California State Fair!

I really needed to take a break from all the prep work for Long Beach and NCQC, so I stole away and spent a fun afternoon at the California State Fair-I go every year. I love the Fair: it’s usually blazing hot, misters everywhere; I love the Creative Arts Building, the Fine Arts Building, the buildings full of vendors hawking stuff you never knew you needed before, horrific heart-stopping food, odd people, and yes, I actually visit the livestock too.

I ran into these entertaining stick walkers right when I walked in. They were traveling all over the Fair, much to the amusement of everyone in their path:

The work in the Fine Arts Building seemed especially good this year. This photo literally made me cry-read the explanation below-what a compelling photo.

This beauty stopped me in my tracks:

Yes, this is You Know Who-not a political statement on my part, just good art.

The display and light in the quilt area was poor so my photos were limited. This beauty used discharged (bleached) fabrics.

Couldn’t resist this Charley Harper cutie:

What Fair worth its salt and fat and sugar would be without some artery-clogging choices???

Read this menu-are they serious? Who thinks of these things? And then there’s the booth that sells live maggot burgers…

And on the way out of the Fair, I noticed this concrete work; I think that’s a future quilting motif, don’t you?

Meanwhile, I’m quilting the whole cloth table runner that I’ll be giving away at International Quilt Festival-Long Beach. I think that when you begin putting down thread over wool batt-it’s like carving a beautiful motif from the fabric. This photo illustrates my point well. Things like this thrill me-I love it when this kind of beauty comes from my needle!