PIQF Acceptance

I'm happy to announce that I will have two quilts going to the Pacific International Quilt Festival , Oct. 16-19 in Santa Clara, CA. Pictured above is Prickly Sow Thistle. I'm fascinated with thistles and they way they quickly colonize disturbed ground, in areas around construction sites and road improvements. The leaf shapes and flowers are distinctive and beautiful, the fluffy seed heads look very cool, and songbirds feast on the seeds. On the minus side, many of them (but not the prickly sow) are noxious weeds. I enjoyed making this quilt, but I did need to be mindful of the prickles when making the cyanotypes.



A detail of Prickly Sow Thistle:

Also going to PIQF is Reed Run:

I think the imagery on this quilt is really strong, but what the photograph can't capture completely is all the texture. The contrast between the shiny silks and the deep green wool at the bottom befuddles the camera, and it shows so much better in person, as does the beadwork.

It features pawpaw leaves, which are huge and tropical-looking. Once I was lucky enough to find ripe pawpaw fruit in the wild--it has a very unique taste and texture.

Here's a detail from Reed Run, showing part of the heliographic print done on a textured silk, embellished with hand embroidery and beadwork: