Last of the Long Beach Show

One of the exhibits at the show that fascinated me was a series of small quilts called the "Journal Quilt Project II: Elements -- Earth, Water, Air, and Fire". I was very much attracted to the quilts because of all the texture, work and artistry that had been poured into a very small space. I didn't actually measure any of the quilts; if I am remembering correctly, they were a little bit smaller than the calendars I have hung on the wall in several rooms of my house.

"Earth -- Canyons & Mesa" is by Suzanne Sanger of Brevard NC. It was very interesting to read her artist's statement as she worked through the process of how she made the quilt. From the dye-painting of the fabric to hand stitching to machine quilting to deciding how to finish off the edges, there was an immense amount of work here.

Here is a closeup. Suzanne stated that after hours of hand stitching the fabric she had painted, she put polyester batting behind the "mesas" and cotton batting behind the whole piece and then heavily machine quilted the piece to flatten it out and get the texture she wanted.

This was the only "earth" themed quilt that I photographed from this journal exhibition. All of the others were "fire" themed -- all of those HOT colors!

"On Fire" by Rosemary Claus-Gray of Doniphan OH. This quilt is made of many separate sheer painted and partially appliqued layers of silk organza that move around with the air currents. The colors are absolutely gorgeous and the movement makes you lean in closer to really take a look!

"Inflamed" by Marie Z. Johansen of Friday Harbor WA is very heavily stitched, embellished and beaded. The small beads stitched abundantly on this piece along with the iridescent threads catch the light and make it look as if it truly is on fire!

A close-up of the beading -- it also looked to me as if yarns were couched on under the beads with possibly organza used for additional sparkle. Hard to tell without touching, but I successfully resisted temptation.

"Fire Dancers" by Sandra Betts of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. The colors of this quilt were what initially pulled me in, but then I was intrigued by the three dimensionality of the body of the dancer at the bottom of the quilt. Then I saw more dancers as I looked closer; it became a game to see how many I could find.

"Fire Dancers" is my last picture from the journal project. This next quilt, which was the last photos I took at the show, is just WAY FUN!

"Pointless Possibilities" by Jamie Fingal of Orange CA is "fused onto wool felt, hand-stamped, free motion machine quilted". I just loved the ideas of the zippers -- the black fabric of the zipper tape and the metallic zipper teeth really stood out from the main part of the quilt.

Here's a shot of where two zippers end up near each other on the left side of the quilt -- one's coming and one's going! I also think the close-up gives you a better picture of the vividness of the colors and also shows the stamping technique. This just looks like it was a very fun quilt to make.

All in all, I liked the show very much -- to see the whole show, it is my understanding that there will be a CD for sale of all of the quilts. Also, you can to www.quilts.com/home/ and there are vidcasts of the show as well as a home page for all the Long Beach show highlights.