Monday, May 12. 2008
The Seven Sisters Quilt Show
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The Associated Quilt Guilds of the Central Coast were presenting their “Seven Sisters Quilt Show” (there are 7 guilds in the AQGCC). This wasn‘t an annual affair. It was the first “Seven Sisters Quilt Show” and had been several years in the making – once again, I could hardly believe that I had actually timed my visit perfectly for the show.
And what a show it was! For 2 days, over 370 quilts of all styles, all sizes, and all levels of ability were shown and more than 30 vendors offered their assorted temptations. I had assumed that I would be going to the show alone, but my dad said that he would come along, which was nice. Two can see more than one alone and sharing impressions, explaining techniques, etc. heighten the experience.
Having helped hang a few exhibits myself in the past few years, I was impressed by the amount of work invested in the show. Quilts were not only displayed on a huge number of temporary frames, they were also hung from the ceiling. All quilts were uniformly (and well) labelled. Vendors‘ stands enticed visitors along the outer walls and even in a tent area before we actually entered the show building.
I can‘t say that I liked all of the quilts, but I could appreciate the time, energy, imagination, and love invested in each and every one of them. And, of course, I did find many truly impressive. Here are a few that caught my eye:
A wonderful optical illusion quilt, with impressive piecing. The squares (well, actually, I guess they are trapezoids) of the center red and black area measure about 1/4 inch. I‘ll write the name of the quilter and name of the quilt as soon as my suitcase arrives (hopefully tomorrow – it didn‘t arrive with me, missed one of the connecting flights). The suitcase did arrive, so now I know more. The quilt was made by Andi Perejda and is called “What a Trip!”.
An intriguing, very original combination of two different sizes of “Snail Trail” or “Monkeywrench” blocks. And it was entirely hand-quilted with tiny, very even stitches!
And while we‘re on the subject of quilting...the large majority of all quilts in the exhibit were machine quilted. I hadn‘t realized that machine quilting has become so popular. Many were machine quilted by someone other than the quilt‘s maker so it seems that people (women probably) in the quilting business are actually making some money, which is nice.
Once again, the names of the maker and the quilt will be added here when my suitcase arrives. The quilt is “California Reel” by Allison Lockwood.
As a contrast to the preceding quilt, I thought that this was a good example of how effective a simple pattern can be when made with well-chosen fabrics. In this case, I can read the quilt‘s label when I enlarge the photo, so I know that it is called “Japanese Circles” and was made by Gay McNeal (the last name might be wrong – once again....when the suitcase arrives – yep, that's the right name) who was inspired by the book and class, “Circle Play” by Reynola Pakusich.
All in all, I can sum up my impressions of the show with congratulations and thanks to the members of the AQGCC!