Escape to Quilt Festival!

Because of my wonderful friend Mikki (who proposed the adventure) and my incredibly wonderful husband (who willingly took three days off from work to watch the boys), I had the opportunity to attend the annual International Quilt Festival in Houston. Holy cow!!! How insanely lucky am I???

I arrived in Houston on Wednesday afternoon, just in time for a few Mexican Martinis with Mikki followed by Preview Night (when class enrollees are allowed a sneak peek at festival exhibits and shopping before it is open to the public).

Our self portrait:


On Thursday, I attended two classes. The morning class was "A Fine Line: Creating the Quilting Design" with Melody Crust. It was kind of a brainstorming class wherein participants hung their quilts on the wall and Melody led discussion on quilting options and various design considerations. I'm kind of kicking myself that I didn't have a top to hang too! (But I opted to have a less full suitcase that I could fill with goodies on the way home.) Then in the afternoon I attended another class with Melody, "Borders: The Final Chapter." It was another collaborative discussion class where people brought their projects and Melody led discussion on border options and considerations. Again, it was a great class (and, again, I was kicking myself for not having a top to hang on the wall!). Having those real-life examples and hearing so many perspectives was great for fueling my own creativity. It is funny-- I kind of justified the classes I took with the thought that Festival would allow me to take classes with teachers who I would never otherwise have an opportunity to see. Imagine my surprise when I learned that the teacher for both classes happens to be from Seattle. Ha! Still, I'm so glad I had the chance to take them, because they really were great. After classes ended on Thursday, we only had a couple of hours to wander around Festival-- but we took full advantage of it!


My last class was on Friday morning, "Wool Felt Applique" with Cynthia Regone. It was AWESOME! All of my questions about working with wool (and wool felt) were answered, the class included a super cute project, and it was just plain fun. Immediately after class, I went downstairs and bought some wool. And a few other things as well...


I didn't go too crazy-- some fun patterns, some gorgeous wool and wool felt, a new thimble. My biggest splurge was on those cones of King Tut thread (I love quilting with that stuff!).

There were also many amazing quilt exhibits. This post is getting long, so I'll share those tomorrow to split it up a little. Suffice it to say, there was an overwhelming amount of eye candy.

On Saturday morning I returned home to my boys. Homecoming is a lovely thing. I think we were all very happy to see one another!