The first post for Road to California 2026 was published previously. A downloadable show guide is here, but they do remove things from their website with frequency, so if you’d like it, get it now. Here we go with more beautiful quilts.
For those who are interested in coming out for Road, their website is here. They’ve already announced dates for 2027: January 20-23, and their website says “Classes begin on Monday, January 18. Preview Night is Tuesday January 19, 2027.” Sign up to on their website to get their announcements as they are good reminders.
This is what we all see when we arrive: the tall atrium filled with hanging quilts, chosen from a local guild.
I’ve had this one on my list of quilts to make like forever. So, not only can we see quilts in the show, we can see them in the sky, in the vendors’ booths, in the hallways…everywhere.
It’s an abundance, so I’m leading with this quilt, Abundance, by Linda Steel, from Australia — a riot of color and shape and a feeling of you-had-to-be-there.
(Click to view any photo, or right-click to see it enlarged in a new tab.
Crocker’s quilt harks back to the fused art quilts of the previous post, but in a dramatically different way.
Grace Crocker: Sasquatch
Red, white and blue and a broken heart.
As always, click to enlarge the smaller images, above.
Mimi Ghauri-Young: Heart. Broken.
Sherry Priest: Single Card Keypunch
This is hand-quilted. Check out the closeup shots, below.
This was inspired by an antique quilt. I’d love to know how long it took her to make this.
Jan Frazer: Tangerine Tango
A very large quilt, and it radiated with energy.
Naomi Otomo: Blessings of the Sun
(In case you didn’t know, I’m writing the maker and the quilt title with every quilt for ease in searching online.)
This was a favorite exhibit, since we travel near, and live not to far from Route 66: The Mother Road. It’s celebrating its 100 years this year. The makers depicted various well-known sites along the road:
Click to enlarge any of them. I’ve put the quilts into a slide show (below) which you can advance by clicking the small arrows on either side.
The first two photos are two of the quilters that made the small quilts, and I’ve included some pictures of how the row of quilts looked.
A couple of years ago we were in Chicago, and took a photo of this sign. If you were like me (of a certain age) you were always piling into the car with your brothers and sisters and parents and driving on your trips (airline travel was too pricey).
My historian sister wrote a book about this, titled “Are We There Yet?” which was an often asked question on these trips.
Right across the street from the Art Institute is where the Mother Road begins, and I have a tote bag to prove I was there, and yes, I was toting it around that day at Road to California. So many roads! (Now I need to go find where the END of Route 66 is!) Okay, back to the quilts.
So…this is happening this year. I recently read that my church is donating 250 semi-trucks full of food for 250 different food banks across the nation, in order to “recognize the freedoms established by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.” I feel I can honor that, too, and a couple of posts back, I wrote about what quilt I’m considering making.
So we had a quilt exhibit at Road of quilts all around this theme. I put this one also in a slide show, to make it easier to go through (if it doesn’t work on your phone, maybe head to a regular computer and browser).
I’m impressed that they finished up their quilts so early. I really have to start planning ahead.
I visited YLI threads booth…
…did some shopping (this one from here)…had some lunch (great offerings this year) and then got back to it.
This is an exhibit of Modern Day Heroes, a series of quilts honoring notable figures. Again, to make it easier and less scrolling, here it is in a slideshow:
Quilters: Berene Campbell and various Modern Day Hero quilters, who sent in blocks by the dozens. I headed to their website to read more, and appreciated the detail on President Zelensky’s quilt; the write-up also includes a free pattern for the sunflowers.
Sahara Lion by Lys Axelson, won Outstanding Artistry.
Outstanding Hand Work Award
Sachiko Chiba: To My Father
Another winner was Outstanding Machine Quilting Frame:
(Lighting was tough, but I’m doing my best)
Molly Hamilton-McNally: East Meets West
This won Outstanding Original Design. Her designs are always so happy and they seem to always involve children and dogs.
Hiroko Miyama: My Favorite Things
Glad to finally get her photo!
Best of Show Award
Aki Sakai: Happy Days
The amazing detail in this was a delight, including moving parts, such as doors that open.
(Click to enlarge any photo, or right-click to see it enlarged in a new tab.)
Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry: Electric Snails #2
Another almanac of quilting stitches for you.
This year’s Cherrywood Fabrics exhibit was outstanding in all ways, from the colors, the quilts and their designs and interpretations of the Abyss.
Slideshow, below:
Almost done, I promise.
One of our local Guilds had a special exhibit with multiple quilts. Shown here is the quilt made for the Modern Quilt Guild’s Community Quilt Challenge, made by the members of the guild, shepherded by Patti Reyes.
Another special exhibit was from Road to California itself.
A row of their annual quilts.
In the early days, Road would have an annual group quilt, made of blocks submitted by those who were interested; we’d get some cuts of the focus fabrics and then mail it back. One year I submitted a block, but the quilt was never made. I always wondered what happened to it.
Found it this year.
I think this is about 20 years old if it is a day, but I can’t really remember. I do know I was in school in my Creative Writing course of study, so of course, I wrote a tiny poem. I also had to use a very interesting focus fabric (!), but it was all the rage then.
The unquilted quilt has obviously been stuffed in a box for many years.
It was great to see these quilts.
And it was great to see the show. I did put some up on Instagram at the time, which you might have seen, but I think over these last two posts I hope you feel like you saw a good overview.
See you next year!
OccasionalPiece--Quilt! 