Highlights from Pacific International Quilt Festival 2022

It's been 2 years since I last attended Pacific International Quilt Festival (PIQF), as 2020 pivoted to a Virtual Quilt Festival and I wasn't ready to attend the in-person 2021 quilt show. So it's no wonder that I was a bit rusty when it came time to get my quilts show-ready. 100 Days of Dice Doodles still required a bit of hand stitching for the binding on the back and I knew Mind Over MATter still needed a quilt label added...although I totally forgot that I still needed to remove quite a bit of the tearaway stabilizer from the backside before a label could even be added! And of course, all the quilts needed a bit of delinting before taking them over to the Santa Clara Convention Center.

These last-minute efforts were well worth it to see my quilts on display throughout the show during Wednesday's preview night. What an absolute surprise to discover my Polka Dots & Posies quilt was awarded 3rd Place for the Mid Century Mod/Modern Quilt Competition!

PIQF is a juried and judged show with the judging team typically drawn from the faculty members. Judges comments are included with the safe return of your quilts, along with a pristine program book and a PIQF label to add to the back of your quilt! It's always interesting to see the judges ratings and comments, which you can see below next to each of my entries, along with a bit of my own personal commentary.

100 Days of Dice Doodles was judged as part of the Wall Quilt Competition. I was pleased to see the judges recognize the quilting, innovation/creativity, story behind the quilt, and finishing. Although I was suprised to see no rating for use of color as this quilt started with a solid white piece of fabric that was transformed with colorful threads. as "color in the quilting" which was noted as part of the comments.

I was especially curious to see what the judges would make of Mind Over MATter, which I entered into the Innovative Category as it defies the traditional definition of a quilt made using a top, batting, and backing. Before entering my piece, I double checked the show rules for any requirements for batting/3 layers so as to not be disqualified. While there are 3 layers for much of the quilt along with batting behind each of the stamped mandalas, the yoga mat serves as both batting and backing for the majority of this piece. Thankfully the judges recognized the innovation and creativity to make a quilt using a yoga mat and commented that it was a "creative and fun quilt."

Honestly, I was the most surprised by the judges feedback on Polka Dots & Posies. The quilting was done on my longarm (which is not as precise as what I am able to achieve on my domestic machine) and there was a bit of shadowing in some of the rings. But clearly this piece made a favorable impression on the judges as I received an Excellent in all aspects of the design and worksmanship categories, along with a 3rd place ribbon for the Mid Century Mod/Modern Quilt Competition!

PIQF marked my return to in-person teaching after spending the past 2.5 years teaching via Zoom. I was scheduled to teach 3 workshops and present a lecture. Thankfully I was able to include some of the benefits of virtual teaching including an overhead demo camera so everyone could have a clear view of the demonstrations from the comfort of their seats. Of course, I was able to pack my suitcase full of actual samples for the students to see and touch. I wondered why I was so exhausted at the end of the day and discovered that my suitcase weighed more than 70 pounds!

Thursday kicked off with Crazy in Love with Free Motion Quilting. There was lots of love in the classroom as everyone (beginner to more experienced quilters) transformed their quilt sandwiches with stitched messages of love. This class is always a joy to teach as I watch the quilters embrace new designs and gain confidence with their FMQing. 

After class, I quickly packed up my gear to walk to the opposite end of the Convention Center to present my Challenge Yourself! lecture. It was so wonderful to see quite a few familiar faces in attendance at the lecture and I tailored my presentation to include several PIQF references which play important roles along my creative journey. Afterwards there was a Meet and Greet with the teachers. It was so great to see all the amazing talent in the room. I had the delight of seeing a quilt Sue Nickels made that was inspired by the layout of my Spinning Stars quilt. She emailed me for permission and it was so fabulous to see her take on the layout, especially given all her incredible free-motion and ruler-foot quilting!

Thankfully I had Friday to recover from my marathon day of teaching, although I returned to the convention center to see more quilts, attend David Owen Hasting's lecture before attending the Fashion Show that was brilliantly curated/hosted by Rachel Clark. I confess that I was absolutely exhausted, but I am so glad I rallied to attend as it was a fabulous showcase of wearable art!

Saturday was a double-header with two half-day workshops, starting with Magnificent Mandalas--Doodles Only. What a lovely 3-hours of Zen as we explored a variety of mandala designs, built up a library of petal shapes and filler designs, before putting it all together into these original mandala doodled designs! I can't wait to see how these artists incorporate mandalas into their future projects!

Next up was a faster-paced Design by Dice mini workshop. These adventurous artists were game to roll the dice to explore all new design inspiration as they created small compositions on the fly! Check out all their playful creations below. They simply rolled the dice and responded with these improvisational compositions. I especially enjoyed hearing their ideas about how they could incorporate dice to stretch their creativity and create future artwork!

Sunday was a bit of a lazy morning before I returned for some SAQA connections. First up was covering the SAQA NorCA/NV table. Besides having a chance to sit down and rest my feet for a bit, it was lovely to see all the SAQA artwork on display as well as connect with attendees, including quite a few SAQA members! Afterwards, several members of our local connection group met up to walk through the show to visit each of our pieces with each artist sharing a bit more about their inspiration and techniques.

Of course I couldn't resist visiting the vendor mall where these fun purchases came home with me!

What a treat to see quilts in person in all their spectacular glory, as well as visit with quilters from all around the world! Many thanks to Mancuso Show Management for an amazing week of quilting inspiration and connections!