The Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara, CA was this past weekend. I tried to be good; I really did. I even convinced my friend that if we brought just a small amount of cash and NO credit cards, and if we treated the show like a museum exhibit instead of a shopping mall….that we’d be good.  My friend’s willpower held strong—mine, not so much. I bought beautiful Burmese silk, bone celtic knot buttons, traditional japanese heavy woven cottons, and hand-dyed wool roving. We laughed about the question that nobody should ever ask a quilt show attendee…”what are you going to make with that?”  I was very impressed by the number of vendors who had C&T books and products on display. Our mother ship, The Cotton Patch, was enjoying brisk traffic in their booth.

Carolie Hensley - The Cotton Patch, Lafayette CA

Batiks were everywhere, and there were several makers of gorgeous hand-dyed fabrics and trims. Besides the vendors, the show itself was full of incredible work. I was particularly pleased to see so many different art quilts that incorporated photography, poetry, ribbons, beads, netting, felt, paint, found objects, and even organic elements like tree bark. The more traditional quilts were amazing as well, the amount of work that went into some of these pieces was astounding. I took lots of pictures to add to my personal inspiration gallery, and I snapped some of our authors’ entries. All in all, it was a great day and well worth every dollar I spent.  Now I’m faced with the rather daunting task of having to stop THINKING about how to become a fabric artist, and just start DOING it.