Road to California

This last weekend was my birthday and to celebrate, I went to the Road to California Quilt Show '09 with my older daughter. It was a great show with lots of quilts on display, tons of vendors, plenty of places to sit and rest and it was wonderful! It was so big that I didn't get to visit all the vendors or see all the quilts, but I had a nice conversation with Helen Gibb, and also with Barbara Willis. Her dolls were absolutely amazing! She goes to France and England to buy wonderful trims, buttons and laces. You can see pix of her dolls on her website here.

I took some pictures of some of the quilts on display. Of course, the pictures just can't do them justice. This first one is, of course, inspired by Klimt's "The Kiss" and is called "The Kiss Dressed in 9 Patches" and is by Joyce Hughes. It got an Honorable Mention. It was so beautiful! This is a favorite painting of mine, so to see it stitched was glorious! If you've never looked at this artwork, it is so interesting - all the motifs on the man's clothes are square or rectangular, with lots of corners. All the motifs on the woman's clothing are circles, rounds and curves.


Here is a closeup of the bottom of the quilt, with all the flowers


This quilt is called "Rhapsody at First Light" and is done by Bonnie Keller. This is the center medallion of the quilt. It is surrounded by lots of interesting details.


Here is a close-up of one of the corners. You can see a bird, and then there are many "hidden" creatures all over the outer border, like this trapunto mouse.


This is a small quilt, and all the cherries are 3D. Their stems are seed beads (on wire?), protruding out of the quilt. This was cute and clever. It was done by Elaine Emmons.


There were some purses there also. This one is super encrusted with beads, buttons, etc. and is called "Hippie Chic" by Susan Gannon O'Connell.


Here is a closeup.


There were not a lot of crazy quilts there, but this one is by Charlotte Noll and is called "My Crazy Life".


This quilt is called "Fairy People on Parade" and is by Janis Hooker. I really liked the different styles of the people here. I'm not a big fan of cutesy and know how hard it is to avoid when you can't draw well (since I can't), so I liked the whimsy of it.


This one was cool....


OK, the picture quality here is not too good, but I really loved this quilt. It was very small, about the size of an 81/2" by 11" piece of paper. But it was so beautiful and very dimensional. It was by Nicole McHale and was called "Garden Walkway". The grain of the wood is done by machine embroidery. The plants get very 3D in the lower left corner. I apologize for the poor quality of the picture - this small quilt was breath-taking.


Here is a closeup of the grasses at the top - they seemed to be done with untwisted thread, maybe silk?


All in all, it was a great show. The only thing was, it ended at 6 and at around 5 we realized there was another whole room we hadn't even seen yet! Also, my husband did NOT get laid off from his job(YAY!), so after being on pins and needles for 3 months, I was able to rescue my poor husband from his problem of "Oh, no, honey, I don't have anthing for your birthday." by saying "Oh, you poor thing, I guess I'll just have to buy stuff at the quilt show!" It couldn't have worked out better...

Happy Stitching,
~Lin Moon