International Quilt Festival Long Beach

What an awesome show! On Friday, I drove to Long beach and was amazed by the crowds at the show, both friday and saturday morning they opened the doors 15 minutes early. The vendor aisles were crowded with eager shoppers, there was definitely a more optimistic feeling here than I felt last Spring at the Chicago show.

Here are a few of the people who were doing open studios friday:
Beryl Taylor
Jane LaFazio
Leslie Tucker Jenison
Jamie Fingal
Melanie Testa and Pokey Bolton co-taught a workshop using stencils with various kinds of media.
In the afternoon I taught my fanciful felted fruits workshop.After my workshop I went to the SAQA/Art Quilt reception for wine and cheese and hang with my peeps. It is so wonderful to reconnect with long time friends at festival. After the reception ended we were in need of some real food and an ever growing group of fellow art quilt enthusiasts 15 of us in all (many of them from Temecula) went out to dinner.
Photo provided by Carol Niles, thanks Carol!

Here's Melly and Pokey.