Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I decided not to kill myself taking photos this year, so I browsed and took a few snaps. If you would like to see a few photos from the show, I have posted them on Flickr. I may post more, so you may want to go back to the set and look next week or this weekend.
The quilt posted is by Jim Haws and is one of the best I saw. Keep in mind I didn’t get to look at all the quilts. I saw a lot of autumn colored quilts, a number of quilts with complicated piecing, lots of special exhibits.
On Tuesday July 20, I set off from home for the airport to pick up TFQ before heading south for a quilt adventure along the coast. We were headed to Long Beach for the big quilt festival there put on by Quilts Inc.
We were both excited. Fresh off the blogs from Spring Quilt Market, I was ready to see new things, especially some of the new fabrics coming out in the summer and different patterns and tools. With Quilts Inc being the organizer of Quilt Market, I was sure there would be a lot of new products! I was also ready for some inspiration and new quilt shops.
Our first stop was Hart’s Fabrics in Santa Cruz. I have been there at least twice since the beginning of the year and not much had changed since then. Still I was able to see through the normal things that get my attention such as dots, aqua and cherry red for fabrics that hadn’t seen before.
One theme throughout the trip was how I need to spend some time buying work clothes and how much I dislike shopping. I saw some great purple fabric at Hart’s (above – top right-ish/middle) that would make a great skirt. Anna Maria Horner’s Multi-tasker tote pattern was so well written that I thought, perhaps, her Study Hall skirt pattern would be as well and I could make that out of the purple fabric. This is such a huge leap for me. Keep your fingers crossed on that! I also bought some fabric to make gifts, but you’ll have to wait for the gift posts for more details.
I really wanted to see the Bella Bag pattern from Fig Tree Quilts. I saw a glimpse of it in the most recent Quilt Sampler magazine. I wanted to see the bag made up so I could touch it and look at the pockets. I never saw any Fig Tree quilts patterns at the show and only a few of their patterns at one of the quilt shops. I guess it was a good thing I bought the Heather Bailey bag pattern in order to hedge my bets.
Next stop: Back Porch Quilts. I have written a lot about that shop as I visit at least once a year. I recently visited during my trip to the Monterey Quilt Show. The shop, as I am sure I have said is light and airy. They always have new fabric.
I decided that I was being an idiot about the price of the Little Wallet by Valori Wells. Both Terri and Maureen have recommended it highly and I respect their work, so I decided to get it. I think it will make great gifts.
The blue fireworks fabric will be a bag. I will use the fuschias together in…something. The coffee fabric may end up as pillowcases and the red is one of those embossed fabrics that have a great hand. The store was in a bit of disarray and didn’t look like they had as much fabric as usual. They also did not have the Little Wallet pattern. 🙁 We had dinner at a Thai place and spent the night in Monterey surfing the Internet and watching TV.
The kitchen appliance fabrics will be napkins.
The next day as a long drive to Santa Barbara through the Central Coast. We stopped in Paso Robles at Birch Fabrics. That was a great experience and I will write about it later in the week, because the service, space and friendliness deserves it’s own post. I bought great fabrics there (above).
I have started not to sleep well in hotels and kept waking up with a backache during this trip. I was very glad to get back to my Pilates class this past week.
We stayed overnight in Santa Barbara. We ate at a great restaurant called Bay Roadhouse (or something). The food was good and the waiter was cute and helpful. S.B. started our hotel problems. The hotel in Santa Barbara did not have a room for us and had to ‘upgrade’ us. Sadly the upgrade did not include two beds and the room was really loud. Even with earplugs, I woke up several times during the night. The hotel in Long Beach overbooked (for the second year in a row) and also didn’t have the a room with two beds. In my opinion, overbooking a certain kind of room one year is bad, but doing it a second year exhibits corporate greed, pure and simple.
The show was in a large space. The quilts were really well displayed. We could see them really well, but the lighting made it hard to photograph some of them.
The second quilt (turquoise with red, above) was a very powerful quilt by Judy Coates Perez. We stood and looked at it for a long time. I found an image of it and an article about it on her blog, so go and look at it. People were not allowed to take pictures of quilts in that exhibit. They had books available and I would have gladly bought one, but the photography in the books wasn’t that good. I got around the ban, because the above photo is an overview photo.
