New beginnings

I haven't done a lick of sewing since returning from Long Beach. I have been admiring my new stash additions and hoping the fog would clear so I could share these with you. The fog has yet to lift, so this is the best I could do.



On my list of fabrics to be on the look out for at the quilt show, were fruit and veggie prints with the idea I'd make a small wall quilt for the kitchen. Instead I came up with this.




The chicken fabric is actually much more colorful than the photo suggests.





Two bundles of what I think are fat eighths - Jane Sassaman and Anna Marie Horner await a quilt for my daughter, Elizabeth. I have a rough idea (although I'm sure to change my mind a few dozen times before I start on this) to make a triangle quilt interspersing the prints with solids.





I'm going to use these in my color block quilt (in process).



I bought some hand dyes and batiks ... but those will have to wait for another day.

International Quilt Festival/Long Beach

Emerald Treasures by Barb Forrister



This was the second year I traveled down to So. Cal with my sister to see the International Quilt Show in Long Beach. Based our experience from last year, we tacked on an extra day, stayed within walking distance to the convention center (which was a vastly better experience than staying at the Holiday Inn in the ghetto) and signed up for a couple of classes. Imagine, three full days jam-packed with quilt-y activities.


Radiant Reflections by Noriko Endo

I can't tell you how stunning this quilt was. It looked like a dreamy water color painting and even upon close inspection, I was not entirely certain how it was constructed. Once home, a goggle search helped solve the mystery. Endo is featured on Alex Anderson's show on HGTV and her process can be viewed here. It's worth checking out.

A smattering of quilts:



This year, I found myself especially drawn to quilts with African themes and fabrics. On our last day there, we took took a class on African folklore embroidery taught by Leora Raikin. More about that later - it deserves it's own blog post.

Many more photos of quilts from the show can be seen by clicking on my flickr link on the right of my blog.

One last favorite!

Red Owls by Karin Peirce

In addition to viewing the quilts on exhibit, we wandered the vendor stalls trying to resist the abundant shopping opportunities. I came prepared with a list of "wants", but of course came home with a few more things than planned! I will share the new additions to my stash soon.

Local color




Wating for our Saturday evening class to start

The "Saturday Night Sampler" class was held in the ballroom at the center. There were a total of 15 instructors who each gave short talks on various quilting techniques, i.e., applique, paper piecing, rotary cutting, etc. One of the most interesting topics for me was "creative transparency with tulle" presented by David Taylor. I noticed that tulle overlay is a technique commonly used by art quilters and I'd love to give it a try.

A bottle of wine and some monkeys

My dear friend Amy's step daughter is expecting her first child in December. Amy asked me if I could teach her how to quilt. We started with a trip to Peapod Fabrics a couple of weeks ago and a promise to get together soon for a sewing session.

Friday night; we began with a bottle of Cabernet and then progressed to the pressing and cutting (wisely leaving our wine glasses in the kitchen!). I like my fabrics trimmed and straightened to the grain before I do anything else. I prepped the fabrics and Amy cut out the squares and rectangles. You can see the pattern in the photo above. Rectangles are sewn to 4 1/2 square block centers and these blocks are sewn together without sashing. It's that simple.


Amy picked out fabrics in apple greens, reds and aquas. After I saw the monkeys on the red dots, I thought this would make an extremely adorable and simple baby quilt with the red dots sewn as sashing between the monkey blocks. But this isn't my project!



I also worked on piecing the hexagon quilt back over the weekend. It's going slowly. I do not like piecing backs. I know, I know, it's extremely popular now but it's never appealed to me. This one is pieced by necessity. I probably won't get much done this week. I leave for the International Quilt show in Long Beach on Friday. I can't wait!!!

New camera and fog

That pretty much sums it up.

No more fuzzy-funky cell phone pictures for this blog! I lost my camera (actually, was my son's) about 3 weeks ago and so finally got around to ordering a new one. It arrived on my doorstep yesterday and I had it out of the box and operational in minutes.

We had scorching temps the last few days. It was 100+ degrees inland from San Francisco (where I work) and fairly warm in SF - mid to high 80's. Typically, it remains cool here, particularly out near the coast but the inland heat creates our fog.

I walked around the reservoir near my house last night with my new camera trying to capture the fog but discovered that it's actually somewhat tricky to do.

Sorry, I have no quilt-y pictures to offer you today. I've taken a mini-break from my projects and have been spending my evenings reading from the "Harry Potter" series with my daughter and re-watching the "Dirty Harry" series of films on DVD. It's a time warp back to San Francisco in the late 70's (and I have to admit, I remember these times, having grown up in a suburb east of SF).

Parting shot of guess who: