That Quilted Stranger Across a Crowded Room

I am exhausted! I was an exhibitor at the Jewish Federation of the Greater San Gabriel and Pomona Valley's music festival in Arcadia, California all day today. (That's me behind the table).

I basically packed up a hefty portion of 20 years of quilted Judaica and brought it along. Except on specific holidays, it usually lives in boxes (we ran out of significant wall space years ago). So this festival was an opportunity to air it out.

Plus, in general, it's a great thing to hang one or more of your quilts in an unfamiliar location. At some point, you leave the room - for a quick Subway run, the lady's room, whatever - and then you come back, and across that crowded room - sort of like that song from South Pacific - you spot something familiar yet strange - your own work! Yikes! You might fall in love, a la Rogers and Hammerstein, or you might be mortified, or as in my case, a little of both, but however complex the emotions, it's an educational  moment that makes all the packing and hanging worth it.

There was one other quilter; embroiderers; painters, a sculptor, a glass artist, a beader, and more. Still standing at a distance, surveying the entire room's art horizon, it was fun to see the sweep of changing colors and shapes. Every artist was so different. You can get the idea below - the foreground quilts below are mine, but that quilt on the upper left with the horizontal turquoise stripes - that's the other quilter's - it's a different neighborhood, right? She used bright, clear, varying colors, which contrasted with my heavy emphasis on dark blue and black, with some white. I had no idea how much my Judaica trended to dark blue! Or maybe I did know, but I was in denial!?

The highlight of the day was the concert, including performances by a cast of local cantors, a talented adult choir, an adorable rockin' young Klezmer group 'Mostly Kosher', and the even younger adorable Federation's Jewish Youth Orchestra, which, we were told, is the only Jewish children's orchestra west of the Rockies! Great music! Thanks to the hardworking Federation organizers for making this very complicated event a success. I met a lot of wonderful people, met my own work in a new light, and once I get some sleep, will look forward to doing something like this again!

(If you're interested in seeing more of my Judaica quilts above, check out my judaiquilt.com website. I do sell patterns for some of the projects in these pictures.)