There was a wonderful exhibit of antique quilts. Quilts Inc. apparently has a wonderful collection of antique quilts. I was really glad they shared them with us. We really enjoyed the variety. One thing we noticed is that the variations (imperfections?) in the quilts made them more interesting. In that way they were very different from quilts of today that try to be perfect.
The quilts were large, in many cases.
This was one of the most beautiful antique quilts I have ever seen. For a silk quilt, it was in the most amazing condition. It was called a Courthouse Steps quilt, which surprised me, because I always thought that a Courthouse Steps log cabin variation had three squares in the middle of the block. We saw a few other oddities in the documentation of the antique quilts.
See the stanchion? They were another problem with photographing the quilts.
We usually use the preview time to photograph the quilts since the preview night is usually much less crowded than other times during shows. We went through and photographed most of the quilts in about 1.5 hours. We were shocked! There were no quilts from individual quiltmakers, only special exhibits. The special exhibits were great, but I did miss the individual quilts.
The above photo shows all the stuff we bought at the show. We had lists and were prepared to purchase from vendors at the show. The amount of available merchandise was pathetic. PIQF has better vendors. I was really glad for the selection at Birch Fabrics, because I was very disappointed in the offerings at the show. It was really hard to spend money there. There was not enough fabric. Almost everything was in kits or fabric packs and the vendors refused to break up the packs/kits if we wanted a single piece of fabric. As you can see, I did not find the Bella Bag pattern. It seemed that the vendors brought all of the old stuff they wanted to get rid of, with a few exceptions. TFQ found a great selection of Aurifil at Jeff’s Custom Woodworking (great sewing, cutting and ironing tables and cabinets!). American Jane/Sandy Klopp was wonderful. Her patterns are intricate and engaging. We saw Lorraine Torrence, who had a large booth filled with her patterns, jackets and a variety of clothing suitable fabrics. We had a great conversation with her.
All in all, I was pretty disappointed in the Long Beach Show. I expected a lot more. Again, it seemed like a show of corporate greed. I wouldn’t go back and think that shows are starting to be a place where you pay to shop. I can easily shop online without a fee, so why should I go to a show if I am not going to take classes and don’t get to see a lot of quilts or new products?
If I were organizing a show I would vet the vendors carefully and make sure they brought their best merchandise. I realize that this would make vendors less likely to come, but poor quality merchandise also reflects badly on the organizer of the show so everyone has an interest in keeping show goers happy. I think that fabric manufacturers should be there to, at least, talk to customers, do make and takes or something.
We decided to visit some shops on the way back. First up was Cotton & Chocolate Quilt Company in Thousand Oaks. They were at the quilt show. I don’t remember much about their booth except they had the ubiquitous kits and fabric packs. Their shop had a lot of great fabric that was new and fun.
We also stopped at Quilter’s Studio. They had one of the best selections of dots I have ever seen. Their booth at the show was great. The people at the booth were enthusiastic and glad to see us. One of the husbands of the owner was manning the shop and it was fun to chat with him. My enthusiasm was waning a bit for fabric shopping at this point.
The next day we went to the Cotton Ball in Morro Bay and went back to Birch Fabrics in Paso Robles. I thought it would be nice to go to a beach town and was interested in seeing a celebrity shop. I thought the prices were high at the Cotton Ball (over $11/yard) and I didn’t buy much. I was glad to see Rob Appell’s wildlife patterns made up. They do not look photo realistic, which I appreciate.
I was glad to get back to Birch Fabrics. Birch was a much needed breath of fresh air. I needed to talk to some nice people and see some gorgeous fabric in a friendly space. We met Andrea, another of Cynthia’s staff and spent another pleasant hour chatting about fabric, looking at her new stuff and filling in the gaps on what we had purchased during our previous stop.
In Monterey, we went back to Back Porch and I was able to buy the Little Wallet pattern. They had some new fabrics, too. 😉
All in all it was a great trip. After the first day of looking at fabric, I really wanted to sew. I came home and started working on projects. There wasn’t enough time for me to accomplish all I wanted to and tomorrow it is back to the grind. I want to find the right pattern for some of the fabrics I bought and get started on those projects.
