Wow!

W….O….W!!

Houston is…well, words (almost) fail me! Amazing, incredible, total stimulation overload and great fun.

I really have never seen anything like the International Quilt Festival. Imagine. The convention centre that it’s held in is a mile long and probably a quarter of a mile deep. Of this, maybe half houses hundreds and hundreds of incredible quilts from all over the world, both competition quilts and special exhibitions. The rest is split between several hundred vendors and a food court. Some of the ladies I was with spent over two days just checking out all the vendors!

I could have spent several full days there, but to be honest after four or five hours each day I was almost cross-eyed and so over-stimulated that I wasn’t looking properly anymore – so I was really glad to be able to pace myself!

Here is a little taster. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a bird’s eye view of the quilt displays as there were no windows on the first floor of that part of the conference centre.

The vendors…..

The quilts…..Unfortunately there was a no photography rule for many of the gorgeous quilts, but here are a couple of glimpses to whet your appetite….

This one won the Founders’ Award and was by Kathy Wylie of Ontario, Canada. The workmanship was breathtaking and I loved it!

This was best of show – by Sue McCarthy of Utah. Again amazing work, not necessarily what I’d want to hang on my living room wall, but spectacular in its artistry.

The damage!

Luckily I was saved from myself by suitcase size and weight limits!

I had a fabulous time. My tour was organized by Country Heritage Tours and I’d recommend them to anyone – they are a small, family run business – and I last took a tour with them 19 years ago to New England. I went alone and wasn’t lonely for a single second – if there’s one thing about quilters, it’s that they are friendly…and they certainly love to laugh!

Now I have to decide where I’m going next! But first I think I need to come down to earth and have a little bit of ordinary life. I’m so full of ideas and plans that I think I’ll be able to keep myself out of mischief for a very long time!

Helen

This entry was posted on Monday, November 7th, 2011 at 6:11 pm and is filed under Places, Quilting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.