Halloween at Festival!

Now that I don't have little Trick-Or-Treaters at home (I never wanted to miss out) I can enjoy a nice relapse into childhood with my crazy friends at festival!

Rachel Parris, as a witch/vampire

Judy & Indigo Perez.  Indigo is sporting her handmade (creepy!) mask.

Lyric Kinard kisses my bat.

Yikes!

Rachel leads us in our "strong women" toast:

Here's to strong women:

May we know them

May we raise them

May we be them!

(Woo Hoo!)

Me, wearing the scary mask. 

Rachel, looking like scary Anderson Cooper, as Judy Coates Perez looks on with amusement.

Barbie & Ken....and body parts.

Rachel looks pretty good as a pirate!

And is it Ms. Napkinhead (Frances Holliday Alford), 

with Judy practicing Spoonology & Victoria Findlay Wolfe

Barbie gets bitten!

Barbie gets a ride!

Hoodie Cresent rocks a great wig, while Connie Hudson looks on in amusement

Barbie & Bat

Michele Muska

Houston Quilt Festival 2012 - 1st Prize Category Winners

Window Washers & Awards

Tuesday at Quilt Festival was a very big day for me.  First, we saw some window washers working on the Hilton exterior.  Super cool!

Then, we worked on the Craftsy Open Studio set-up.
Shortly after, we hauled our sweat-soaked selves up to our room and prepared for the awards ceremony.  I was thrilled to be notified that I would be receiving a cash award for my quilt, "Amsterdam Alley:  The Shortcut Between".
I've said this before but it bears repeating:  Having a quilt accepted into World of Beauty is a win in and of itself.  Being informed that a quilt will be receiving an award is beyond thrilling.  I have been fortunate to receive a 2nd and 3rd place award for group quilts in the past.  To find that I would be awarded for one of my own quilts was quite a thrill.  That was enough:  I had no expectations of winning in my category (digital).
So, on award night, with my dear friend and teaching partner, Jamie Fingal, sitting next to me as my "date", you could have knocked me over with a feather when I learned that I had won first place!

Jamie and I in the audience prior to the awards ceremony.

Over a thousand people were in attendance!

Here I am, on stage, being presented with my 1st place award from C&T Publishing.

What a thrill!

Each 1st place quilt is on display in the auditorium as the award is called.

Here I am, posing by my quilt after the ceremony was over. 

Posing with Vivika DeNegre, editor of Quilting Arts magazine

It was so much fun to stand near my quilt and talk to people who came by.

Assisting with the Craftsy Open Studio set-up

Open Studios lives!  One of my favorite activities in past years at festival was participating in Open Studios, once sponsored by Interweave.  I enjoyed talking to festival attendees, demonstrating a variety of things such as screenprinting, monoprinting, free-motion quilting, and more.
It was thrilling to learn that Craftsy decided to underwrite this wonderful part of Quilt Festival!
Here are some scenes from the initial set-up:

Belen Timmons poses in one of the Open Studios windows

Here comes the Open Studios sign!

Pokey brought props from home and Jamie contributed 

a few of her vintage patterns

I stuffed some of my hand-dyed cloth into my recently-acquired paint cans

from the Moda booth.

Jamie and I hung letters from our "clothelines" in each section.

The Open Studios area was located just inside the Food Court area.

It was a fantastic location because there was a lot of traffic through this area,

and many people pulled up chairs to sit and watch the various artists 

demonstrate.  So much fun!

To see more images from Open Studios, please visit Pokey's blog.

Quilt Market, Part Three: More Moda, then a field trip to Insight Optical

It is not a surprise that Moda Fabrics won the award for best booth at Market.  Everything about it sang color and innovation.  Here are a few shots of their booth.  I'm afraid they really don't do it justice.

The Moda booth theme.

Paint sticks dipped in a rainbow of colors, tablecloths and chair covers 

created to resemble paint swatches.  Love!

Paint cans with more color dripped around the rim of each can.

---------------------------

An annual side-trip for Jamie and I is to visit Insight Optical.  For the eyeglass wearer it is a mecca of stylist frames.  We always make an appointment to work with Susan, who is fantastic at assisting with frame selection and fit.  Here are a few scenes for our field trip:

Jamie in her newly-selected frames.

Every time she put these on she giggled.

Happy glasses!

Here are my new frames.  Woot!

Getting marked for the progressive lenses...

Color me happy!

Quilt Market, Part 2: "Glamping with Moda"

Have you heard of "Glamping"?  I believe it is luxurious camping.  Camping without the "roughing it" part.  You know:  something between actual camping and sleeping in a hotel with the window open.
One of the "hot spots" at Market was this incredibly cool set-up in the Moda booth.  I wanted to make off with this fabulous, retro hardshell camper, outfitted with Mary Jane fabric.  I was about 200th in line to offer to buy it!

Glamping.  I think I like it.  

Quilt Market, Part One

This year marks the 20th year anniversary of my first trip (from Kansas City!) to IQF Houston.  I didn't attend every year since then, but I would say that I have attended at least 13 of them.  In all those years I have never attended Quilt Market until 2012.  It was my great pleasure to work in the Havel's Scissor booth one day of Market.  My friend and teaching partner, Jamie Fingal, did the same on a different day.
What a visual feast it is to see all the booths at Quilt Market!  It is a very different scenario from Festival.  The movers and shakers of our industry & subculture are to be found here.  It is truly an international event, with buyers from across the globe viewing and ordering all the newest tools and fabric designs.
I enjoyed the experience and want to share some of it with you.  The following are random shots taken as I was walking around on the show floor.  Enjoy!

David Gray of Parson Gray.

What a nice guy!

Tula, of Tula Pink!

I dig her glasses, and well, everything else about her.  She is cool!