Recently BMWs have been riding my bumper, tailgating, cutting me off and generally behaving badly on the road near me. I don’t drive that much so my left brain is trying desperately to assure my right brain that it is not some BMW conspiracy and just some weird quirk of driving fate. My fondest dream were I to win the lottery is to employ a driver.
Sunday, I returned from a short weekend away in Monterey. I stayed with friends, spent Saturday at the quilt show, bought fabric, drank wine, was not required to cater to anyone’s whims or needs and slept long and soundly.
Apparently, I needed this and didn’t even know it.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from the show. They can vary widely. I wasn’t sure if I had ever been to the Monterey Peninsula show before. I have some vague recollection of visiting, but very vague and no photos.
The show as wonderful! The space was bright and airy. The quilts used bright colors and exuded cheerfulness. the quiltmakers were accomplished.They had plenty of white glove ladies, an acceptable vendor hall and food right there. I could see the ocean from outside the hall and people were friendly.
I bought a very special and hard to find gift for my mother at the guild’s booth, which she will have to wait until October to receive. Her birthday is in October – unless I can’t wait to give it to her. I am not sure I can.
I was really pleased that went. I saw Jean, Maureen, Terri and Robin, which is always a pleasure. Jean had a circle quilt that made me less disheartened about the circle quilt I have been contemplating. In general, I was inspired to go home and sew.
This is a great idea. I love it that they had a special exhibit of bags made from the Circle Bag pattern by Square Rose. I have been looking at the wonderful bags I have been making and wishing that quilt shows would have a sewn accessories or tote bag category. I realize that quilt shows are QUILT shows, but so many people are sewing other things, too.
I am always hard pressed to choose my favorite quilt, but I think the above it is. The fish look happy. There is plenty of turquoise and a lot to look at. It is by Mary Ellen Parsons, who I believe came to the Pamela Allen class at CQFA.
This mini retreat helped me over another hump of the illness and gave me my creativity back. I needed some extra sleep in a big comfy bed and didn’t realize it. I sleep well and for a reasonable length of time most nights. On the weekends, however, when I don’t have to wake up to the alarm, I often wake to the sound of the Wii beeping. I like to get up early, but often stay up late to find some quiet time and then don’t get up early. I went to bed early and got up early both days, read a lot of magazines and still got to chat with my friends and get where I needed to go in a timely manner.
Seeing so much color, fondling fabric and reading about fabulous fiber reset my creativity button. Not sewing for 11 days (mostly) when I was sick turned off the creativity button for some reason. I knew that this week would be busy, so I decided that my goal would make some straps for a bag and haul out the pattern I bought at Hart’s in January.
I saw a dirt heap shaped like Jabba the Hut.
I saw sparkling water in the bay, in a slough and in an estuary.
I saw a spider about the size of a 50 cent piece.
BMWs were redeemed when I was invited to ride in a BMW 300 series hard top convertible. It was an awesome car and I can understand why their drivers might be frustrated to be behind my modest, imported 10 year old car.
Saturday I attended the East Bay Heritage Quilters Show. As usual, this show was impeccably set up and organized. In general, I thought the quilts were a lot more interesting than the last show in 2008. Much less brown as well.
It is hard to decide what my favorite quilt of the show was, but I think it was probably Evening Star by Karin Lusnak. The thing I like about it is that there is a lot of movement and interest.
She did the same thing I have done using the mosaic quiltmaking technique of Shannon Williams. It looks like she made fabric using her scraps and then cut the patches for the Evening Star from that new fabric.
I love the angles of the houses in this quilt. The colors are also fresh and clear.
The turquoise/aqua and red combination are one that has been attracting me lately. I also thought the flower designs were quite cheerful. These flowers may be from a Piece ‘O Cake or Pat Sloan pattern. I have always liked the layered circles motif, which can be seen in the border of this quilt.
There are a lot of things I like about this quilt. The artist does a nice job not exactly reproducing the photograph which was the inspiration. The blue and green are abstract enough to evoke a feeling of nature without exactly duplicating the photo. The main part I like in this quilt is the technical details of the border. I don’t much like uneven borders, because they often floop down when hanging. Ms. Kaplan has resolved this issue with the white border. Her uneven border accents the quilt and adds movement without causing a hanging problem. Nice work!
