Our Day at Quilt Festival

Last Friday, we spent the day at the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach, CA and had an absolute blast!

The first thing we noticed when we walked in: It was SUPER crowded! Bustling attendance, packed booths, excited groups of friends all abuzz with creative inspiration. It was great!

A few of our favorite folks were there, including Julie Herman from Jaybird Quilts.

Julie Herman (left) with our Marketing Manager, Allie Heath (right)

She did some fabulous demos of her new Hex N More ruler using our Kona Cotton Solids.

Needless to say, her booth was PACKED!

We also saw Daniella Stout of Cozy Quilts and the popular Strip Club patterns (She's the mastermind behind the majority of our batik rollup-friendly quilts) as well as Beyond the Reef and Dragon Lady Quilts, both of which are worth checking out.

One of our favorite patterns we saw at the show was Ginger Stalks from Beyond the Reef.

Walking the floor, we noticed that Kona Cotton was very popular and seemed to be the solid of choice for many booths. Hunter's Design Studio in particular showcased Kona brilliantly with these clever quilts by Sam Hunter:

We saw a lot of batik quilts, including this stunner from A Quilter's Dream featuring Artisan Batiks by Lunn Studios:

Some other collections were popping up in many booths as well. The Quilt 'n Things booth featured a wonderful quilt made from Darlene Zimmerman's Sweet Daisy Dreams pattern using her Lazy Daisy Baskets collection.

And there were a lot of quilts made with Seuss fabric, including this one from the Sisters' Quilting Trunk booth:

And then there was the quilt exhibit - so many AMAZING show quilts! Our jaws just dropped at the intricate piecework of some, photorealism achieved by others, and the sheer display of masterful artistry by all.

We wish we had more pictures to show, but we didn't want to disobey all of the "No Photography" signs. Just believe us when we say, "It was awesome!"

Overall, we had a great time and were very impressed by everything we saw. It was really cool seeing so many enthusiastic quilters gathering in one place, and now we're really looking forward to the next one!

We're also curious to hear what other people thought - Did you attend Quilt Festival? What were your impressions?

Comments

[Jan]

Long Beach is my hometown, but I missed the show this year. I was traveling, 9 great days of baseball!

[Gayle]

I attended the Quilt Festival on Saturday and was also pleased to see so many fellow quilters there. I've just finished one of Julie's patterns and it was great to see her booth so busy. The Long Beach International Quilt Festival has a different 'feel' to it than Road To California. Don't get me wrong, Road is great too, they are just different and I take away different impressions and inspirations from each of them. The world of bloggers has made us a more familiar community and its fun to see in person the people we know from online, like the girls from Beyond the Reef. The first fat quarter quilt I ever made was from their Road booth some years back. If you missed the Quilt Festival this year I recommend you make a point for next year. I hope to get to a class too, would love to hear what people thought of any classes they attended.

[Robert Kaufman Fabrics]

What a great comment! Thanks so much for sharing, Gayle!

[Irelle]

There is nothing like attending a huge quilt show like this for amazing inspiration and every product you can think of. I loved the Twelve exhibit! My absolute favorite seeing how 12 different quilters interpreted each of the themes and colors. I loved the variety of vendors and shopped my way through the show. I had just been in Sisters earlier in the month so my brain is brimming with ideas from all of the inspiration from these two fabulous shows!

[Shirlee Walker]

We were lucky enough to have a booth for our group CONKERR CANCER LOS ANGELES again this year (second year for us). We love to see all the amazing quilts and designs which truely are amazing! The craftmanship and creativity is wonderful on each and every one of them. Our group is a national organization that makes pillowcases for children in local hospitals who are fighting cancer. Unfortunately, they put us in the back corner of the quilts -- instead of by the vendors! So not everyone sees us. Our booth had sewing machines set up to allow you to come by and sew a pillowcase for a child with cancer. We also received some pillowcases and donated fabric while at the fair! Thank you all who participated and found us in the corner! We appreciate each and every pillowcase or any amount of fabric that is donated as they provide smiles for children fighting cancer in local hospitals. Hope next year to meet you when you come to see our booth! Glad you had an awesome time! We always do too!
Shirlee Walker - Regional Coordinator - Conkerr Cancer Los Angeles
www.conkerr cancerla.org