Archive for the ‘Road 2 California’ Category

While I love the shopping opportunities at a large quilt show, I am there for the art. I was certainly not disappointed at road 2 California. Oh my goodness (and I said that a lot…), the quitls were wonderful. So much so I went back to walk through everything three times. So I have a LOT of pictures. We’ll start slowly.

Sherry Reynolds created “America, Let It Shine,” and what a beauty it is. From her statement: Tribute to America and its foundations and values, with the hope that they will guide us to a brighter future. 5121 Swarovski crystals represent the words of the Constitution, Star Spangled Banner, Pledge of Allegiance, and age of America. The 13 colonies are represented by using 13 points on outer blue rays and red triangles. The 50 states are represented with the ring of 50 stars. Designed on graph paper, free motion quilted on a Bernina 1001.

Sherry was there Saturday with her original graph paper, and I loved her comment. “No one told me you couldn’t do all this quilting on a big quilt ona  domestic machine.” Gives us all hope!

(It’s really hard getting a good picture with a crowd around…).  And here’s the back….also pretty amazing.

Sherry won one of the major awards – just don’t remember which one…..

There were a group of “slice” quilts, where a picture is cut into so many pieces, and a different person quilts each piece, and then the whole is recreated. These were the Klamath Basin Vistas. I really enjoyed taking a look at all the exquisite details.

Another favorite (more winners later…) is this one from Diane Steffen called “Rare Catch.” I love the piecing in each of the lobsters, as well as the pieced boards, and the addition of a net.

Lisa Sipes won for her “BeDazzleder!” I loved the vibrant colors, and the trapunto and quilting was exquisite.

“Ring Toss for Spring” by Heidi Lund – vibrant blues.

Betty Busby gave us “Welcome to the Jungle.” There is so much hidden detail in here – couldn’t get the whole lizard in at the bottom…..

Amazing bromeliads by Barbara Beatty: “Ethereum Botanica: Bromeliads.” (Way more amazing in person than this pic….)

From Suzanne Marshall comes “Deruta,” which is a town in Italy known for its hand-painted ceramics.

From Bonnie Keller comes “Creme de la Creme,” an amazing whole cloth based on the work of William Morris. She used trapunto, embroidery, beading, and inks. The detail was amazing, and I’ve just included a detail shot.

And from Molly Hamilton-McNally and Cindy Seitz-Krug comes Best of Show: “Everlasting Bouquet.” The colors are spectacular.

More to come as I get them sized, labeled, and get to a few other things on my massive list…….

Wow. Wow. Aisle upon aisle of vendors. Talk about hyperventilating……..so many things, so little time……so we make a plan. One row at a time, make a note of booths to come back to, after the rush of “I want” passes, and I still really do want that gadget. I like to collect cards of interesting things, so here are some goodies.

Little Windows – photo jewelry form resin. I like this better than what I saw at the gem show a year ago, with kind of yucky backings. These are much classier, and – for me – a good way to showcase some marbled fabric snippits.

Honey Run Quilters – not a lot really to the website, but they had some absolutely gorgeous cotton-silk colored fabrics that we were itching to marble. We’ll go back and visit them.

Kai Scissors – Jim was able to give me an exact recommendation for the scissors I needed – very small pointy ones for close clipping of threads – plus a very cool suggestion of using different fingers to get even closer to the fabric.

Stitch in Time – Thai textiles. Talk about drool – this stuff was amazing!!! And the trims……

Kasuri Dyeworks – oh my goodness, I could have fondled the silks there for hours. Each more gorgeous than the one I just looked at. They are working on getting a new website up and running, which will be wonderful. This was such beauty.

Dutch Quilter – Lennie Honcoop was working on a quilt as we stopped. She works with “hot ribbon.”  “Hot Ribbon Art is an iron-on, no sew, 1/8″ wide ribbon that can be used to finish the raw edges of appliqué. Imported from Japan, Hot Ribbon is gaining in popularity with quilters who like to finish off their projects quickly and have a dramatic look. Each package of Hot Ribbon contains 2 yards (four 18 inch strands).” (from the website). Plus, she uses  Copic markers to do shading on both the b=fabric and the ribbon. It was fascinating to watch this piece come together.

Superior Threads – by far my choice for thread – they really are “no ka oi.” (Hawaiian for “the best”) Got to talk to Mother Superior, Dr. Bob, Cindy Needham, Annie – all the people who have really changed how I quilt. I picked up their thread color cards, since I want to get more King Tut, and I really need to see the thread itself beyond a catalog picture. You can get these at their cost.

More next time!! Don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter – see the button on the right – and enter to win free marbled fabric!!

 Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness…..and I could go on! What an amazing four days of art we just had….and we did quite a bit of marketing along the way. We just returend from Road 2 California – my first large quilt show since Market in 2003, and hubby’s first large quilt show. Two days of amazing quilts (photos to follow this week, after I get myself reoriented to basic life here….), plus a day at the Getty Museum – and coping with I-405….interesting experience there……

One of the best things I did in preparation for the show was bring three really great fat quarters with me, just in case someone was “interested” in seeing marbled fabric. One fat quarter went to the “quilt royalty” that was at the show, and one went to Susan Else, the guest artist – she will definitely have something different to use in her sculptures.

It was really helpful as we were looking at some of the cool tools to pull out the actual fabric and ask questions very specific to its use. This was particularly true at the Pellon booth, as we were talking we began to realize that if we are to take our fiber work to the next level, we need to seriously consider what is used in between the layers. We looked at embroidery machines, as I really would like to include some machine embroidery in the new pieces, and we had a fascinating discussion with the Brother people that could potentially lead to some licensing opportunities.

I collected a lot of business cards, as there was either a really interesting tool or embellishment I want to share. Hardly any book dealers, which is why I may need to consider Market this year or next. Speaking of books….I got home to about 300 emails, one of which was a request for photos to be in a book. That’s definitely a follow-through for this week. Renewed my Quilt Show membership so I can keep up with what’s happening in the field.

Interesting marketing observations. One company with really interesting hand-painted fabric doesn’t have a website. They only sell at shows. They don’t want to photograph fabric so people can see exactly what they are going to buy. I understand that; that’s precisely why there are some online venues that won’t take us, because they feel the need to photograph every piece of fabric. That’s why we sell on eBay and Etsy – what you see is what you get. We have a note on our ordering page on our website about why there aren’t pictures. We don’t get many orders off the website, but that’s okay, because we have other venues. No hand-marbled fabrics at the show, but there was a booth with commercial marbled fabric; nice line of fabric, much more subtle than what has been released by major companies in the last few years. Lots of quilts made up – using a stained glass approach – using the marbled fabric. Interesting to see.

Some booths had absolutely no information, beyond a business card with only an email. I tried making notes, but I figured there’s no way I’d be sharing that information. No web presence, and no pictures allowed to let people know what was available. Hopefully they make enough doing shows to make it worth their while. We couldn’t do that; the press of making fabric for our Seattle trip is enough.

It’s probably the most fun to put names and faces to cyber contacts and to ooh and aah at the gorgeous artwork. We went through the quilts twice, making sure we didn’t miss anything, and trying to find time to just enjoy the quality workmanship. I wouldnt have been able to take this amount of time had I not been retired…..

And after all that, as I was perusing and cleaning out emails, I stumbled across this older email that I hadn’t read, from resident web guru Suzan. I know there are more applications to marketing than meets the eye, but since we artists rely on our hands to make our art, this seems interesting food for thought. A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design.

Stay tuned – lots of pictures in the works!!!