Welcome to the 2021 Pacific International Quilt Festival - part 4

Welcome to the Pacific International Quilt Festival! Due to time constraints, we could not view all the quilts this year! Therefore, we are showing a small sample of the quilts in this large show. Here is Part 4 of our photos with some outstanding creations.

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Northern Harrier 30 x 30, by Carol Bryer Fallert-Gentry, Washington

Carol says, "In the Spring of 2020, a northern harrier (the large bird depicted here) lit just outside our kitchen window. We managed to open the window and snap several photos before it flew away." This quilt impressed us with its very realistic colors of nature and the minute, lifelike details of the harrier in surrounding nature.

Carol continues about her original design,  "To create the design for this quilt, I combined a tree photo and two photos of the harrier, then added digital painting to integrate the photos and simplify the background. The composition was printed on cotton fabric and heavily quilted to the level of thread painting."

Kimi in a Dangerous World by Elsa Meyer,  California, quilted by Marian Drain

Elsa's stunning art quilt is made very effective by the use of the lime green background which looks as if it is lighted from behind, so the praying mantis appears to be hidden among the foliage. Embedded on the insect's body are some very pretty butterfly motifs. Outlining the foreground shape in black gives extra high contrast to Elsa's original design. 

This imagery, inspired by political events, was designed to symbolize the power of the minority (represented by the dragonfly) against the powerful (represented by the praying mantis.)

Folk Art Fun in Baltimore, 68 x 68, by Tami Graeber, Arizona

 This year's theme at the Pacific International Quilt Festival was "The New Normal", and Tami addressed this theme by writing, "The New Norm for me is creating a traditional looking quilt with an innovative style."  Tami has utilized the early American "Baltimore Album" pattern and re-created it to make an original design with a great deal of southwestern personality and flair. We really love the border of whimsical, very artistic and varied flowers. 

First Place Award winner for Best Use of Color in a Traditional Quilt, Tami's lovely work is machine pieced and longarm quilted. With artful use of fabric paint, she has added bright, vibrant touches, which really brings the birds, butterflies, and fruit of the trees to life. 

Sicilian Summer, 81 x 81,by Claudia C. Myers,  Minnesota

Winner of the Third Place Award for Best Traditional Quilt, Claudia notes, "The making and machine quilting of Sicilian Summer took all of the time we were quarantined from the Covid-19 virus, and them some. I am fortunate that I have a large stash of fabric and thread so I didn't have to make a trip to the quilt shop to pick up the supplies."

Claudia adds, "I designed this quilt on Electric Quilt (EQ) 7 and made it trying out a new way of applique construction, rather than curved piecing." Claudia longarm machine quilted her spectacular original design, which she also machine pieced, machine appliqued, and hand painted.

Image credits: Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2021 Pacific International Quilt Festival.