Back to Houston

While the Quilt Show seems like a distant memory now, I still have lots of lovely quilts to show you.

You can’t tell very well from this picture, but this quilt had lots of embellishment – including feathers!

Can you find the 12 differences on this one?

The detail in this one was incredible.

I loved this owl, but as my dear friend Ann would say, if you stick an animal anywhere on a quilt, she’ll like it!

 

These appliqué quilts are just outstanding.

As you can see, I like the traditional and the modern – this one really caught my eye!

Don’t you wonder where people come up with their ideas?

I’ll leave you with this one of Mick and the boys that I just loved!

I still have lots more pictures to share so stay tuned.

Great Giveaway

I came across a great giveaway on Jackie’s blog and wanted to share it with you.

Hurry on over here and enter your name to win!

I’ve been working full time this week as it’s our year end at work.  I’ll get back to the rest of the quilt show pictures soon…

Since I hate to post without a picture, here’s a picture of my grandkitty Lucy playing peek a boo – isn’t she adorable!

Houston

We arrived in Houston just shortly after noon on Thursday and headed straight to the show.  I’ll apologize in advance for not getting the names of the artists on the pictures I took.  I wasn’t going to take my camera at all, but on our last day there, I gave in and spent the best part of the day photographing the quilts.

This little quilt was in the Sulky booth and it reminded me of Mary’s strippy quilts, but utilized embroidery designs instead of a focus fabric.  I also liked the use of the scraps in one of the strips.

I fell in love with this Hunter Star quilt in Deb Tucker’s booth.  I love this woman – she is a beautiful quilter and designed some great rulers.  I also think she could sell ice to Eskimos.  I bought her Hunter Star ruler at MQX and bought the rest of her rulers here. 

Here’s another of Deb’s quilts using her Tucker Trimmer.

In case you’re wondering, I didn’t just take pictures at the vendors – the rest are coming!

This quilt was in Superior’s booth to showcase their new Texture Magic.  This stuff is amazing!  I’d seen it on their website, but didn’t realize the versatility of it until I watched the demo and saw everything that can be done with it.  They had some gorgeous bags made with this and they put the decorative stitches on your machine to good use to give it even more texture. 

I’m not sure why some of my pictures have the date and time stamp on them and some don’t – I’m still not quite sure what I’m doing with this camera but so far, I’m happy with the pictures.

This was one of the big winners and the picture doesn’t do it justice.

This was Best in Show by Carol Bryer Fallert.

I loved this quilt – this is the artist’s granddaughter and I love how she made it look like an old photograph. 

I’ll leave you with this little guy and post more tomorrow.  Hope you are enjoying the show!

Day 2 in Dallas

We couldn’t go to Dallas without visiting the site where JFK was shot that memorable day almost 46 years ago.  There isn’t a person alive my age or older that doesn’t remember where they were that fateful day.  I was in my Grade 7 classroom and remember coming in from recess and our teacher had written on the blackboard what happened.

This is the old School Book Depository building where the shot was fired from the top floor.

It would be very easy to drive by this site without realizing the historical significance.  It isn’t really marked unless you knew what you were looking for. 

Just across the street is the old Court House building which is a beautiful old building and I loved the gargoyles on the roof.

From here, we headed off to the University of Texas Southwestern Oncology building.  Ann is a breast cancer survivor and she makes pillows for the chemo patients so she wanted to drop them off.  I have heard her talk so highly of this facility, I was anxious to see it and wasn’t disappointed.

This gorgeous Chihuly is in the lobby.

With universal health care the hot topic of discussion, it was a real treat to see this wonderful facility.  These azaleas were so gorgeous, I just had to snap a picture of them too.

Then we headed out to the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium and took a tour.  This is one amazing place with the 2 largest flat screen TVs in the world back to back.

It’s really hard to describe the scope of this building but everything is state of the art and absolutely no expense was spared.  I found it interesting that the millions of tiles inlaid in the floor were all imported from Canada. 

$5 for a coffee or a bottle of water – take your pick!

We even got a tour of the locker room, but unfortunately, it was empty!

The lockers are all solid wood.

Here are Ann, Lee and Jeanne standing under the Cowboy’s Star in the Locker Room.

To finish off our day we visited Quilt Country in Lewisville, Texas.  What a beautiful store just full of inspiration – not to mention more than 9,000 bolts of fabric!

This mural is on the wall outside their store.

Next, we head to Houston!

Goats and Pigs and Kangaroos – Oh My

After getting our fill of the craft building, we headed off to see the animals at the Fair.  My favourite by far were the baby goats – from a distance they looked just like puppies and were bouncing around all over the place.

To prove just how naive I am (or maybe I can blame it on the fact that I’m a city girl), we saw this kangaroo and when I saw the baby hanging out, I thought it was giving birth.  I was soon set straight that it was in it’s mother’s pouch.

No wonder this poor mother was lying down with all these little piggies eating!

We saw the parade at nightfall.

 

The Ferris wheel lit up the sky and was a fitting end to a great day.

Back to the Fair

There were so many wonderful items on display, it was hard to get pictures of all of them, and even harder to decide which ones to share with you.

I used to do a lot of work like this – back before arthritis was in my daily vocabulary. 

There were rows and rows of jams, jellies, spreads, dips, pickles, etc.

Down in the corner of this next picture is a Santa tablerunner the same as the one I actually finished this year.

This next picture was one of my favourites from the exhibit.  The whole thing was no more than 12” tall and the detail was amazing.

I loved the little kitty playing outside the door.  Here is a close up of inside the store.

Check out these shoes – where do people come up with these ideas!!!

This little quilt was so nostalgic.

Next we’re off to see all the animals.