Long Beach International Quilt Festival

On Saturday, July 8th I went to the 2023 International Quilt Festival in Long Beach, CA. I took along with me my two granddaughters, ages 7 (Lillian) and 9 (Vivian). It was the girls' first show and they did great. Other show attendees were very welcoming, showing their approval of the girls being there with comments  like "way to start 'em young" or engaging with the girls by asking them if they sewed and, if so, what. Pictures of Vivian's and Lillian's favorite quilts and their interactions with some vendor demonstrations are in my other blog, WanderOrPonder, in a post published 7/25/23. This post is more a quick summary of other quilts that caught my eye from the 400+ at the show. Although my granddaughters are in the photos, this DianeLoves2quilt post is more quilt-centric than the granddaughter-centric WanderOrPonder post. As I tend to do with my quilt show blog posts, I also included purchases I made at the show.

QUILTS
Bright colored abstracts were a favorite.

Lillian like the cacophony of the blue and yellow medallions scattered across a night sky.

The large medallion circle quilts with all the fussy cutting of the diamonds were also exhibited as the Lost Star collection at the Houston International Quilt Festival in 2022 (my post published 11/19/2022). The younger granddaughter especially liked these, in particular the one with horses (of course) in the black and white toile border.

This Bee Happy quilt is a large daisy, just like the daisies Lillian is wearing on her T-shirt. Being happy was also a theme for the girls at this fun show with them.

PURCHASES
The Long Beach show had 200+ vendors. I refrained from buying fabric at this show except for a charm pack of reds requested by Vivian. But I did buy tools from vendors who were particularly nice and friendly to Vivian and Lillian.

I am not a fan of appliqué, but the demonstrated technique of Applipops to make perfect circles of many sizes grabbed my interest. With a bit of liquid starch and a hot iron I will be able to generated dots galore from many fabrics and prints. The  purchase includes several sets of rings, so as one dot cools from the heat of the iron, I can work to make others.

At the HandiQuilter booth I bought a Swish Template. It inspires me to do some allover designs on some of my quilts perhaps in the borders in particular.

One of the vendors who was demonstrating embroidery machine and the girls were fascinated with the Minnie Mouse that was appearing. I acquired a completed Micky Mouse that had been generated as a demo the previous day. My plan is to make this into a ruffled pillow for the girls.

This was an enjoyable show that was not quite as large as Houston International, but just the perfect size to enjoy, view completely, and use as an introductory experience to up-and-coming future quilters.