The Association of Pacific West Quilters (APWQ), their new name after expanding the boundaries of their membership from the Association of Pacific Northwest Quilters (APNQ), held their latest show over the past weekend.

This is a show I think I have only missed once.  I admit to a little bit of prior disappointment at the change in venue from Seattle to Tacoma.  I wondered if it would be a lackluster experience compared to downtown Seattle and its convention center.  I am happy to report it was excellent!  In fact, I was quite pleased and I was going to be a hard person to convince.  I definitely had one eyebrow raised when the announcement was given of the changes.

 1) The new venue.

This is a show that I loved for the fact that it was a large quilt show but with a very wonderful and comfortable feel to it.  It has a very “familial” feel to it as opposed to a less comfortable ”corporate” feel like the other large shows.  Everyone is friendly, there is no Diva-like behavior among the attending competitors (I think we are all friends!) and it is just plain fun on a social level.

That did not change at all with the move.  I think as the first day was ready to open, a crowd of quilters stood in line wondering if the new venue etc. would create the same feel and quality we have been spoiled with in the past.  You only had to walk through the doors to realize it was still the same and actually, IMHO, better.

What is amazing about this is the small number of people who succeeded in persevering through the membership doubt, and with one hand tied behind their backs, they put on a GREAT show.  Were there moving pains?  Absolutely, but given the small amount of help and the uncertainty of a new venue, I was very impressed with an amazing job well done.

The friendly atmosphere, the overall feel of being a part of a large group of friends not only from many states, but from other countries, was still there in bucket loads.  I saw a sea of smiles and quilters enjoying their experience and common bond.

2) The quilts on show.

The jury is still out for me on the expanded boundaries, but I understand the thought process of the board.  One of the reasons I really support this show is to showcase the huge amount of talent in the Pacific NW and the western Canadian provinces.  For some reason, many of these quilters (artists) do not get the national attention they deserve and this show has always filled that void.

I will be up front here and tell you, that my choice for BOS would have been Bonnie Keller’s (WA) “Creme de la Creme”. A completely hand done quilt that was not only stunning visually, but technically excellent.  Bonnie received a first place for this beauty in the “Traditional Large” category.

The good news is that this category had the LARGEST number of entries!  Traditional!!!??? can you believe it?  I don’t want to start any turf war controversies (I have seen both good & bad on both sides) but after taking such a bashing for so many years from “some” on the “art” side, it was a pleasant and welcome surprise to see such an overwhelming change.

Lahala Phelp’s (WA), “Forever in my Heart” would be my close second to Bonnie’s quilt.  The skill to pull both of these off  successfully both technically and visually was quite difficult and I applaud them both.

I was a bit disappointed that a well travelled quilt from the national circuit dating back to 2008, and outside the show’s original boundaries, was made BOS.  But that is my personal opinion and as quilters, we all have them at shows right? A rule change on the allowable “sell by date” would easily fix this issue so we can see fairly fresh quilts hung in the show.

Overall the quality of the quilts entered this year was excellent.  A very high caliber from both the PNW and western Canada.  Especially from western Canada, whom I suspect think of this as their show too and rightly so.  Canadian Jane Willoughby Scott’s work always is on point and is the very description of “fiber art” and the “art quilt”.

I hope many of you are able to see one of her quilts someday, even as a traditional enthusiast, I will give kudos to what I define as a true art quilt.  Jane’s quilts are definitely ART.  You don’t need her to convince you she is an artist, her work speaks for itself and no art babble is needed to fool the viewer.

Kathy McNeil’s “Natural Wonders” was beautifully rendered with an amazing amount of fabrics that blended seamlessly to create a pictorial quilt that was well done and a joy to look at.  Of course the fact that she used hand applique and embroidery to achieve this effect obviously appealed to me too!

My choice for BOS small would be for “Ruffled Feathers” by Roxanne Nelson of Calgary Canada.

This is NOT painted  or printed off a computer and then stitched over folks!  I saw this quilt in Houston and it still catches my attention and awe for the use of so many fabrics to create a painting with fabric.  The quilt uses fabric and thread to create the image which is extremely difficult and takes a great amount of skill to be successful.  You have to see this wonder in person.  I believe it graces the cover of the latest issue of the “American Quilter” magazine put out by AQS.

