Thought for a lifetime

Einstein made the very important observation that " Imagination is more important than knowledge ".

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Road to California 2015

On a beautiful, very windy January day in Southern California
I had the extreme pleasure of attending the GIANT
Road to California Quilt show.


This is the 20th year of the show and it has grown from a small Southern California event
to over 1,000 quilts on display, 230 vendor$, and over $90,000 in cash prizes!


And the cash prizes are pretty impressive!
Almost as impressive as the quilts;
which you know take hundreds of hours to create.


A photo will never do justice to the actual beauty of these amazing 
fiber arts,


 because a quilt isn't just composing a pleasing color palate,
the actual fabric construction and painstaking hand work is mind-boggling.



Quilting is not a fast endeavor.
To be a successful quilter you must enjoy the journey 
and each moment that adds up to hundreds of hours.



 This could be an oil painting in a museum but, instead of a quick dash of a brush,
each element is fabric hand stitched onto a lovely textured and stitched background.
You really must see it to believe it.


And the big $10,000 winner of the show really highlights how a photo just cannot convey 
the workmanship, beautiful fabric and and mastery of a skill when it all comes together.


Just realize that everything you are seeing was created by someone hand stitching.
Quilts have come a long way from the prairie.


I have been to this show for probably over a decade and 
a new twist are the Special Exhibits;
which are basically smaller, themed quilts


The 150th anniversary of the state parks was the theme for 57 quilts 
made by the Sew-ciety of Redding, CA.


The quilts were all wonderful and I recognized a lot of the state parks :)


There was also a hilarious theme of dozens of random holidays.
Who knew such days existed. 


Power to the nerds !!


A new reason to wake up happy on December 6 !!


Another interesting concept was the inner self portrait
There were many very interesting images of people's inner muse


and I really enjoyed every one.



Can you guess what was the theme of these quilts??



But, by far my most favorite Special Exhibit was " Inspired by the Beatles "
There were 150 (!! ) quilts in this exhibit.


Can you guess ? She Came in Through the Bathroom Window!


Why Don't We do It in the Road ? 
LOL


And this one was so clever:
Happiness is a Warm Gun
and the artist interpreted with a glue gun !!


And then there were the general quilts and there were lots and lots of beautiful entries.
Of course I really like more quirky ones and I was not disappointed.



Another HUGE part of the show were the vendors;
all 230 of them!!


There were zillions of unique products and some I had never seen,
 also lots of really fun demos .


One of my favorite demos was a birdie luggage tag.
Love a good birdie.


And then I met the most interesting vendor.
Mary Jo Hiney 
www.maryjohineydesigns.com
who not only sells the most beautiful ribbons but,
also is an instructor online at Craftsy
AND has a line of flower patterns coming out soon for Vogue.


Mary Jo is a very talented, nice lady and I am really fortunate I got to meet her.
Plus she had some very good tips for successful ribbon flowers.


All in all, any day with my Mom is a great day.

But, sharing a day in her world of quilts
with all the inspiring fabric art 
and vendors with amazing products
gets my creative energizes 
supercharged !!!


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