Long Beach Quilt Festival, 2022!
I am so happy that the Long Beach Quilt Festival returned after 9 long years! It is a great venue and the attendees were thrilled to be there. I had a great time exploring Long Beach, teaching, and a wee bit of time viewing the quilts.
Long Beach is a beautiful town; it’s friendly and packed with restaurants, at least in the area around the convention center. The architecture of the convention center is, um, interesting:
It’s especially pretty at night:
I stayed at the adjoining Hyatt, known for its “Swan Boats”:
It looked like fun, especially at night, but I did not have the time to play.
I accidentally reserved an ADA room. When I realized that, I tried to get them to put me in a regular room, but apparently it would have been difficult to change the reservation. So I got this:
As you can imagine, the room was spacious. I am easily impressed: I loved the blinds. One button moved the sheer blinds up and down and another moved the black out shades up and down. I felt like a Queen! It doesn’t take much to impress me, lol!
And this was such a charming piece of art:
It provided the most magical glow at night. I lived the high life for sure!
My classes were wonderful! Everyone was so thrilled to return to in-person classes and have the Festival back open. My first day class was my intro class, “Yes You CAN Free Motion Quilt!”. I was so proud of my students, embracing the process and making huge strides in one day!
We were on a variety of high end Janome’s and they performed flawlessly.
Day two’s class was full with a wait list, Free Motion Quilting, Start With a Square:
I remembered to take photos this time. My students really were happy! I noticed that similar to previous years, some will leave early, I think to miss traffic:
It was one of those classes that teachers dream about. Everyone did so well! Some were beginners and some had considerable experience, but everyone had a good time.
Even though we were surrounded by restaurants, they were almost all sit-down venues and I didn’t want to take the time. But there was a trade-off; the food choices on premises were limited.
A hot dog, chips and water was $19.85!! And I NEVER eat hot dogs but at least this was a beef dog, a pretty good one I must say.
On to the quilts! The show was beautifully displayed with very wide aisles:
I literally had 25 minutes to see the whole show, and apparently I missed several entire exhibits. I ran around and took photos like a mad woman, then enjoyed them later when things slowed down. In no particular order:
Bars Quilt, unknown maker
Beautiful quilting! I MUST make a bar quilt someday.
My Feathered Friends, Laura Ruiz
Glorious texture.
Evening Meal, Allison Wilbur
Don’t you just love that edge?
Dreaming of Spring, Suzan Engler
I can feel the cold and why the bird is all fluffed up.
Lava Lamp 3, Diana Fox
I loved this piece! It is SO lava lamp-ish. I can’t imagine that piecing.
Surfer Girl, Charlene Tuch
The best representation of the vibe in Long Beach I thought.
On display in a Modern Quilt Guild booth. I am so sorry I forgot the name. Please comment and I will add it to the post. Simple, edited, interesting use of linear piecing.
Baltimore Album Quilt 1, Yukiko Hirano
This was a huge quilt with stunning applique.
Detail, Baltimore Album Quilt 1, Yukiko Hirano
Reclaimed wood Mosaic Art by Troy Murrah. Troy is the son of the late Judy Murrah, VP of Education for Quilt Inc. We all miss her. Troy carries on her name in his own unique way.
The following few quilts are part of the exhibit of the work of Zena Thorpe. Surely she has to be one of the best applique artists in the world. Her work is exquisite and remarkably executed and designed. It was a marvel to see a body of her work in person. My photos do not do her quilts justice:
Fun and Fancy, Zena Thorpe.
Detail, Fun and Fancy, Zena Thorpe.
Renaissance, Zena Thorpe.
This was my fav of hers.
Quilt on a Grecian Urn, Zena Thorpe. Inspired by a vase in the Getty Museum. I gasped when I turned the corner and saw this quilt.
This was a close second. That trapunto was fabulous.
Detail of trapunto, Quilt on a Grecian Urn, Zena Thorpe
Wildflowers, Zena Thorpe. The detail on this very petite quilt was astounding.
For Love of Ornament, Zena Thorpe. There are no prints in there, it’s all applique!
Kells, Magnum Opus, Zena Thorpe. I saw a photo of this quilt long ago and consider this to be the best representation of her art. Look at the detail!
Detail, Kells, Magnum Opus, Zena Thorpe.
More quilts:
Arpeggio, Katie Pasquini Masopust.
This is machine applique!
Grief, Linda Steele.
I did feel the emotion in this piece even before I read the title.
Becoming Whole, Millie Cumming
Snippets from an antique booth, made into this piece. Lovely!
Catalan King, Anna Chupa.
Oh the texture!
Softened Precision, Beatrice Gilbert.
Silk fabric, trapunto, fringe; a quilt to ponder.
Rustic Sphinx Moth, Mary Ann Vaca-Lambert.
Amazing detail.
Hidden Gems, Jan Soules.
I can feel the heat. Feels very West Texas to me.
A King on His Throne, Nancy Sterett Martin.
So much detail and technique in this fairly small and beautiful piece.
Red Deco, Jan Hutchison.
Just super cool quilting on this one.
My tour of the quilts was very short and as always, I don’t show a quilt more than once (if I remember!). There were many other spectacular quilts that I have posted before. Oh I wish I could have spent more time with the quilts!
I hear that this show will be back next year. I hope to be teaching and look forward to spending time in Long Beach again!
I’ll share at:
Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday
and
Finished or Not Friday
Beautiful quilts, thank you for sharing with those who didn’t have the opportunity to attend.
Hopefully you can scratch that itch with a quilt show in your area. It was my pleasure to share these.
W0w!!! So much eye candy!
It was so nice to be back surrounded by beauty!
WOW, wow, wow, those are some spectacular quilts. Thanks for the tour
It was so wonderful to be there, surrounded by all those quilts!
Thank you so much Jenny for sending photos of some amazing quilts at Long Beach that you could stand in front of! And that your classes went swimmingly! i see the smiling exhausted and happy faces of you and your attendees. It must be so good to be back in the life of creatives again! i was a student at LBSC way back in the day (i was a Home EC major minoring in surfing ) so The surfer girl quilt caught my Eye. Zena Thorpe’s pieces are breathe taking . thank you for sharing with us. I am going back to look again at the art people do with fabric and imagination!
It was such a good show! I giggled at your minor in surfing. It was a good show and I’m thrilled that it is coming back next year.
Thanks, Jenny, for the eye candy. With all the depressing news, it’s good to be reminded of all of the creativity that exists in our world.
We are so lucky to have our quilts to make us happy, even when we are surrounded by unpleasant news. It is our refuge! And when others share their beautiful work, it’s a bonus!
Sounds like you had a fabulous time!! and thse quilts!! WOW!!!
It was so much fun! And yes, nice to see quilts again.