The “special exhibits” highlight for me was Sally Collins’ miniature quilts.  WOW.  There were many of them on show and you could really see the precision and talent for piecing she has.  I have always respected Sally Collins and her skill.  She is another who promotes quality over quantity.  You go Sally.

Oh and I should say (smiling broadly) that “Tea with Miss D.” received a First place award in its category.  I was, and am still, beyond pleased!!!!  Thank you Judges!

3) Shopping.

This is the first time in years I spent a lot of money at the vendor booths.  I saw mainly FRESH fabrics in the booths, some still had the cellophane wrapping on the new bolts!  I never see that at a national show!  Lots and lots of goodies.

I couldn’t help but notice the attitude difference of the vendors at this show compared with my recent Houston experience.  In Houston, I found many of them very cranky and in need of some serious customer service training.  At this show? they were very nice, all smiles and a hoot to visit with!

I especially want to give a shout out to Anja Moritz (loved you!) at Island Quilter. Her shop is featured in the about to be released to newsstands, “Quilt Sampler” Magazine fall/winter 2011.  She had early copies of the magazine available in her booth.  A wonderful and funny person with endless bolts of goodies.  Her shop is on Vashon Island (7,000 bolts!) and it is quite the retreat and artist’s community.  She is also known for her “wall of Kaffe Fassett fabrics”.  If you are a Kaffe fan, you only need to shop here because she has them all.

Another vendor I fell in love with for their fabric, super cute booth and fun personalities was the “Quilted B”.  They had the cutest stuff and I never stopped laughing and having endless fun each time I stopped into their booth.  The fact that they loved “Tea with Miss D” made them even better!  LOL.  They are an online only shop and I have them on my short list.  I had ordered from them before and hadn’t put two and two together.

Pacific Crafts and Fabrics sponsored the awards for my category and again, just a joy and sense of “party” in their booth.  Sponsors are becoming harder and harder to keep and find, so I appreciate every business that supports the quilters directly  where we need it. They were the most enthusiastic sponsor I have met to date in my experiences.  Thank you!

I did find some new gadgets to try out and test and I will report on those as soon as I give them a spin.  I think I spent my kids’ college fund since there were so many fabrics, notions and “stuff” to buy.  I really hadn’t shopped this much since my first trip to Houston as a quilting virgin!

I also shop hopped to and from and now I have to find a slot for everything I bought.  Yikes.  Lots and lots of great “bird” fabrics!

Conclusion:

The show has the same wonderful inviting experience it has always had and the new venue is quite nice.  Tacoma surprised me with its very trendy area surrounding the convention center and the Pacific Grill Restaurant had the MOST amazing food!  This is an upscale restaurant with a very comfortable vibe and mouth watering menu.  The Faux Gras appetizer was AMAZING.  The hotels were in easy (really easy) walking distance and so were restaurants.

Thank you APWQ board members, show manager Elizabeth Spannring and volunteers for an amazing experience and keeping the soul of the show in tact and strong.  I know how hard you all worked to bring this together and I thank you for your Herculean efforts. I had a fantastic time and am excited for next year.  I am already waiting to book my room and catch up with both the new friends I met and the old friends I enjoy catching up with.

The show is now on an annual basis from the every two year rotation of the past.  I highly recommend this show as an experience that is one not to be missed if you love quilts, quilting, laughing, meeting new people and sharing what you love among like minded people.

It has taken me all day to write this post, but I really want to share what a wonderful experience this show continues to be.  If you want a quilt show experience without the overt commercialism and with a personal feel, this is it.  It continues to be my favorite show for many many reasons and I hope at some time you are able to come and experience it for yourself.

If you are still here to the end, thanks for reading my long winded, but enthusiastic review!  No businesses, products, etc, have given any kickbacks, blah, blah blah.  I just liked them!

Then again, my work is truly o-r-i-g-n-a-l (what a concept eh?) so the process goes pretty smoothly.

