toward the Light , 30 x 26, by Nell Mays, California

Nell explains, "[I am] mostly a self-taught quilter who loves mixing bright colors and interesting fabric remnants to create what the cloth ultimately tells me to do. Occasionally, I will accept institutional theme challenges or try making a traditional quilt pattern, but I find both more stressful and sometimes less creative."

Nell's lovely original design is machine pieced, machine appliqued, and sewing machine quilted. She's done a wonderful job of selecting batiks that coordinate well with each other in terms of design and also provide complementary shading in hues of gold, purple, blue, and orange.

Bricks n Gears, 86 x 71, by Claudia Pfeil, Germany

Claudia notes, "In my imagination, old used gears and wheels are piled along a wall of bricks - a still life of technical relics." Her original design is machine pieced, hand appliqued, and longarm machine quilted.

Claudia won First Place for Best Longarm Machine Workmanship in the Innovative Quilts category, and it's easy to see why she won!  Her work, including the beaded embellishments, is spectacular.

A Sunburnt Country, 121 x 81, by Terri Ahrens, Australia

Second place winner in the World Innovative Quilts category, Terri writes, "A Sunburnt Country was commissioned by my daughter, to be used as a backdrop for her final recital to complete her Masters of Flute in Antwerp, Belgium. It was inspired by a visit to Uluru, (a giant rock outcropping in central Australia) in 2004."

Terri adds, "The piece was made using Susan Carlson's fabric collage  technique. The goal was to only use fabrics from Australian indigenous designers, and only 3 fabrics used did not fit this brief. The quilt was quilted on a Handi-Quilter longarm."  Terri's three panel landscape work is stunning, and the aboriginal fabrics, with their intriguing spirals and circles, give it an extra sparkle.

Evolution,74 x 54, by Thom Atkins, California

Thom remarks, "It started with yet another Kaffe Fassett fabric I just had to have, [which was] quilt-backing material with six large rondelles across. I cut one out, then started cutting loose the rows on one side, opening them, and adding more units. Voila ! A jellyfish (sort of). The diamond shaped pieces in between the large rondelles morphed into smaller jellies."

Thom's brilliantly colored, imaginative original design is machine sewn, soft-edge appliqued, and longarm machine quilted. He's created a magical undersea world.

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration.