Long Beach Show (continued)

Just finished sorting through all of my pictures and rotating the ones I took sideways. I'm so amazed at the workmanship and innovation of so many of the quilts at the show. Here are more pictures; I'll probably have to spread them over at least 2 posts, possibly 3, as time permits.

One of the exhibits was Hollywood themed. This is one of the quilts included in that grouping; it is titled "Allright, Mr. Demille, I'm Ready for My Closeup" and was "fused, couched, painted, beaded, free motion machine quilted" by Sally Gould Wright of Los Angeles CA. The quilting was pretty awesome and I loved the necklace and scarf that were attached to the quilt. The necklace hangs below the bottom border and both the scarf and jewelry add so much dimension (as well as play value if we only got to touch!).

"Blue Ridge Springtime" has a pieced background with fused raw-edge applique, free motion and machine quilting.

There was a lot of texture in this quilt, so I took this closeup to study it better. The quilting that textured the leaves was quite dense and, along with the raw edges, added the visual interest that drew me in.

It seemed that many of the quilts that I was attracted to had a lot of texture, beads, applique and other accents that made them definitely art quilts rather than the more traditional quilts that had tended to predominate the first few quilt shows that I attended in the early 1990's.

"Sunrise Serenade" by Barbara McKie of Old Lyme CN. Description reads: "Hand-dyed shibori sateen combined with a disperse-dyed dahlia, machine applique, free motion stitching on non-stitch regulated home machine." This description was particularly interesting to me (the bold lettering for emphasis is mine and was not done that way at the show) because I had not yet seen a reference in a show as to whether or not the quilting was done using the stitch regulating feature available on some home machines, including the Bernina models that I use. It makes me wonder if we will see more of these explanations in the future.

Here is a closeup of the dahlia that was appliqued to the center. The three dimensional effect, including the drops of dew quilted into the petals as well as the way the petals folded in on themselves just like the actual flower, was stunning.

"Roundabout Grays" by Jeannie Palmer Moore of Escondido CA was "fabric dyed, discharged printed, stamped, free motion stitched and needlefelted." A lot of preparation went into the fabric and then all of the quilting and felting added the texture.

"The Awesome Mind" by Carolyn Ryan of Thousand Oaks CA is a combination of techniques: "painted fusible web, layered onto cotton base, stencilled, quilted" is the description. There was so much detail that I spent quite a bit of time in front of this one.

Here is one of the closeups to capture the delicacy of the leafy/branch-y details.

And another to show more of the surface painting.

"Fifteen Selvages" by Cindy Cooksey of Irvine CA -- makes me feel like I can't throw anything
away!

To Be Continued>>>>>>>