Long Beach, California International Quilt Festival

A few busy weeks ago my amazing award winning quilter Mom and I attended the huge annual

 West Coast International Quilt Festival at the Long Beach convention center.

The show is an inspirational delight for anyone with any imagination.

I always love the super traditional quilts, especially the flower themed quilts. 

If you can wrap your brain around the fact that each different color you're seeing is a HAND SEWN separate piece of fabric then you can begin to truly appreciate the skill and amazing artistry of quilting.

Painted fabric and images are starting to show up in quilts and I think that makes it less a quilt and more textile art. The bird image above is painted and the one below is a vibrant fabric pieced parrot.

I like them both but, the pieced parrot is much more than a pretty image.

And for the first time I saw what I can only describe as minimalist quilts...

I think the simplicity and composition is just uninteresting. 

My resistance makes me think of how everyone hated the impressionists when they broke away from realism in painting. But, I don't think a Picasso or Matisse is behind these unattractive quilts.

Of course never say never because I do actually like this very non-traditional quilt. 

I like that it's an abstract fabric pieced flower.

And this is a phenomenal quilt of quilting. 

It's huge, all pieced fabric and the black outlines are bias strips hand sewn around the amazing hands quilting.

It is by a quilter in Japan and you really have to see it to believe how great it is.

And out of the 100+ quilts I can confidently say that this is my most favorite.

Not because of the theme or composition but, because the quilter used the most incredible mix of bright, printed, not found in nature colors to create her animal menagerie.

And again, every color is a HAND SEWN different piece of bright patterned fabric.

Matisse and Picasso would be impressed by this amazing mix of color and pattern.

And finally if the thought of the hundreds of hours of work that goes into quilts is overwhelming; 

have hope!

This extremely large fabulous quilt of the village of Berne, Switzerland was made by the quilt guild of Berne Switzerland in 2010.

One hundred fifty six different squares all pieced together make up this exquisite quilt.

Some things truly do take a village!