PIQF or bust!

The Pacific International Quilt Festival will be in Santa Clara, CA this Thursday through Sunday. A couple of my pieces will be on display. Be sure and visit my work for a grand prize of absolutely nothing! (Oh, if you really want something, I can send you a postcard or two. Drop me a note in the comments.)

Flooded

A Gift From Earth

PIQF occupies a special place in my heart because it’s the first fiber arts show I ever visited and the first at which I exhibited, if not my first art show proper.

It does have a few annoying quirks, though, including viewers rubbing their hands all over my work (Thanks for the skin oils and smudges, folks!) and my work always, always getting returned with giant creases which must be steamed out. Sometimes my work has even inexplicably acquired the creases between being dropped off and being put on exhibit, resulting in a chiding comment or two from judges.

However, I’ve come to appreciate PIQF’s lack of hassle and drama. It’s close, maybe three miles away, which means no fussing with shipping. I just make a quick trip over to the convention center, drop my work off, then pick it up in a few days.

I similarly appreciate the low hassle of entering. I don’t have to submit photographic prints or a head shot of myself or have to wade through twenty pages of rules and regulations. I don’t have to hide my work away lest I be disqualified from the show or receiving awards. I don’t have to wait forever to get a response. I simply send in a form and a disk with some images and wait a couple of weeks. All very nice and simple, life goes on, and my work is exhibited.

I love the fact that the show is close. It was lovely visiting Athens for Quilt National and Houston the times I’ve gone there. However, I usually can’t go where my work goes, and sometimes it’s just plain nice to see it hanging.

PIQF is a nice show. People go, look at the work, seem to enjoy themselves. I hope people will enjoy seeing my work this year.

P.S. If someone reading this has work at PIQF this year and would like a snapshot of it, let me know. I’m thinking that I may skip the big posts I used to do of my favorite works. There have been too many cases of people grabbing photos off this site and sticking them on Pinterest without crediting the artists.

4 Responses to “PIQF or bust!”

  1. meg says:

    I admire the way you capture your son so well! Little boys love water, and getting all wet. Brilliant. xx

  2. catsmum says:

    you pretty much listed most of the reasons I rarely enter the juried shows over here :)
    Love both but especially A Gift From Earth [ having followed along on the creation process with you ]

    wish I could see ’em in person but it’s just a tad too far

  3. I saw your work at PIQF, it’s stunning. I had two quilts in the show for the first time this year and I will have to try your idea of steaming the creases out when I get them back. This is the first year I have entered my quilts into a show, it was exciting to be accepted. I found I had a hard time actually taking my quilts to the show, it seems I don’t like giving them to others. Maybe I will get over this if I enter more shows.

  4. Hey Tanya….haven’t done much quilting in my life but wearable sculpture gets me to the PIQF…Just wanted to say cheers…your work is very inspiring.