Brentwood Quilt Show

The city of Brentwood is about 25 miles north of where I live. Last weekend, on Saturday, August 17th, I went there with my friend Renée to enjoy a quilt show sponsored by the Delta Quilters Guild. It was held in the Brentwood Community Center. The city's decor out front beckoned me to climb up and wave hello. Guess I am channeling Lily Tomlin's character Edith Ann.

The theme of the show was The Journey of a Quilter.

The featured artist of the show was local quilter Julie Bretz. In the following photo (by Tony Kukulich) she is holding a bicycle quilt. Nine of these quilts with interpretations by different quilters were hung throughout the show and visitors were challenged to find all of them, extract a letter from each, and unscramble those letters to form a word and win a prize. The game added an extra level of fun to the show and ensured that the visitors explored every nook and cranny.

THE QUILTS
As I walked in the entrance of the high ceilinged community center I looked up and surveyed the striking quilts hung from the railings. I scanned from left to right, taking in the beautiful artwork and craftsmanship with an array of varying patterns and color schemes.

Walking along the rows of quilts I took photos of those that spoke to me for one reason or another. I liked the saying around the border of this appliquéd Monster Quilt exhibited by Norine Dolyniuk. I admire appliqué but do not do it myself. Norine states that although it started out as a quilt for her great niece, it now instead hangs in her own sewing room with a saying customized for those who collect fabric.

There are big scary monsters under the bed
And every night they must be fed.
They love to eat fabric. It's their favorite food.
It puts them in the very best mood.
So the lesson is clear, consider your plight.
Keep buying more fabric, or be dinner tonight!

This quilt, There are Witches in the Air, immediately drew me in because I too have purchased this richly colored panel and have yet to determine how to use it. This windowpane effect by Sue Schnittker, especially with her color choices for the mullions, transforms this panel into a striking wall hanging. I really do need to use more solids in my quilts. They can be truly effective.

The decor throughout the show was also whimsical and inviting. This chubby mummy wants the visitors to know that "Some mummy Loves me". And I do too!

This year is the 50th anniversary of the picture book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, a favorite of my own children, all grown up now to ages 39, 36, and 33. This quilt exhibited by Virginia Rose and named after the book reminded me that I have two – not one, but two – kits in my closet of hungry caterpillar themed fabric for making two twin size quilts. I bought these kits from Fons and Porter before I had any grandchildren at all. I now have five grandchildren, ages 7 and 4 via my daughter, and ages 5, 3, and 1 via my son. I am determined to make up these kits in 2019 and gift one per household.

The reason I chose to focus on this quilt titled Arrow Quilt in Gray and Yellow is that I have many layer cake stacks and fat quarter bundles and I thought this would be a quick and easy way to use them. Often I find it so hard so hard to break up those themed and related fabrics. Rose Merryman exhibited this quilt and credited the pattern from BeechTreeLane.com

What I liked about Christmas Courtship by Cathy Decker was the combination of colors that still spoke of Christmas but was refreshingly different from the standard red, green, and white. It is also a great use for many of the layer cake stacks that I have, even if they are not of an exclusively Christmas theme.

This next quilt is gorgeous in its own right but I was fascinated that it really represents three quilts of three friends each exercising their strongest sewing skill. One did needle turn and embroidery, one did appliqué and embroidery, and one did patchwork and paper piecing. They shared fabric and each made about one third the blocks in each of three quilts. Smaller images of the other two quilts are displayed – one in grays, and one in reds and grays.

This next quilt Summer Daze by Karol Wright shows the expression of art in two different mediums, watercolor and fabric. Karol's sister made the watercolor painting for her and Karol interpreted the same image in fabrics. I was impressed with the side-by-side pairing.

PURCHASES
No matter how well intentioned I may be to rein in the deluge of fabrics I bring into my home, no quilt show is complete without some purchases from vendors. This time I branched out in my purchases – no novelty prints, no fat quarter bundles, no layer cake stacks – yeah, me! This show I bought a tool, some trims, and a book. Not bad. 

I make the doll panels designed by Stacy Hsu and always struggle to nudge the stuffing down to the ends of their arms and legs. The various dolls I've made have been Cowboy & Cowgirl (6/24/15), Hansel & Gretel (8/24/18), Goldilocks & Bears (8/2/18), Mermaid (5/23/17), Lil Red (5/20/17).

This tool has serrations in the tip and a clamp at the looped grip end. The clamp is opened up, a clumped strand of stuffing is gripped in the tips, the clamp is closed, and the long slender tool allows the fluff to be inserted down into those hard to reach spaces. The clamp is released again and the tool withdrawn to leave the stuffing behind. The theory sounds great and the vendor of stuffed bears demonstrated it to me. I am excited to try it out for myself. I still have panels of other dolls to do – some bunnies and some elves.

One of the vendors used to have a brick and mortar shop but is now selling only at shows at very reduced prices to pare down her inventory. I bought these Christmas trims of tassels and satiny, lightly padded Christmas ornaments. Ok, I admit I do not know quite what I am going to do with them sewing wise, but at least I know they will make pretty gift package decorations.

This book contains a whimsical block designs and was priced at an almost giveaway cost of $2. The cheapest used one on Amazon was over $9 plus shipping. True it is about 8 years old with a copyright of 2011 but it contains a freeform alphabet which I can use whenever and the blocks are cute.

I told myself I could only buy fabric if I had a near term use for it. And yes I caved and I did buy fabric. I bought two 108" wide backing fabrics, each pre-packaged at three yards lengths at a killer closeout price. Since my stash is so full, I try to avoid sales as a motivation to buy fabric but this made sense functionally as well as economically. I dislike piecing quilt backs because I strive to match the seam and often with printed fabric there is a drift precluding a perfect match. Wide fabric will eliminate that frustrations for me. The blue paisley will be a backing for a blue Dresden plate kit I already own. 

The  dark green with blue swirls is earmarked for the back of a future Christmas quilt. The rich color makes me think of a blue spruce trees and the curlicues make me think of the blizzard scenes in the 2013 Disney movie Frozen.

Renée and I had a delicious lunch at Cap's, a restaurant just across the street from the community center. It was a great day, overall...  good quilts, good food, good fabric, good friend!