Quilt Festival - Long Beach, CA #1 08-01-13

Preview night for Quilt Festival - Long Beach 2013 was tonight at the Long Beach Convention Center.  This will be the last time it will be in LBeach, next August it will move to Portland, OR.
I was scheduled from 7pm to 9pm, but arrived about 5:30 so I could look at some of the quilts.  However, I only looked at a very few, but talked to many people I know, or who know me.  And, of course, I visited with Judy Warren-Tippets and Beth Smith from Visions Art Museum who were tending the VAM table - handing out cards, selling Visions catalogs, and encouraging everyone to visit VAM and become a member. 

I did look at a few quilts as I came and went, but only photographed two that are part of the "Maps" exhibit.   They are about 26"W x 36"L.

 

Both Beth and I have our reservations about the white runway, but otherwise I think the colors in this piece are wonderful.
 

 

Annette was there this evening and stopped to talk to us at the Visions table.  Again, it is the color that attracts me to her quilt.  She has controlled the values to give the surface almost a 3D look.
 

Del Thomas and Beth Smith at the Visions Art Museum table at Quilt Festival - Long Beach.  On the left is a quilt by Cuauhtémoc Q. Kish and on the right a quilt by Karen Cunegin.  08-01-13
 

Judy Warren-Tippets and Beth Smith at Visions Art Museum table - QFestival - Long Beach  08-01-13

Wordless Wednesday 07-31-13

 

A tented house 07-30-13

Blogger wouldn't take my pictures last evening, but it has relented and I think these three will work.  If the pictures don't show, please let me know. 

I have previously posted pictures of houses tented for termite fumigation.  They cover the entire building from dirt to the ridge top with these specially made canvas tarps and seal up the connecting seams with a fold or two and big clips that look like the clips used on battery chargers.  But before the tent goes up the workers go through everything in the house to remove anything edible - food, pills, pet food, etc. - that might absorb the poison.  Of course, the residents have already done this, but double checking is necessary.  There have been people who forced their way into the house and died from the gas used.  It kills termites and everything else inside the tarps.  


Warren Street, where I live, ends with a left turn onto Barbara St. and this two story five bedroom house is the first on Barbara, so it is visible almost the length of Warren.  It has been on the market for about a year and sold at the beginning of July.  I hope the new occupants don't have a hulking white motor home to park in the driveway.
 

Here it is, all sealed up with signs posted warning people away.  While the gas was doing its work the people who are moving out parked their motor home with slide out "rooms" across the street from my house and plugged into the power at the house on the corner.  I assume they had permission to do that.
 

 
I believe this is where the gas is injected and, ultimately, released.  You can see the clips on the seams.   I'm not sure I would want this done to my house.  There are new treatments that use orange oil, so it isn't quite so toxic, but I would worry even about that.  I have wondered if something built into this house has been part of my breathing problems, but there is no proof.  We have had subterranean termites in this house four different times.  I've been told that is because this development was built on land that was covered with orange groves for a hundred years.  The buried roots and pieces of the trees attract the little critters.  A friend who lives not far away had a little dog that would start scratching at the baseboard - he could hear the crunching going on inside! 

Monday Browsing 07-29-13

Website with great pictures of embroidery/beading work done by a costume embellisher: http://www.michelecarragherembroidery.com/index.htm

An article about Quilt National in the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch.  Click on the picture to see a few more quilts: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/life_and_entertainment/2013/07/07/1-uncommon-threads.html   Mary Ann Tipple’s quilt “Easter Sunday” is part of the TCQC.

Bead artist extraordinaire:   http://www.galeriaalegria.com/

They just don’t make ‘em like they used to:  http://www.catersnews.com/viewstory.php?id=2232

Door quilt by Mary Leakey - San Juan Bautista, CA

 

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Terry Grant quilt in TCQC 07-28-13

I admire Terry Grant's work, so I was thrilled last December when I discovered this quilt at the Visions Art Museum silent auction.  It grabbed me right away and I already knew it had an interesting story.   This was a Journal Quilt created for QFestival - Houston 2007; you can read about it on her blog at  http://andsewitgoes.blogspot.com/2007/11/journal-quilt.html
But Terry was not entirely happy with it and in 2009 she reworked it and covered the process in her blog.  She starts with this post:
http://andsewitgoes.blogspot.com/2007/11/journal-quilt.html
and continues to talk about her experiments every few days until she was finished on this post:
http://andsewitgoes.blogspot.com/2009/11/art-every-day-day-19.html



"All is Transition"  Terry Grant - Hillsboro, OR   2007 - 2009  17.75" W x 21.75"L
 

 

Lovely, imaginative quilting.
 

The back is carefully patched to appear almost solid.
 

And a simple label - but no contact info.  Tsk, Tsk!

Palm Trees 07-27-13

Palm trees blooming a lovely bright green.


The contrast of the river stones is lovely - they aren't really this blue, it was the evening light.
 

This variety of palm grows rather slowly and not terribly tall when mature.
 

Today I picked up my glasses with new lenses, so I can really SEE the details of the palms.
And, of course, I can now see my laptop screen.  Hope this also improves my photos.

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