Houston Days

I am early to the airport at the moment and reviewing pictures etc. In answer to a previous comment we have drunk many cups of tea. We brought teabags with us and will be requesting hot water on the plane to make more! I went on a workshop with Tracy to make Star Roses  a couple of years ago and bought templates from Marti Michell, a kite and a crown so at some stage I can make a quilt.

Marti's Kite and Crown table runner sampler

I like to hand piece now and then and the templates have holes so you can mark the corners.
On Saturday we went to Festival after hours and enjoyed the buffet and danced con brio.

At Festival After Hours: it was a great band

But before then two of us went to Gyleen X. Fitzgerald's lunch lecture. We had excellent seats and some good companions. I went to her first festival classes 3 years ago and they were excellent. Obviously news has spread and she now has quite a following and has developed more ideas since we last saw her. As ever she was very articulate and amusing.

This was one of the variations in the Gyleen class
we went to.

Gyleen in full flow

From Gyleen

From Gyleen

Gyleen's Boston Commons Quilt

And Saturday afternoon was  spent exploring more quilts.

Detail

Share Jane by Kim Caskey and Jeltse van Essen,
part of the 20 tears of Dear Jane special display.

Feathered star by Sue Troyan, one of the Quilt Divas
who swap blocks

And this is how Ann Jernigan used her blocks

I loved this Leafy Sampler made in a day
by Kaffe Fassett and friends.

And this appropriately dressed lady was responsible
for an amazing display of leather quilts. Just the
thing for Texas.

Detail - I imagine this featured in his
Beautiful Blooms book as this was the
focus of this special display

Random Quilt Show

Gingham Spring by Suzy Williams

Detail of effective unit

Tara Faugham Bars quilt

Note the combination of hand and machine
quilting

Carolyn Friedlander: Studio . Like many others I am a huge fan of her fabric

This is Apricot Challenge By Laverne Mathews, her last completed quilt at 90 years old.

Gabrielle Paquiin's instantly recognizable FlightII using striped
fabric to good effect 

Sewing Bee miniature by
Philippia Naylor

This is Gail Stepanek on the right and Jan Hutchison on the left with  their prizewinning quilt

Mary Menzer: Flight Path

Wall of Sound by Maria Shell- we went to her talk and l
loved it!

By a Japanese quilter who said the design was original but it looks like
Lucy Boston;s Quilt Of the Crosses to me

Fiona Bell: White House hexagons

August Lily y Debra Lohman

I like this block

Jelly Roll Strings with dear Jane

My blocks

Jane before the class started

Jane's samples

Jane's four blocks together

My block is ready to trim

Today (Friday) I took a workshop with Jane Hall who is very elderly but very delightful and sharp as anything. She promised us it would be the easiest workshop we would ever take and so it proved but all the more enjoyable for that and a strategy for successful string pieced blocks was passed  on.  And I did get round more of the quilt categories.

Melissa Sobotka's Silk Road Sampler which won the $5000 award for innovative artistry.
She was inspired by a vendor's array of applique cushions in the Spice Market, Istanbul.
I used to cross the bridge from  where we lived to buy spices there. The maker used
fused applique techniques to make this remarkable quilt.

This illustrates a scientific paper about perception..Elaine Wick Poplin's Vertigo
attempts to creae the illusion of concentric rings which do not intertwine though peripheral
vision says that they do - fascinating.

This is REM Rapid Eye Movement by Sonia Grasvik illustrating the rapid eye movement
indicating the sleeper is in a hidden world of dreams.

Detail of block

We met for the mandatory cocktails in our hotel and as you can see we are on good terms with Gerald the barman. Margaritas all round.

So we didn't have to queue a second time

Eating and dining in Houston plus a few quilts and a workshop too.

Thurs was very busy with no time to blog so here are Tracy and I meeting up with friends at the cafe on Discovery Green and enjoying Tex Mex with Carolyn Forster a short distance away from the hotel. No cabs involved in the partaking of this meal which was accompanied by wine and cocktails, A very  chatty night.

Tansy, Tracy and Jackie at the cafe on the Green

Tex Mex at Guardalahra

Carolyn, me and Tracy enjoying our meal

Belinda and Carolyn

Marti's sample

Marti with samples of her4 FQ Log Cabin Workshop

My fabrics for the workshop

A Charm of Flowers by Felicia Nakazawa

Detail - the quilt is simply pieced with these overlaid
appliqued flowers -very effective

I loved this "Twisted" exhibit by Mary Kerr who had incorporated vintage scraps into a
modern settng and the asked longarmers to quilt the tops in accordance with a modern
aesthetic. Tracy was entranced and bought the book.

detail

Morre recycled hexagons from Mary Kerr