Corless Smith did a great job with these circles. The layers of fabric and the blanket stitch are very appealing. It has a vintage look even though a number of the fabrics are modern.
The small circles also add interest. The scallop type border could be a hanging problem but isn’t, which I appreciate.
The artist, Pat Dicker, writes about this quilt “Sue Garman’s charming Block fo the Month appealed to me, but rather than use the browns, olives and grays as suggested, I turned to my bright ‘dot’ drawer and found inspiration. I also chose to exclude the cars of the pattern and create a ‘Pedestrian Friendly’ community. ” All good choices IMO! You would not be looking at this quilt if she had made it in “browns, olives and grays.” This is a wonderful quilt in the dots and brights. I also like it that she changed the pattern to suit her vision. How do you like the whale?
Go to his blog and leave a comment there if you are so inclined.
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I am very grateful to have a show of this magnitude nearby. I always leave feeling like I must go straight home and play with fabric. I usually don’t get to play with fabric, but thinking about it is half the work.
While I don’t always like the quilts that people enter, I respect the fact that:
I would like to see the Mancusos shake things up a bit. I am not sure how, perhaps rearrange the quilts and vendors, have a tote bag or ATC display, have a display of blogger’s work (there are some great bloggers not the least of which are Posy Gets Cosy and Sew Mama Sew). It was nice to see some new vendors at the show (due to Houston being held at the same time) and the vendors being rearranged a bit.
We spent the whole day that show again. The BoNash booth had these tubes of glitter. I have no idea what they were doing, but I loved the colors. The stack of color was wonderful.
I have decided that, while there aren’t a lot of murky colors, murky colors are coming back. (NOTE: Dear Color Council, please do not add any murky colors to your list of the most popular colors of the year for any of the next 50 years. Thank you!) There were a lot of fabrics with grey and brown in them. In terms of quilts on display, there were lot that we saw today that had different browns in them. Usually they weren’t the nice rich chocolate brown, but more in the beige and taupe range. Note to readers: please make cheerful quilts.
I am physically and mentally unable to buy murky fabrics. . I bought the following:
The bottom left fabric will be a bag, perhaps the inside of a bag.
There is another bag and a half in the photo above. I need to get going on bags as I have a lot of fabric for bags in the hopper.
Here are some more impressions of the second day of the show. It is really the first official day when anyone can go in, but it was my second day.
Lots of spiral and circular designs.
There were 4 rear ends: one woman, two elephants and a giraffe. I think there were more last year. I wouldn'[t think to put rear ends in a quilt, but it seems to be popular.
After a second look, I decided that the muddy colors are still popular this year,, though the cheerful, happy colors have more of a presence.
People still seem to be working on figuring out how to use the large scale prints (Amy Butler and Heather Bailey, for example).
TFQ pointed out that there is a disparity between the fabrics int he quilts (lots of tone-on-tones and low contrast prints) and the quilts the vendors are selling (lots of large scale and high contrast prints as well as conversationals). We are going to look more carefully at this tomorrow.
Hand-dyed fabric is being used as fabric again rather than the centerpiece of a quilt.
Way too many portraits. Portraits are hard to do and often look distorted because of the quilting. I don’t like the quilt versions, as a general rule, but there were some interesting elements on the non-face portions of the pieces I saw today.
I found the Nosegay and it was very well lit. It would have been perfect place for a nice shot of the whole thing, except for the chain across the front. I also notices that in the quilt show venue, it didn’t look as large as it does at home.
I stood around near the FOTY 2008 quilt and heard people discussing it. Positive comments and I was thrilled when one woman took about 10 details shots of the piece and wanted to see the back. I am really glad a few people liked it.
I went to the preview for the Pacific International Quilt Festival 2009 this evening. It was only 1.5 hours long, so I didn’t get to see everything. Some first impressions:
There were a lot more bolts of fabric than in previous years, as opposed to kits and fabric packs. I was pleased to see that I would be able to buy some yardage, if I want. There were still fabric packs.
Many of the vendors from past years were there and I saw a couple of new ones. I was nervous that the vendor hall would be empty because the Quilt Festival in Houston is on at the same time.
