Houston Was Great!

This is a close up of the drop of water on the following picture.

Water tap ....wonderful appliqued fabric and thread painting.

This reminds me of an Andrew Wyeth painting...the quilt were hung on black curtains so it is hard to see where the framed edges are.

This quilt was done by one of my favorite quilt artists, Katie Pasquini Maopust, "Adante"

I really enjoyed the 2009 International Quilt Festival in Houston. The whole experience is pretty awesome...Our bus left Ft. Worth about 8:30; had a box lunch on the way down to Houston. We got there about 1:00..were left off directly at the door of the Convention Center. We decided to just look it all over on our first day, Thursday. The quilts are so fabulous, we wanted to savor the moment....so we hit the vendors first...and that in itself is an experience. There are vendors from all over the world (hence "international")...very interesting stuff...demos, etc. I had told myself I would not be swayed to get any "gadgets" as they never work nearly as well as the demos! And I kept to it...I got only fabric and books! We were on the bus at 6:00, to the hotel to "detox" from being overstimulated and to get our rooms. Out to eat with my great roomies, then to the room and bed...after laying out our plan for the next day.

Friday, got to the convention center at 10:00.....terrible lines but finally got in. We proceeded with our strategy...found where we had "left off" the day before. We finished looking...by then it was noon so we had lunch, decided after to split up to do our shopping as we had specific but different interests. So we met at the bus at 3:00 which was making its first run back to the motel with those who were ready. We had planned to leave our stuff on the bus and go look at quilts, but when we got together, we decided that five hours was enough for the day so went back to the motel with most of the others. Friday night, our tour trip included a buffet style meal all together in one of the ballrooms...excellent meal...excellent company. We drew to see where we sat and most people were not with the ones they came with, including me and my two buds. A good way to meet more people....after the meal, we had a "show and tell"...everyone got up and showed something they got from the show...a fun way to see even more vendors stuff!!

Saturday morning, we had to be packed up and ready to go before we could go to the show. We ate, checked out and then were at the show a few minutes after 10:00....not nearly as crowded at the entrance. As we had until 3:00, we decided to split up and do whatever we wanted...getting together only for a little snack and rest about 12:30. I headed for the quilts and spent all my time there, looking and taking pictures...the only pictures I could not take were of the Russian display which was breathtaking, the SAQA (Studio Art Quilts Association) display and a couple of other private collections by professional quilters. I was a woman with a mission as I buzzed around taking as many pics as I could in the time frame while still absorbing all I could of the fantastic display before my eyes!! I had told myself I was not going to buy anything else, but I couldn't resist getting the SAQA book of quilts on display and picked up another book they had at their table. I am going to join the organization next month...it is something I have been thinking about for a long time and after seeing the quilts yesterday, I have decided for sure that is what I want to do!!

I wish I had room to download all my pics but that would be impossible so I will just do a few at a time.