Saturday, July 28, 2012

Long Beach International Quilt Festival 2012

Well, I made it to the quilt show and back without going bankrupt.

Marcy, Leiya, Kiana and I got a late start but finally arrived at Takumi's place and he and Bianca made the short jaunt with us to the Long Beach Convention Center. After buying tickets, my first stop was to buy the quilt show tote bag. Not that I need another bag but I have the bags from the last two years and when I use them they bring back memories of the day.

"Okay gang! Let me loose in here~!"

We each took an aisle and started wandering through the vendor booths. It seemed like there were more people this year than last year though that may be because we were there on opening day. Bianca and I crossed paths early on and we stuck together for most of the show. We made one sweep through the stalls and then went back and wandered through again spending great amounts of time contemplating patterns, fabrics gadgets.

Marcy and Kiana showed up with a jewelry purchase as did Leiya. Leiya also became entranced with a Toothbrush rug demonstration and bought a couple of needles for that. Both Takumi and Leiya took interest in a stuffed frog pattern and they bought that as well as froggy fabric...

At one point, Kiana contemplated a wonderful pattern for a queen size quilt (gulp) but what with the fabric and all, it would run a hundred dollars... for a quilt that she would only be able to make while I'm around. We could foresee what the next four summers were going to be like so we by-passed that dream. (But Auntie Tani bought the pattern just in case...oh well, and while I'm here buy another pattern and a couple of gadgets too.)

Bianca vacillated between a quilt kit and a bag pattern and finally settled on the bag pattern... She can probably do her sewing on her own. She gets things done when she sets her mind to it.

And Marcy fell in love with a photo transfer pattern so she and I both bought the papers for photo transfer and we'll get double use out of the pattern. Now to figure out how to transfer our photos... Do we even have some good photos?

We were petering out in the late afternoon (especially the non-quilters... Me? I could have spent the night there) and still hadn't even seen the quilt exhibit. It makes me wonder where my real passions lie. Do I love quilts or do I just love buying things to make quilts?

Everybody sat and waited while I raced through the exhibit and then bought raffle tickets for an absolute beauty of a quilt. I think this was called Texas Rose or something. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous! The quilting was so amazing!

Attending a quilt show is really very humbling. Even the quilts on display for selling products were so beautiful that I felt that my measly attempts at machine quilting are still kindergarten level. But everyone is so friendly and complete strangers give advice and joke about projects half made and overflowing sewing rooms. I pointed out a long arm machine and asked Takumi to buy it for me someday when he becomes a millionaire. (He has to pay a student loan back first...)

So... Now I have a couple more sewing projects for the summer and two someday projects to take home with me to Japan. But first, I have to get caught up:

  • helping crocheters (Leiya and Bianca) get their projects of last week finished
  • quilting Bianca's giraffe quilt from the quilt show two years ago
  • giving advice on frog construction (Takumi and Leiya's projects)
Promises and Borders gets put on the back burner again!

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