Long Beach, 2023!
NOTE: I will have a newsletter this week, but may or may not have a blog post or newsletter next week. Then I will be back in town for a bit, finally! My newsletter really is the epicenter of my communication; you can sign up easy peasy here.
I could already write a long essay on “What I did on my Summer vacation”! July is usually my down month, but this one has by far been my busiest. I need to post about:
– the Long Beach Quilt Festival
– my Quilting Arts TV taping in Golden, CO
– my visit with my sister
– my visit to the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum
– yesterday’s visit to the California State Fair. I’m leaving soon to return to Denver for a family reunion and to see a new exhibit at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum.
Whew! When will I have time to post about all of this?
Let’s start with Long Beach; let me walk you through the experience. The International Quilt Festival Long Beach is put on by Quilts, Inc, the same organization that puts on the Houston show. After a hiatus of several years, it returned last year with a fairly small crowd. This year had much better attendance but still way down from its heyday. It is a lovely show, beautiful venue, Long Beach has so much to do and the show is well-presented and spacious.
A few pretty photos:
Beautiful, modern convention center!
Pretty quilty decor, no? Someone commented that it looked like boobs….
Every night’s sunset was gorgeous.
One of the most fun things about traveling to teach at venues like this is hanging with other teachers and quilters: Sheila Osbrink, Catherine Redford, Jane Haworth.
Two of my three classes filled, so that was good!
Fills and Frills
Sheer Bliss
I was delighted to have a room stocked with BERNINA 770’s, the machine I sew on at home. One of my classes had 7 no-shows, a very odd thing that I did not figure out.
I am SO PROUD of one brand spankin’ new free motion quilter that took both classes and look what she did!!!
I always appreciate a student who jumps right in, no fear, just confidence!
Yes, I inexplicably forgot to take photos of the entire Fills and Frills class, sigh, but I did take photos of the Sheer Bliss class. I am so. PROUD of the work in Sheer Bliss. This is such a FUN class and everyone does their own thing, with some surprising results:
Two students had not sewn on a sewing machine before! I was so proud of how well they did and embraced the whole process!
Would you like to see some quilts too? As always, I usually don’t post a quilt that I have posted before from a previous show. And I literally had 30 min to take photos of the entire show and some of the special exhibits were still setting up, so it is likely I missed some fabulous quilts. And I always mess a few photos up. So here are some of the surviving photos:
Blue Windows, Jennifer Emry
City Cats, Marina Panzhinskaya
Skateboarder, Ann Houle
Dear Jane/Wordsmith, Serena Kim
Aikido, Kazuyo Doi
Leafy Sea Dragon, Marinda Stewart
African Roots, Priscilla Bianchi, quilted by Laura Lee Fritz
Remix a la Anton, Judith Ahlborn
The Sun on the Next Traveler’s Horizon, Nate Robbins, quilted by Nan Akins
Mother Earth and Her Children, Marina Panzhinskaya
Ode de Yoshiko, Marilyn Farquhar
Disentangled, Libby Williamson
Thisteles & Currants, unknown maker
Jane Sassaman’s iconic Willow quilt, one of the “Best Quilts of the 20th Century”.
Dyeing Party; Hsu Hsi-Chen
A Road Leading to Home, Hsu Hsi-Chen
Prickly Warrior Princess, Vicki Bohnhoff
He Po’ ai Aloha, Ric Stark
Exhibit of Andrea Brokenshire’s work
Ditsy Stars, Bernadette Houghton, quilted by Teresa Chaffey Coolidge
The Summer Buzz, Jill Ortlip, quilted by Sharon Vitt
Direction Optional; Stephanie Ruyle, quilted by Christine Perrigo
Taxi Driver, Tasha Owen
Flying in Circles, Dena Miskel
The School of the Lost Star, Sheila Bishop
Scrappy Diamonds, Unknown maker
Listen to the Wind, Hope Wilmarth
Murphy’s Monster, Linda Fleschner
Lest I Shall Be Forgotten, Harriet Huston Whitcomb
A Tribute to Ricky, Deb Schultz Grimes
Geometry of the Herd #7, Mary Lou Alexander
Galapagos Marine Iguana, Sue Sherman
Poverello and the Birds, Carolyn Skei
Urubu, Isabelle Dupras
No date has been set yet for a 2024 show. I do hope it returns as it is a fabulous show!
I’ll be sharing at:
Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday
Thanks sew much!
YOu’re welcome Diana! I love quilt shows.
As always, thanks Jenny for your coverage of the many shows you go to.
And you are welcome. Thank you for being such a faithful reader and commentor!
Thanks for sharing…..so much talent showing!
You are welcome Nadine! It was a great show.
Long Beach also has one of the most incredible Aquariums I have every seen. I hope you will have time to visit it at some point.
Oh been there several times and yes, absolutely spectacular! I did not have time for anything besides teach and eat.
What a wonderful show! The 7 no-shows is weird, almost as though it was a registration error or they were a group of friends planning to come to the show together who had to cancel at the last minute. Ah, well — the students who did show up just got a better student-teacher ratio!
So I do know that all seven were not grouped together, as to of them let me know that they weren’t going to be able to come. It was weird though
Thanks so much for sharing. Those of us who couldn’t make it this year
appreciate it!
Aw, you’re welcome! I hope you can make it next year.