People didn’t seem to be buying much and I heard a vendor say that most people just look on the preview night. I bought one FQ. 😉
I went to the preview to take photos when it wasn’t busy. I intended to take as many as possible, but I started taking them and just felt depressed about it, so I stopped and, then, only took pictures of quilts I really liked. I still managed to take a few hundred pictures. One thing I learned from this experience was that I need to make quilts – at least show quilts – that are interesting. I need to make quilts that people haven’t seen before. That is if I want to show quilts in the future. That is not to say that I have to show my quilts and that I can’t make any kind of quilts I want. I think if I am going to show quilts they have to be special and interesting.
Lots of landscapes and realism type quilts. There was one with a castle (Rheingau?), a triptych of big leaves, another of redwood trees, an Italian Piazza, etc.
The colors used in the quilts are a lot brighter; the quilts are not as depressing as they have been in the past. A few tree quilts, but not as many as last year.
The World Quilt Competition Quilts were very interesting as usual.
Reef Quilts/Patterns (not sure of the name) has some tote bag patterns that I want to look at more closely. They look like they are large, have plenty of pockets and interesting detailing without being too strange.
There was beautiful machine work again, especially sheer types of embroidery. I am not sure of the name, but it is the kind of embroidery that the newer model machines do.
Pamela Allen had a Cinderella quilt, which I thought was great.
There are some pretty Christmas fabrics with fun motifs in non-traditional colors such as turquoise, soft green cream and a light pinkish red.
FOTY 2008 was there and it didn’t look like I thought it would.I like the location where they hung the quilt. That wave on the bottom makes me crazy. Perhaps I am just nervous about having two quilts there? I didn’t see the Nosegay yet.
255 California has a small show of works by Debra King. Her work drew me in off the street with her quilt block-like shapes. Her pieces use Ruth McDowell’s concept of pressing carefully to highlight certain details. Within the quilt realm, her pieces are moderately sculptural. She is represented by the William Trophy gallery.
I was pleased to see that she has a picture of Pamela Allen, doing what she does best: showing off her style (though she is a pretty great teacher as well).
I also love the Caroline and Co booth. I wonder if I could paint one of my rooms with those orange stripes; people may rebel and/or develop a sudden, recurring bouts of insomnia. I do like the cheerfulness, though.
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No, these are not my photos. Movinghands, over on Flickr, has graciously shared her photos from the Pacifico quilt show with the world. Be*mused was kind enough to point the posting out on her blog.These have a different look than the PIQF photos I posted last month. More subtle colors and applique’. I have just been looking at Gwen Marston books, so applique’ is on my mind. Enjoy.
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Update 3/26/2013:
The photos above are no longer available. You can see quilts from the 2008 Yokohama quilt show here.
Like everyone else, the economy is affecting our family so I was extremely restrained in fabric purchases at PIQF this year. I tried to only buy fabrics that were really calling my name. As you can see, I still have the turquoise/aqua as well as dot themes going.
I am excited about the fabrics that I bought and I also got the best ruler in the universe. I know rulers and this one totally rocks. It is a 4.5″x8.5″ Creative Grid Ruler. The ruler is great because it is big enough to cut without fear that I will cut off my hand, but small enough so it doesn’t hang over the edge of my small cutting table. It is also the right size for the variety of pieces that I cut. For example, I can cut the FOTY pieces without having to move the ruler at all. One end is exactly the right size. TFQ and I both wanted to use it at the same time, so I may need to buy a second one for when we are sewing together. If you don’t have this ruler, go out and buy one now.
I also bought two new bag patterns. I know I know! I really plan to make them. I have some canvas-type Moda fabrics covered with cupcakes that I bought in Virginia this summer. I think it will be perfect. One is a vertical bag by Liesl + Co called the Backpack Tote. It converts from a tote to a backpack. It requires some hardware that I have never used before, but I can get through it. If not, I will bring the pattern to Seattle in the spring and TFQ can hold my hand while I work on it.
The other is very similar to the Eco Market tote that I have been using. It is by Gail Abeloe, owner of Backporch Quilts in Pacific Grove.
I bought it because of the slightly different shape of the top and the construction of the bottom, which you can’t see in this picture. It has a square bottom and not side panels. We’ll see which one I like better.
