Coastal Quilt Show (VERY photo heavy)

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.  Art is knowing which ones to keep.  

~Scott Adams

We had a great weekend.  Saturday was spent heading to the coast to attend a quilt show (more below).  The weather was perfect, not too much traffic on the roads, and sharing the day with my DH was the best part.  Sunday was the typical wash day.  Early evening was spent at my SIL and BIL's house to celebrate my SIL's 65 birthday.  Lots of family, friends, and good food.  Now it's Monday and I ready to go.  I think I finally get to start the table runner I have set as my goal the last few times.  How was your weekend?

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LITTLE FACT OF THE DAY

Sloth

The sloth has always intrigued me.  It moves so smoothly through the trees and seems not to have a care in the world.  Unfortunately we are not blessed with this animal here so my only experience is a visit to the zoo.  Here is what I found out about the sloth:

* Sloths are slow-moving arboreal mammals (inhabiting or frequenting trees) of the rainforests in South and Central America; they hang from branches back downward and feed on leaves and fruits.  A sloth is about the size of a medium size dog and they move very slowly

* The main predators of sloths are the jaguar, snakes and the eagle

* Algae that grow on the hair of sloths impart a greenish color to the coat so that it blends with the foliage

* Sloths are thought to be distantly related to animals like anteaters and armadillos

* Sloths are solitary animals and only come together to mate

* Food they eat can take up to a month to digest

* Three-toed sloths have extra neck vertebrae and can turn their neck 270 degrees

* They spend most of the day sleeping upside down in trees (between 15 and 20 hours a day) but even when they are awake you won't see them move much.

* They move by "walking" upside down along branches with a hand over hand motion. They rarely come out of the treetops and though they are quite clumsy on the ground, they are very good swimmers.

* They are nocturnal plant eaters, eating shoots, leaves and fruit. They have a very slow metabolism and a low body temperature; they don't need to eat or drink much and go for many days without. 

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QUILT SHOW

Saturday we headed to the coast to attend the Camarillo Quilters Association 2012 Quilt Show, Quilting by the Sea.  We arrived in Ventura just in time for lunch and decided to check out a place we had seen on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives - our favorite Food Network show.

LOL!  You can see us in the window reflection.  Anyway, the place isn't very big but the food is delicious.  The owners are very much in attendance and the wife is the one who does the seating.  Both of the owners are Brits and are so very friendly that they make you feel like  you have known each other forever.  They shared a couple of stories about their fur babies (they have rescued 7 chihuahuas) and were just a hoot.

This was painted and signed directly on the wall and then framed.  In case you can't read it, it says "Guy ate here"  (Guy Fieri of Triple D).

Across the street from where we parked was a comic book store and since it was Free Comic Book day nation wide, there were these two out front.....

I'm not sure what comic book they represent but they were fun to see.

Now on with the quilt show......

"Dear Jane Strippy" by Joyce Antrim-Sos

I thought those of you that are Dear Janing it would like to see a different way to display your blocks. (Sorry it's a bit blurry)

"6120 Log Cabin" by Merle Dettmring

Merle said she saved small pieces as small as one inch for this quilt. The top consists of 6120 pieces of fabric.  The log cabin squares were each about 4" square.  I guess that shows we shouldn't throw away scraps - even the tiniest pieces.

"Mother Nature's Christmas" by Julie Gardner

This is one of the few Christmas quilts that I really have been drawn to.  

I really liked Julie's straight line quilting for the four blocks.

"What Was She Thinking" by Rhodean Glen

This was a mini quilt.  It was hand quilted.

"A-Mazing" by Judy Yoshida

This lap quilt was inspired by an 1858 quilt from Jenny Carr Kinney's collection.

"Shochikubai" by Joyce Ball

This wall hanging was our favorite quilt.  It was over 6 feet long and about 3 1/2 feet wide.  The background  fabric was the perfect setting for the beautiful applique work.  It was quite stunning.

"Shashiko Sampler" by Marcia Davis

This little mini quilt was beautiful with it's hand quilting and hand applique.

"Quilt Therapy" by Pamela Joy Dransfeldt

This was a fun mini quilt.  There were several buttons added that depicted ceramic tiles.

"Sand Escaped The Hourglass" by Dawn Knoeller

The colors in this quilt were much warmer than the photo shows.  I thought those of you who are into bargello would appreciate the planning in this one.

"William Morris Friendship Stars" by Carol Coltrin

Carol said "This quilt is the result of CQA mini-group quilt exchange".  It was a gorgeous quilt.

"These Batiks Love Bling" by Karen Kindschi

I loved the color and motion in this quilt.  I'm not much for the added "bling" (jewels) but it didn't distract from the overall quilt.

"Look Ma, No Hands" by Joey Strait

The true golden glow of this quilt does not appear well in the photo.  Joey said the quilt was made with hand dyed fabrics and used a floral design learned from a workshop with Phil Beaver.  The addition of the sunflower and leaves in golden thread quilting was just perfect.

"No Dinner Tonight" by Nancy Lindsay

Sorry it's a bit blurry.  I liked the combination of applique and paper piecing in this one.

"Fireworks" by Pat Hibner

Another quilt with added jewels but I managed to overlook them - lol!  The bright paper piecing blocks on black was quite striking.  I think this is my inspiration for my next lap/wheelchair quilt - minus the bling, of course.

"Eagle Eye" by Rene Clumpner

The background fabric is hand dyed.  This quilt was a large lap quilt (not quite big enough for a bed).  We both like the use of leaves to depict the feathers.  

That's it for this quilt show.  I hope you enjoyed the tour.  The next show we will be attending will be in July, The International Quilt Festival in Long Beach.  Can't wait!  DH also bought me a couple of darling paper piece patterns that I will share on a later post.

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TODAY'S GOAL

I'm finally going to start on that table runner for my Mother.

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GIVEAWAYS

I have decided that I am no longer going to list giveaways.  I did enjoy being able to share the giveaways I found but they were taking entirely too much time to list.  Plus, I found that I was going through my blog reading list looking only for giveaways and not taking the time to visit friends nor seeing what was actually happening in blogland.  I'm sure that I will lose some of my followers because of this decision but it something I must do.  Now you can have the fun of the hunt for all of the giveaways out there.
I will be having a Fat Quarter Shop sponsored giveaway on Friday so be sure to come back for that!

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FINAL THOUGHT