The most recent certificate is for Lapis & Lemons that I received in the mail last week.  It doesn’t look like much and its appearance is not very powerful huh?  But this baby packs a legal one-two punch if needed against the bad guys/girls.

I have obviously blurred out my personal information because this IS the Internet you know.  But I thought maybe one or two of you might have wondered (or not) what this mysterious beating stick looks like.

Many of you have contacted me about using my free pattern “Wild Rose” for charity projects and I think that is a great use of it and I also appreciate your courtesy in asking my permission.

As I have said to so many ad nausea before, I am pretty laid back unless the intent is to earn money or create a career in quilting piggy backing on my work.

So for those of you who are or were curious, I just thought I would share what these look like.  Short and sweet but definitely NOT benign.

As a last ditch effort in trying to acquire more of the background fabric I have been using for the Naturalist’s Notebook Series blocks, I contacted Lakehouse Fabrics.  I knew it was a shot in the dark and a lost cause, but why let that stop me?

I know there are many of you trying to get your hands on some of that fabric.  I was hoping for a lost bolt stuck in a corner somewhere or in a shop we hadn’t heard of and I mused that much in my email.

We all cleaned out the online and brick and mortar shops a long time ago.  I also told this to Lakehouse in my request and that I was desperate.  The response was not quite what I expected.

I was told <clearing throat>, In a brief and limited response, to try two online quilt shops (with links included and we had cleaned them out first!) and I guess they thought I hadn’t a clue about fabric since they gave me the style number to do a search with.  Uh, gee I hadn’t thought of that <rolling eyes>.

Does any quilter not know about the selvage information?  I think we know that before we ever sew a stitch! There are many days I want to ask, “Does anyone else feel like the quilt industry is embracing everyone other than actual quilters?”.

I tried every avenue to find more of that fabric for you and it just isn’t out there that I can find.  I have had my eye out for awhile on a good substitute and wouldn’t you know? It is a Lakehouse fabric, which after the most excellent customer service I received, burns me to no end.

The fabric is that same taupe on taupe color with script, but a little bit different style.  It does work well with the designs though.  I won’t hold it against them because they insulted my intelligence. Click on the picture and it will take you to Fabric Shack to order if you would like some.

I know some of you are already planning and choosing fabrics based on the pattern I am designing for the Asilomar workshop in 2011.  For those of you also wishing to purchase the pattern and make it at home once available, this may be helpful as well.

One of the lines of batiks I gravitate towards the most is the line of Robert Kaufman batiks by the Lunns.  In particular, their latest Artisan line called “Elementals”.  I am trying to keep track (for fabrics) what I am using this time and I noticed an abundance of these so far as possible choices when I get down to doing the applique.

I like the watercolor effect and lack of harsh patterns in these batiks.  These fabrics and style work very well with my scale, tonal and color palette preferences.

Michele(?) I believe you asked about some preferable fabrics I have found lately.  I found there is a new line of the “Elemental Dots” and I love them.  Good colors and small scale patterns that don’t interfere visually with the embroidery details. 

eQuilter (this link lists many of them available) has just listed quite a few from the new release and I have not seen them show up elsewhere yet on my list of favorite online shops.  They are a bit slow in shipping so be forewarned.

I am not affiliated or have any deals with Kaufman fabrics, I just like these batiks a lot!

Asilomar Urn Pattern Design Update

For those who are interested, here is a design update on the pattern for Asilomar.  The “circles” are areas that need imagery for balance.  I must say this one is taking a lot of time.  A note for those planning their fabrics:  Those are not grapes you see, but olives. (lavender, lemons, olives, roses, sweet peas, iris and roses).

I am almost finished with the pattern and then I will get to see it come to life with fabric. Yeah!  Can you imagine some of those fabric samples above in this? 

Have a good weekend everyone! 

It is incredibly warming to come home to such support and well wishes. Your emails and comments touched me so much and you will probably never know how much they were, and are, appreciated.   Some of you were astute enough to notice I came home much earlier than I had planned.  Nothing gets by you guys!  LOL

There is one word that sums up the entire experience and has always been the first word to enter into my head and that is: Disappointment.  It was across the board.

