Bill Volkening's New York Beauty Quilts. Ooooh! Aaaah!

In September, I was honored to be able to teach at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles.  Although I only live about an hour and a half away, this was my first visit to the museum. (I know, I'm a lazy, lazy girl!)  The museum was lovely!  Our classroom was one of the small galleries, so we were surrounded by inspiring quilts while we sewed.  How fun is that?!

These ladies got a lot of great work done in class!

During a break, I was able to peak in at the exhibition, Collecting New York Beauty Quilts: Bill Volckening’s Passion.  I'm pretty sure that show was put there just for me!  I loved it!  Below are some of my favorites.

Pacific International Quilt Festival 2014

I breezed through PIQF this year.  Somehow, I did it in under 2 hours!  Here are a few of my favorites.

To see the quilts in more detail, just click on the image above!

Stitch Modern!

I've been having so much fun organizing all of the events for Stitch Modern that I forgot to drop in here and tell you about them! 

We had our Opening Reception last Saturday at the beautiful Piedmont Center for the Arts and I had a great time!  There were people who drove up all the way from Santa Cruz and ladies who left a quilt retreat in Napa, just to drive down and attend the show - not to mention all of the families, friends, and members of the community who came by!

Stitch Modern opening reception

That's me on the left and a quilt by the amazing Dan Rouse in the background

The food was amazing, visiting with friends was really fun, and I won't even tell you how many bottles of wine were emptied!

Here's my quilt, Happiness

 Okay, the opening was exciting, but the best parts of the show are still to come!  We have a bunch of different events planned that will take place while the show is up.  If you live in the SF Bay Area - COME!

Feb 5 (TONIGHT!): Lecture: Modern Improv Quilting and Process by Sherri Lynn Wood 7-8:30, Piedmont Center for the Arts, $5 entry fee. There will be door prizes!

 Feb 9: Textile Design Panel Discussion and Q&A, featuring Ellen Heck, Pati Fried, Sandy Klop, Jennifer Moore, Carol Van Zandt and moderated by Kim Andersson 12:30-1:30, Piedmont Center for the Arts

 Feb 10: Family Activity Day including quilting and design demos 12:00-2:30, Piedmont Center for the Arts

 Feb 13: Lecture: Threads of Transition, Patterns of Change: Rabari Appliquéd Textiles of India a lecture by Kristine Vejar 7-8:30, **To be held at A Verb for Keeping Warm**

 Feb 16: Sew SaturDay with East Bay Modern Quilt Guild 12-3, Piedmont Center for the Arts

If you can't make it out to see the show in person, you can see some pictures on the Stitch Modern Flickr group.

Creativity Every Day in 2013? Yes!

Oooh!  I'm so excited to have the PERFECT give-away for the beginning of a new year! Craft-A-Day by Sarah Goldschadt makes it easy to work a little creative endeavor into every day.

The book is broken up into weekly themes, with a different activity for each day.

There's hexagon week, (for you hexie lovers!), gnome week, and triangle week, to name just three of my favorites.

To win a copy of the book, just leave a note below telling me your creative resolution for 2013.  Mine is to devote at least one day a week to making work just to please myself.  I'm pretty sure I made that same promise to myself last year, but this year I mean it!

Here's wishing you a creative and productive 2013!

**Unfortunately, do the the weight of the book, this give-away is only open to US residents.  Please make sure that an e-mail address is associated with your comment so that I can contact you if you win the book!  The winner will be chosen at random on Friday, January 4th.

My Whirlwind Tour of PIQF

Click to see all of my PIQF 2012 favorites on Flickr.

Last weekend, I ran through the Pacific International Quilt Festival. I only had a few short hours to take it all in, as I had to pick up my son from school. But, since I didn't have the time to stand in front of the quilts for a long time, I made sure to snap some pictures! Here are some* of my favorites.

*Of course, the East Bay Modern member quilts are among my top favorites, but not included in this list because I took pictures of them on my phone and somehow managed to delete them. Whoops! I wasn't using my brain very well that day.  To see those amazing quilts, check out Adriane at Little Bluebell's post on the show.

Learning: Vintage Quilt Inspiration

A couple of weeks ago, I was able to attend a vintage quilt sale.  These were not just any vintage quilts, but some of the traditional American quilts collected by renowned quilt collector and curator, Eli Leon.  I have been a HUGE fan of Eli Leon's books on improvisational African American quilting (you can order copies of his out of print work directly from him through his website), and was excited to see what he had for sale.  I was not disappointed as the gallery where the sale was held was was piled high with quilts.

Here are a few of my favorites.

I didn't end up leaving with any of these beauties, but I did pick up one of Mr. Leon's books and a wealth of new scrap quilt ideas!

Learning: Hawaiian Quilts

I love Hawaiian quilts.  I've been flirting with the idea of making one for ages.  I've collected tons of books on the subject.  I even took a class from the amazing Jean Brown.  But, alas, the block I started in her class lies buried in one of my cabinets - a sad study in poor applique.  I'll keep trying, but I'm just not sure that it's my thing.  Oh, how I wish it was!

Recently, my family celebrated spring break in Maui.  It was a great vacation.  So many wonderful surprises.

Humpback whales...

...sea turtles (That large round "rock" to the right of me!)...

...teensy, weensy frogs...

...and quilts!

We stayed the last couple of nights in Makena, and instead of having boring resort art on the walls, they chose to decorate with Hawaiian quilts!  There was no information about the makers or the patterns, which was a shame, but the quilts themselves made me very happy.   I ran through the hotel snapping photos (sorry for the glare, they were mostly behind glass).  I spied one gorgeous, huge pineapple quilt inside a conference room that had the door cracked, but was too shy to interrupt the ongoing meeting and ask if I could take a picture.  It made me wonder what was behind all the other closed doors!

Stitch Modern - The Opening Night Extravaganza!

What makes Stitch Modern a better quilt show than any you've ever been to before?  We served wine!  Oh, and all the awesome people who helped make this show possible and the amazing quilts they put in it!

Food as Craft (thanks to Kristen Takakuwa!)

For those in the SF Bay area, the show will be up until the end of February.  Catch it Wed, Friday, and Sunday from 12-3 at the Piedmont Center for the Arts.  I'll be there this coming Wednesday night (February 8, 6:oo pm) helping to lead a public conversation exploring the topic of Modern Quilting.  There will be door prizes!

For those not in the area, you can catch the photos on Flickr.  I'm working on making a full gallery tour available online, but that hasn't happened yet, so stay tuned!