The EBHQ Show

The East Bay Heritage Quilters have a show every other year in Oakland, California, and it's always a great show. This is the show weekend, so yesterday I went with good friends Pat, Janet and Rita to see it. And we had a wonderful surprise: I learned on Friday morning that our good friends Silvia and Paolo are here from Guatemala for a week, so Silvia came along, too.

It was a very fun day. For me, the best part was having Silvia meet Janet, Pat, and Rita--and vice versa. It's wonderful when friends you adore meet each other and get along. They all just clicked, as I knew they would, and were joking and teasing each other like they'd known each other for years.

(A funny aside...On our way to pick up Janet, Pat, and Rita, I was telling Silvia that Janet is 81 years old but that she didn't seem it and was an amazing woman. Later on, when we got to the quilt show, Silvia said quietly to me, "So, the old lady didn't come?" I told her that Janet was the 81-year old. Silvia's mouth dropped open, and she couldn't believe that Janet -- who has more energy than most 40 year olds I know -- was "the old lady!" We laughed and laughed at that.)

I didn't remember to bring my camera, in the rush to get out of the house in time to pick everyone up. But, as it turned out, the program had a specific copyright notice prohibiting anyone from publishing pictures taken at the show on the internet, so I wouldn't be able to post pictures here if I had taken them. Interesting, isn't it, that they stated that specifically? Smart move, actually.

The show's special exhibit, the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection, was an exhibition of a assortment of contemporary quilts owned by savvy collector with excellent taste. There were quilts by Noriko Endo, Ruth McDowell, Sue Benner, Elizabeth Barton, Joan Colvin, Caryl Breyer Fallert, Frieda Anderson, Freddie Moran, Dijanne Cevaal ... and more and more. I can't even imagine the pleasure of owning those quilts, but it was delightful to see them all in person. Silvia and I had just been talking about the Simply Quilts episode where Noriko Endo demonstrated her "confetti naturescapes" technique, and then we turned the corner and there was the very quilt she showed on that program. It was simply gorgeous in person.

I got to say hi to Liz Berg, who was blushingly happy with all the attention she was getting from her quilt on the Quilting Arts cover. She had "the" cover quilt there and was posing for pictures with it! She's a newly discovered celebrity, apparently, after years of hard work!

I exercised remarkable restraint and didn't buy a THING...until I hit the Foothill Fabric booth. I swear, that place is my downfall. There, I grabbed a small bundle of fabric from the new Kaffe Fassett line, the pattern that looks like rings of tree trunks. Irresistable.

We ended the day with a mexican dinner at El Torito...good margaritas, delicious food, lots of quilty talk and much laughter.

What a great day with great friends.

I'm looking forward to a few sewing days with Silvia...we keep talking about doing a project together, but haven't figured out what to do. Stay tuned!