It all started going downhill when I arrived at the Nashville airport.  I was assigned a Toyota Prius.  Those of you who own one probably would not have batted an eyelash, but you ARE used to its funky ways.  Me and three other women got to our cars in the rental lot, loaded our bags into each of our Pruis’ and then got into the car to start them up.  Then in unison, all three of us stepped out at the same time, looking absolutely confused at our respective cars and then turned to give each other the same lost look.  How the hell do you even start these things? 

I was busy trying to find out how you get the key out of the “box”.  Well…..there is no key!  It is a small square box thing that slides in like a cassette tape.  Who knew?  Then how do you turn over the damn engine?  We all tried out each others cars to no avail.  One lady went off in search of instruction as the remaining two of us kept trying to figure it out.  Eventually we learned we had to turn it ON with a power button and we were told that we must make sure to push the “park” button or the car would remain in gear and keep going.  Good lord.  We laughed and bid each other a safe trip to where ever we were going.

OK, after 30 minutes trying to figure out the car, I was on my way.  Just one problem, the GPS kept sending me the wrong direction.  I circled the airport for another thirty minutes until I figured out I was to go LEFT instead of RIGHT on a freeway split.  It had been awhile since I had been here and the brain is unfortunately aging.

I had been up since 2:30am my time and by the time I rolled into Paducah around 5:30pm, I was exhausted.  I did pull into Hancock’s to do my shopping for some fabrics.  I realized later I didn’t need to try and avoid the rush because compared to previous years, there wouldn’t be any.  Where were all the people?  I actually had two bored clerks cut my fabrics the second I pulled up to the cutting table!  and I walked right up to the cashier to pay.  No line anywhere!  Huh????   All of this so far should have been an omen about the things that were to come.

I arrived at Trish and Jeff’s and they had prepared the bucket of Margaritas for my arrival.  Just one problem, as Trish tried to pour, NOTHING came out!  It was hilarious watching Trish and Jeff try to figure out why nothing was coming out.  Eventually the self medicating liquid started to pour and well, I had many to recover from the earlier disasters.  Which was probably a good thing because I would not be able to have anymore the rest of the time I was there.  I was the DRIVER!  I had overlooked that fact when I planned my trip.  You can’t be the driver and imbibe Margaritas! <sigh>.  This was bad sign no.3 and I had only just arrived! I had no clue to of the downward spiral of events to come.

We went to check out the museum and for the second year, my quilt was not hanging.  I know they “rest the quilts” and rotate, but –  Disappointment. 

We leave the museum and I notice something that is VERY ODD for this day before the show.  The sidewalks are EMPTY!  I do mean Empty.  Shirley and I and maybe two other people in the area walking.  Where are the quilters??????

Miss Shirley and I head over to Whaler’s Catch for lunch.  Now normally we would have to wait for a table.  We could have had any table we wanted.  We were the only quilters in there for lunch at that time.  It was 12:30.  It was beyond surreal.

We went to meet our other friend at the prearranged time and place for drinks and a bite to eat before the awards ceremony.  No drinks and Lord have mercy, I had no idea how much I would need one (OK FIVE!).  Actually a bucket would not have been sufficient!  Even though our friend was driving us to the awards ceremony, I didn’t want to drink because I was to drive home.

We arrive at the Four Rivers Center for the Award Ceremony.  I can’t find my glasses.  I can’t see without my glasses.  We seat Miss Shirley and tell her we will come back and get her when the glasses have been located.  I must have left them in the restroom.  The sunglasses were in the restroom.   My eye glasses?  No where to be found.  I am panicking.  We can hear the awards presentation (entertainment part, which was a disappointment) starting and my friend and I are realizing I left my glasses at the restaurant we were at prior to coming to the ceremony.  I figure they will still be there and because my sunglasses are prescription, I can wear those and still see what is going on.  So there I am looking like a stupid Diva sitting in the audience with sunglasses on.  Can you see how the downhill spiral is picking up speed?

