Yesterday I went to the Pacific International Quilt Festival that they're holding at the Santa Clara Convention Center not too far from my house. Precisely 3.4 miles according to the nav system when I plugged in the address. Wow, was it great! Tons of beautiful quilts from all around the world and in many styles, from traditional to contemporary and even innovative art quilts. And many many vendors selling fabrics, tools, sewing machines and anything remotely of interest to that special breed of people - quilters. I was there for about five hours and walked most of the time as my tired legs will gladly tell you. There wasn't any prohibition against photography except for the quilts in the Alzheimer's Exhibit. And since I now have my nifty new little camera that my husband was kind enough to order for me, I was able to take many pictures. (More about the camera in another post, suffice it to say that I'm extremely happy with it!) Here's just two of the quilts that I was compelled to capture. One's an art quilt with a sense of humor and the other is simply a gorgeous, no make that stunning, piece of traditional quilting. (NOT MADE BY ME)
Mermaids Like Margaritas with Salt! by Ellen Edith of Santa Cruz, California, USA
Here's a closeup of the lovely mermaid, notice the 3-D "scales", ice cubes, and bra.
Please forgive the bad color quality. I'm still learning how to work this new camera and wasn't sure if I should have chosen auto flash or no flash at all.
It Ain't Easy Being Green by Ronda K. Beyer (Ronda's Creative Quilting) of Tualatin, Oregon, USA
This shows how dramatic a traditional quilt design (in an innovative and original layout) can be spectacular in solid, or near solid fabrics. But what's even more amazing is the original quilting pattern that Ronda has used. Look at the next two detail shots and see what really impressed me. Wow, to even be 1/10th talented as Ronda would be a gift.
There are two other quilts that really stayed with me that I'll post tomorrow. I have to admit that five hours was in no way close enough to the amount of time that all of these quilts required to admire them. After a while one gets overwhelmed and needs to rest the eyes. Trust me when I tell you that there were more quilts to appreciate than what I managed to photograph. If you're ever able to attend a quilt show, please do so. It's a treat for the senses and falls in the creative play category of the calendar.
