Quilter's Studio fabric - SAQA meeting 10-11-11

On Sunday I drove up to Newbury Park (about eighty miles NW on Hwy 101) to attend a SAQA regional meeting and the opening of "Art From Cloth" an exhibit by the Extreme Quilters at the Thousand Oaks Regional Gallery.   The Extreme Quilters are quite a large local group, twenty-three names are listed on the announcement card, and the work on display was extremely varied.  Eileen Alber, the founder of the group, is the owner of Quilter's Studio www.quiltersstudio.com/  a great quilt shop right off the highway.  Eileen has a good eye for "art quilt" fabrics and she regularly schedules well-known teachers, so the shop is always worth a stop. She is now a Bernina dealer and is remodeling the shop to accommodate that endeavor, making it even more of a destination for serious quiltmakers.  Do I need more fabric?  Sunday purchases pictured below!  

 

The SAQA meeting was at a large restaurant, a location which I always think is a mistake.  Everyone enters, chooses a table and then talks almost exclusively with the three people sitting around her at the table.  Most often friends sit with friends, so there is not much effort to mingle and get to know new people.  There was a very brief meeting consisting of a few announcements and then Show & Tell.  Unfortunately, the room was dark, the music was disruptive and there was not enough room to effectively show the quilts.  I had taken  "Exaltation of Larks" by Mary Rowen Quinn, a quilt I purchased at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden, CO, last May.  The attendees seemed to like it and I got on my soapbox about rolling (or folding) quilts face side out so that the fold lines are on the back instead of on the front. At every quilt show/exhibit I go to I am saddened that some very nice pieces are marred by deep creases because they have been rolled/folded face side in.  I also reminded them to roll their quilts from the top side down so that the weight of the piece tends to pull out the curl left by rolling.  Sometimes I can be a real pain!

Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara, CA, runs Thursday through Sunday, so I will head up to Mary's tomorrow.  We plan to spend Thursday at the show and I will go back for some more pictures on Saturday.   So, brace yourself for an abundance of what I like in quilts at that the moment!