Back in Town

Wanna see some quilts from the Houston show? Here are my photos:

(email me for links)

I only plan to leave these photos public for a few days, so get a gander while you can. Once this post has aged a bit and I've taken the albums private again if you still want to see the photos, just email me and I'll send you links. These albums don't represent an exhaustive catalog of quilts at the show, they're just the ones I found fascinating for one reason or another.

There were a couple of really nice exhibits that we couldn't photograph. One was the DAR collection of antique quilts. These were all made between 1800 and 1880. Standing in front of a two hundred year old quilt, close enough to touch it (although i wouldn't DARE do such a thing) was enough to bring tears to my eyes. Two hundred years from now will there be people still enjoying the works of my hands? One hundred? Fifty? Even ten? As far as I know, the oldest quilt that I've made that is still in use was made in 1982.

One of the other exhibits that we weren't allowed to photograph was the Hoffman Challenge collection. As usual, some of the most innovative things happen in the manufacturer challenges - this one was no exception. All the quilts, dolls, and wearables were lovely. I think Hoffman already has them listed on their website, and their photography is probably better than mine would have been anyway!

There were so many vendor booths that I got dizzy. Any tool or gizmo you could ever want to see demonstrated was out there being used by someone.

For the first time ever, I didn't pout as I walked by the Gammill booths. That was a really good feeling!

I got to meet several quilting friends while in Houston. Quilters are all such sweet people. I'd like to mention by name that I really enjoyed meeting Michelle, Susan, Linda, Robin and Leann.

There was one very nice gal who sold me batiks at Batiks Fantastic whose name I should have asked for but I forgot. She was friendly and efficient even though her shop was packed to the rafters with quilters the whole weekend.

Quilts by the Bay also had very friendly staff. They were selling some yardage at very reasonable rates because their shop had suffered some water damage during the recent very bad storm in the Houston area. I couldn't decide whether to pity them for having to sell everything so cheap or buy everything because it was so cheap. Of course my fabric Jones won, so I bought lots of great stuff from them. I've already washed up my purchases from their store and there's nothing at all wrong with them. No stains or anything!