I spent a lot of the show really looking at the quilts. We didn’t succumb to trying to take photos at times when there were too many people in the hall. This resolved made me less annoyed and allowed us to really look at the quilts. We took photos on Wednesday evening at the preview and then late in the day when people had left. It worked out well. It was also a joy to see that people are using cheerful fabrics again. There were many, many quilts that were simply wonderful and I know you will see many of them show up in my end of the year roundup of favorite quilts.
Despite the fact that I had to turn around and, virtually, go straight to speak at a conference, it was great to get away, sleep in, not worry about taking care of anyone. I feel like I take a lot of time off, but I seem to need it. I have had several busy weekends in a row, though, so perhaps that is the reason.
I would say there were at least 30 quilts that incorporated leaves – full leafy leaves, colored Autumn leaves and thin, spiky leaves. I found most of the leaf (and by association, tree) quilts to be quite calming.
After breakfast and before we headed back to the show, we went to visit the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. They had three exhibits on. he major exhibit was a group of Radka Donnell quilts. Many of them were from the 1970s and had been used. They were all bed sized and I think it was hard for me to appreciate what she had accomplished, because there was nothing to compare them with. Many of them look like the backs of quilts I make now. They were all best viewed from far away and that is the good thing about the new-ish space. The galleries were large and enabled us to stand back. My favorite was So Bubbly and Clear. TFQ liked some elements of The Pool of Nazzissos. The other gallery had quilts from a variety of artists including Faith Ringgold (prints) and Laura Wasilowski. A log cabin quilt by Terrie Hancock Mangat kept our attention for a long time as there were lots and lots of interesting fabrics. Finally, the last gallery had 8 Double Wedding Ring or wedding quilts. Most were the normal DWRs, but one looked like a cross between the Winding Ways and the Flowering Snowball. I wasn’t able to find a reference for it yet, but will post it when I do.
Back at PIQF, another theme I noticed was that many quilts used a hexagon shape. I don’t remember any of the traditional Grandmother’s Flower Garden type layouts. I saw one that used the hexagon shape for the base of a Crazy quilt and one that used hexagons to make flowers.
It was really interesting to see themes pop out.
We visited the vendors. I did buy a few fabrics, but passed many of them up. Best vendor award goes to: Erica at In Between Stitches from Livermore. She was friendly, funny and willing to have someone bring us Moda swatch packs of the Fresh Squeeze fabrics from their store. I love vendors who don’t complain and have a great attitude about customer service.
Last year, after PIQF, I went home depressed. The quilts were so grim. Every year is a new year, however and I am really pleased with the quilts. They are much more cheerful and I am finding lots to look at in many of the quilts.
The quilt to the side is by Carol Stapleton of San Mateo. She did an amazing job! I talked with some people who know her near the quilt and they said that she does a lot of miniatures. This one is well designed/coordinated (e.g. does not suffer from the two quilt in one syndrome), but looks like it could be several miniature quilts on their own. The piecing is meticulous. Many kudos to Carol!
Yesterday was a nice day. We got up in a leisurely manner and went to a ‘difficult’ breakfast. The food was marginal. The difficult part was that the restaurant puts baking mix in their pre-made (!!!) omelette mixture!?! Apparently, the cooks didn’t know how to make an omelette from scratch either. Talk about stupid! I won’t be going there again.
We finally arrived at the show at about noon, right about the time people were going to lunch. We looked at all the quilts in the back of the hall and then took a chocolate break.
I felt much more organized and able to take in the quilts after photographing a bunch on Wednesday eve and not trying photograph right away on Thursday.
After our break, we went back to photograph the quilts in the back hall. There were still people around, but it wasn’t difficult to get in between groups of people enjoying the show to photograph. We ran into Linda and Terri and Maureen. Terri was signing her books at the Always Quilting booth. Her newest book, Old Maid’s Puzzle is available and she was signing those books as well.
We didn’t do much shopping. We visited some vendor booths looking for more background fabrics for the baskets we made last year. It is kind of a buttery yellow and we were finding mostly gold, lemon or banana yellow. There is (was??) a Moda Marble Mate Dot that we used for a couple of the blocks, but we didn’t see anymore of it.
We ended the day, exhausted, at 19 Market in downtown San Jose. It is a modern Vietnamese bistro and the food is excellent. This is our third visit and we really enjoyed the food. The waiter was also cute and just friendly enough to not be annoying. He had a good sense of humor as well.
