Oh, The Quilts I Have Seen!

Last but not least in my Road to California excursion, I want to share with you just a few pictures of the many beautiful quilts I was able to experience. Of course, there is no substitute for seeing them in person. The details, exquisite quilting and gorgeous embellishment can only be hinted at here. I encourage you to attend as many quilt shows as you can and look for inspiration wherever you can find it! All pictures were taken by me and posted with permission of Road to California for personal enjoyment only.

This is called The Gossip Garden by Debbie Martinez of Hobart, Indiana. I absolutely love the mouth pieces. It reminds me of a fabric I have in my stash! Debbi states, “There are many ways gossip circulates and there are many symbolizations of gossip in this quilt.”

This quilt, Bright Baja Bugs, was part of a youth exhibit of quilts all made by students aged 8-17. I’m really partial to fun, bright quilts. How fantastic to get a jump start on creativity so early! This one was made by Jordan Phillips from California, age 14. My husband drove a Baja in high school, but never one that looked like this!

Although you cannot see all the wonderful quilting in the picture, this quilt really spoke to me. It was heavily quilted and hung perfectly straight. It took over 120 hours just for the quilting! This is absolutely what an award-winning quilt should be. It’s entitled, “Dresden’s Dilemma” by Deborah Poole and Sharon Del Pino of Shelley, Idaho.

I thought it was very interesting to see the same quilt design interpreted in two different color schemes. These were both fantastic and all of the individual designs were done with machine embroidery using Sarah Vedeler’s digitized designs. The bright one, “Bedazzlder” was made by Lisa Sipes of Colby, Kansas and the muted one, “Go! Be Dazzled” by Sandy Lawrence of Phonix, Arizona.

This quilt took my breath away! It’s called “Venetian Menagerie”. Yes, it’s all one quilt depicting a menagerie of exotic masks and oddities seen on an evening stroll in Venice by quilt artist Melissa Sobotka of Richardson, Texas. She made it from batiks with fusible applique. My kind of quilt!