International Quilt Festival

Well I made it out of the desert to Long Beach for the first International Quilt Festival held at the conference center. Amazing! I went to be impressed and I was! From what I heard Friday was very crowded so I'm delighted that we got there at 11:00 Saturday and left at 6:45 a lot poorer than when we started out. I wanted to check out the difference between the Janome and Babylock embellishers and ended up not only getting the Janome one, an incredible deal, but a new sewing machine as well; the Jem Platinum 760, which looks to be very efficient and covers just about all I need right now. Both of the machines came with great packages and $$'s off which made a huge difference. Sadly, though, I have to wait for the machines to arrive. They sold out most of the really good deals on Friday.

Yep, on the lower right that's a glimpse of my quilt on the wall of the Make it University Quilting Arts area. Alisa Burke is sitting at the table in front of it with her fabulous painted canvas work! Check out Alisa at: Great fun to see her and Pokie Bolton, below. Beryl Taylor must have been tired of being photographed, she turned away just as I clicked. Unfortunately, I didn't realize it until too late that my camera was on the wrong setting so most of the photos I got are horrible! So much for knowing how to use my new Coolpix S530. I think that my old Coolpix took better pics so I should have taken that, I liked having a viewfinder, the new one doesn't have one and in sunlight I end up guessing what I'm taking! Not good!
Pokie Bolton drawing names for the Make it University. (click on all of the photos to enlarge them.)
Amazing that I got anything due to not having a viewfinder! The camera screen just doesn't cut it for me in sunlight. I'll be looking for another camera before too long. So the top photos are of Gladstone's on the beach at Santa Monica where we ate Sunday. The bottom left is just below the restaurant and the photo on the left is Long Beach near the Conference Center of which didn't exist when I lived in southern CA many years ago. The whole area blew me away! It used to be the worst area and know one in their right mind would go near it, but it's fabulous now!

There were about 500 vendors at the festival and I don't think that I missed too many of the booths. The exhibit of quilts was unbelievable and I couldn't take them all in. It was so much fun seeing familiar names including Carol Clasper, Laura Cater-Woods, and Judy Dales, etc and their work, but the pics I took are as I said awful! I have a difficult time in crowds but I managed okay by ignoring what was going on around me and shopping like crazy!
I might just sign up for a class next year . . .
My head is still whirling with ideas that I hope don't escape my thoughts before the new machines arrive.

My daughter, SIL, and grandsons came out to stay with mom and Stacy and we stayed at their house in Redondo Beach which is about 30 minutes from Long Beach. A respite from the intense heat was a bit too short, but appreciated! And I got an ocean-fix by having meals at three ocean-front restaurants during the 2-day weekend all suggested by my outstanding SIL!

Quote: I had to learn to think, feel, and see in a totally new fashion, in an uneducated way, in my own way, which is the hardest thing in the world. I had to throw myself into the current, knowing that I would probably sink.
Henry Miller