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 !!!

A Scoop from the Craft & Hobby Trade Show to Dye for...

This began its day as a plain nylon synthetic ribbon.

It was cut, folded and then...

I dip dyed it into these beautiful colors!!

But wait!

Synthetics cannot just be dip dyed to such vibrant colors ??

Well starting this April, 2015

Rit Dye will start selling an amazing product that will easily dye synthetics.

 The only important requirement for success with synthetics is that the dye pot is hot.

That's it; no dye activator, no setting the dye, no prep, no fuss.

Why did I get the opportunity to pre-game this amazing product ???

Because I got an invite to the Craft & Hobby Association Winter Convention and Trade Show

at the Anaheim Convention Center.

There were 100+ vendors of the biggest names in arts and crafts 

that all were showcasing zillions of products...

The Rit Dye booth was my favorite.

And of course after my success at the synthetic dye I had to try the traditional Rit dye.

There were wooden beads to string into necklaces or bracelets

and then 8 different dye pots to choose from to transform the plain wood beads.

The dye pots for natural items do not have to be hot and 

again the dyes do not have to be set after the item is dyed.

I had no idea Rit dyes were so easy !!!

I'm dying to dye more...

stay tuned

Millinery Meetup in Tennessee

" The United States' premiere millinery education event, designed and planned by milliners

Jan Wutkowski and Diane Shagott... "

was sold out almost immediately.

In June 2014 I implored Diane to place me on a wait list

and every month I emailed asking if there was an opening ??

October 8th I got the call that someone had canceled and I could go.

Start date of Millinery Meetup: October 18, 2014.

So I scrambled my schedule, booked a red-eye to the lovely state of Tennessee and arrived in the early AM to Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts for the first day of a wonderful four day utopia;

Millinery Meetup            

The four instructors were fabulous; from the far right is

• Wayne Wichern from San Francisco ( who I have taken classes with )
• Daria Wheatley from Washington State
• Lina Stein from Ireland ( a recent move from England )
• and Eugenie van Oirschott from the Netherlands

Unfortunately each class was one entire day so the schedule only allowed three classes.

I did not get to take Lina Stein's class Silks, Satins, Sinamay 

The first day was devoted to arrivals and the Millinery Marketplace.

The big names were at the marketplace including 

Hats by Leko, Judith M, Louise Green and many more. 

It was so hard to resist the gorgeous vintage hat model heads. 

But, I was there to learn; not to spend ( okay, just a little )

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts  ( http://www.arrowmont.org/ ) is a beautiful campus in Gatlinburg, Tennessee that was founded 100 years ago to promote education in the arts.

There is a constant schedule of different art events and classes;

 I just was fortunate to go to the Millinery Meetup

Students stay on campus in dorm style rooms so it's just a short walk 

to the dining hall and all the classrooms.

My first all day class was Who's Afraid of Straw Braid ? taught by Eugenie.

I don't think I'm afraid of straw braid but, 

it was my first time ever working with it so I was definitely intimidated.

As with most European craftspeople Eugenie was highly skilled at her craft.

It is so nice to have a experienced person tell you the little tips and nuances that make the difference between success and a mess.

Or as Eugenie tried to say

" Your hats are all domed "

What Eugenie said;

" Your hats are all doomed "

LOL

This is my finished first-ever straw braid hat.

It was an interesting and educational experience but, not really my style hat.

In addition to the classes many of the approximately 50+ milliners brought hats for a hat contest. 

I was so last minute that I didn't know about the contest or I would have entered one of my hats because I actually have a few that I'm not embarrassed by :)

The hats were as diverse as the milliners.

I think the theme was suppose to be Autumn...

Everyone got one vote and then there was a hat parade and this was the winning hat.

The girl said she almost didn't bring it because it wasn't very " Autumn "

It is much more attractive than the photo.

My second all day class was A Circle, An Oval, A Rectangle-Flat Patterning for Hats

with Daria. I was really excited about this class because I most enjoy sewing hats.

And my table mates were really hilarious.

Again, the voice of experience can simplify concepts. 

And Daria was great at explaining and demonstrating how to manipulate basic shapes for a plethora of hat options !!

She brought in boxes of her own designs made by the methods she taught us.

I really liked all her hats.

And you may learn techniques but, good designs and fresh ideas are harder to develop

This is my finished felt hat from one of Daria's shape manipulations.

Her approach definitely lends itself to lots more experimentation.

I'm always just glad to finish a hat.

Last half day of class for me because I had to leave early :( 

was Amazing Scrap Trims with the wonderful Wayne Wichern.

I try to take classes at Wayne's whenever I am in San Francisco and often I go just for his class.

http://www.waynewichernmillinery.com/

Wayne is so incredibly generous with his knowledge, so skilled and just so nice.

This bow was one of my favorites from the dozens of trim ideas Wayne showed us.

Of course he let me dismantle it so I could see exactly how the cute droopy bow was made.

Right before I had to leave a professional photographer came by to take a group picture.

Wayne lent me a cool scrap flower to pin to my not-quite-finished class 2 hat for the photo.

And then Millinery Meetup was over for me.

Whenever I am around milliners it's like I find my tribe.

Our humor and common interests makes everyone a new friend...

and I did spend a little on ALOT of great stuff.

Time to get busy making hats!!

One final word about Gatlinburg, Tennessee;

 there are at least 4 stores making fresh carmel corn.

Carmel corn is my personal kryptonite.

I know I left the gorgeous Smoky Mountains of Tennessee a little bit bigger.