Then the announcement of the awards.  I don’t think I need to go there do I?  Wow—DISAPPOINTMENT.  I really wish I had been able to self medicate at this precise moment in time.   My friend Miss Shirley won and because I had lost my glasses and we were late, we were seated way up and in the back of the auditorium.  Miss Shirley is older now and does not walk very easily.  Ask me if I felt really bad as she took great pains to get to the stage.  Then she won another award and I felt like saying, “just shoot me now” as she painfully, due to my stupidity, made her way to the stage again. 

I think this was about the time I knew to cut my losses and the bad juju and get the hell out of Dodge.  But first, I had to go to the Sneak Preview and find familiar faces I rarely get to see and to see what the QUILTERS thought of the quilt since that is the most important feedback. Here is where I was able to get my truly nice positive experience.  My quilt was a hit with the quilters there.  Remember how I tell you I stand near my quilt with no identifiable name tag?  Yep, I wanted to hear and see honest reactions.  Not one single negative, but awestruck (actual mouths hanging open) appreciation.  Usually quilts with no ribbons get quick uninterested cursory looks as people move down the aisle.  They continually clogged the aisle in front of my quilt as though there was a ribbon hanging on it.  That was so redeeming.  Thank you to those people who put the smile back on my face.  You can’t fool quilters, they know.  

It is not the best, but for those who asked here is the full image

And again, a detail since it is hard to see in the full shot. The spoon is not a fussy cut image from a fabric, it is appliqued and embroidered with sewing thread for the handle's detail

 There was one quilt in particular I would have loved to take off the wall and run as fast as I could to the airport with it to come home with me.  It was stunning and so well executed.  It had it ALL.  The Japanese quilters have always been doing visually stunning work, but this one also had excellent technique, which is what has been holding them back in the past (although I don’t think that matters anymore).  The quilt was by Mieko Hara and I am sad that you will never be able to see an image unless someone breaks the rules for posting online (incredibly silly IMO) and you are fortunate enough to see it.  Somehow I doubt you will.  Again I said to myself–Disappointment that one of the best quilts in the show went unrewarded.  The same is true about a quilt made by Julie Yeager Lambert. Julie if you stumble across this, your quilt was AMAZING in its ability to make something so complex look clean and like effortless simplicity.  I know it was NOT easy to achieve that. 

I changed my flight that night to come home Thursday early morning.  It cost me dearly in extra fees etc., but I could see no reason to stay and my friend had decided she was leaving too.  Miss Shirley would be rightly basking in the added duties winning a ribbon would bring, so basically I would have been alone for the remaining days of my stay.  Not ideal if you know what I mean and I am no masochist and spendthrift.  So it was a no-brainer to change my plans and cut my $$ losses.  I would see the show for a half day on Wednesday and then drive up to Nashville in the early evening to catch my flight for the next day.

Parking was a NIGHTMARE for the show’s opening and given I had to park a MILE away after circling every area around the convention center for miles to find something closer.  They had the old Executive massive parking lots blocked off until it became so bad they finally removed the barricades.  Of course I discovered this after walking my first mile back to the convention center.  I certainly wasn’t going to walk a mile back to bring the car closer.  At the time, because I was driving Miss Shirley and I did not want her walking that painful distance, I thought we could catch the shuttle back to the museum area and reduce the distance she would have to walk to the car.  However, compared to previous years, I never saw the shuttles around and it would have wasted a good portion of our day waiting around for one.  Disappointment again reigned as I circled for a spot and I kept mumbling to myself that I was glad I wouldn’t have to go through this exercise again tomorrow and the next day.  I think you could safely say I was beyond frustraton at this point in time.

 Once upon a time, the streets were lined with “welcome quilters” signs and every business (even fast food chains) had something quilt related displayed, there was nothing this year unless the business was directly around the convention center or a show related business.  I did not feel welcome by the town as a whole like in years past–at all. 

As I have said before, travel  is not easy from the west coast.  It is brutal.  I want the destination to be worth the travel and the money spent.  I am afraid this was my last trip to Paducah.  Which, to me, is a big Disappointment. I will meet with my friends elsewhere at quilting destinations and I can always find a Margarita in most any town.  Unfortunately and sadly, there  just wasn’t the same magic at this show for me anymore.