Houston - March 1, 2007 - Quilts, Inc. announced that a third edition of International Quilt Festival (IQF) will make its debut July 25-27, 2008 at the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center in Long Beach, California. The summer Festival will be an annual event.

"We have been looking for quite some time at starting a third edition of Festival - one that would serve a different geographical area than our current fall show in Houston and the spring edition in Chicago," says Karey Bresenhan, president of Quilts, Inc. and Festival's director. "After many site inspections and much research and consideration, we've decided that Long Beach is the ideal choice for the summer Festival's home."

The show will include many of the same features that quilters all over the world have come to expect from the Houston and Chicago Festivals: a wide variety of vendors, dazzling special exhibits of quilt and textile art, and classes, lectures and events for every style, technique, and skill level of fabric artist. In addition, it will also include features unique to the Long Beach show.

"Starting a new venture is always challenging, especially one of this magnitude," Bresenhan continues. "But we won't be resting on our laurels and reputation. We want the Long Beach Festival to have an identity of its own. As show organizers, we are constantly learning new things every year to improve the show experience for our attendees, who let us know what works and what doesn't. All of that collected knowledge has been put to good use in planning the Long Beach Festival and will help us in the future as we continue to create the kind of show our attendees want."