In the Quilt Zone

The International Quilt Festival in Houston just completed its 50^th show yesterday. It ranks as the largest quilt show in the United States. I have gone to the show many times over the last two decades and the beauty of the quilts people make never ceases to amaze me. Often I have gone with my daughter Alix, or with a friend, but this year I went solo. There is a certain pleasure to that—no coordinating of whens and wheres are required—but the camaraderie of oohing and aahing with another person is lost, too.

 I always ride mass transit when I go because I hate the traffic and I especially hate the astronomical gouging on parking. The lot near the convention center charged $35 to park this year! The cheaper the parking, the farther the walking; it’s easier to travel by bus and rail.

 There’s an express bus downtown two miles from my house that connects nicely to the train that goes right to the convention center. And hey, Houston’s Metro service is great: people over 70 ride free with a 70+ bus card. Who could ask for anything more?

  In my excitement, I over-estimated travel time badly and got on an 8:15 am bus that resulted in a 9 am delivery to the Festival. Doors didn’t open until 10! Oh, well. The people-watching was good. I saw a couple friends in the crowd and also had nice chats with a few strangers. Quilters are generally easy to talk to with.

  I also studied the show program to suss out my moves. There is so much to see between the quilts and the vendors that one really needs a plan. I decided to walk the vendor aisles first, eat lunch, and then walk the quilt aisles. Walk is a generous description of the start and stop, almost lurching, progress made amidst literal throngs of people. As shoppers accumulate tote bags full of goods, the traffic jams up more and more. And that doesn’t include the effect of scooters, wheelchairs, and walkers as impediments.

  I only wanted to buy one thing for sure, a tub of Karique shea butter. A fabulous product that soothes my abused hand-quilter’s fingertips without being greasy (which means it won’t rub off on my fabric), I prefer to buy it every year at the show because the one time I mail ordered it, the Houston heat melted the stuff into a mess. But drat, no Karique booth this year!

  I had no other shopping plans, but did that stop me from shopping? No. The big thing I got was a quilt display system that goes over a door and doesn’t require drilling holes or screwing anything into the wall. I had never seen one like it and I really wanted it. I went back and looked at it three times! Then I texted Michael about it. His response is why I love him. “Would it really be the quilt festival if you didn’t bring something home?”

  Here’s a picture of my purchase, set up on the door to my office/guestroom. The door faces our foyer, making it a nice view for visitors as well as a privacy screen.

 I picked up some other inconsequential purchases, a couple of pretty good freebies, and some candy before lunch. I ate my usual, an exorbitantly priced baked potato with BBQ beef, and then went into the show side of things.

  So begins quilt overload. A friend called it quilt blur. That is not an exaggeration. There are only so many quilts you can look at before they begin to run together in overwhelming beauty! With no partner, I didn’t spend a lot of time discussing details, which I ordinarily would do. I just looked, felt astonished and unaccomplished, and then walked on to the next masterpiece. I also didn’t take loads of photographs, which I have often done in the past, only to realize later that all those pictures were wasting space in my cloud. Since you can find any picture you want on the internet, there isn’t a reason to keep them in your own collection.

  I couldn't resist taking pictures of three special quilts. I hope you’ll open the photos up a bit and look at the details. They’re incredible. 

 

This one is a whole cloth quilt that is entirely hand-stitched. The thousands upon thousands of tiny stitches took the quilter over 2,000 hours to complete.

 

These two are the same quilt. The quilter created 680 individual little girls with unique umbrellas, rain boots, and outfits. Imagine the time that took!

 This quilt just tickled me, and I thought Alix would get a kick out of it, too, so it's for her. What great cat energy!

Another year, another Quilt Festival. I’m re-energized and it’s a good thing because I have a special quilt project looming. Next month, I am going to learn how to make quilted tennis shoes. While I’m at it, I’m going to make a matching quilted purse. I have to get the fabric quilted in advance of the class, so that’s my next task. Like, immediately next! When it’s all done, I’ll share the results here.

 Ciao

P.S. I'm still learning how to get the pictures situated and obviously struggling. Sorry!