Grab a cup of coffee, a glass of wine, whatever suits your fancy, and come along with me for a tour of Houston’s International Quilt Festival 2016!

True to our usual M.O., my sister, Nannette, and I stayed at the adjoining Hilton Hotel Wednesday to Saturday to fulfill all our shopping and quilting fixes.  Wednesday night was Preview Night from 5:00 – 10:00 p.m.  Nannette admired the crazy quilts

and I paid a visit to the Texas Quilt Museum Booth.

Beautiful booths everywhere,

including one of my annual favorites, Edie and Luc Roelens booth, Trims on Wheels.  Here’s a sample of what you will find there:

I enjoyed my favorites, such as Miss Rose Sister Violet, Diane Springer, Material Girl, Adorn-It, Mica’s Room and Hanah Silk.  Throughout the show this year, I purchased trims, dyes, fabric, embroidery, awesome scissors, and purse parts and patterns.  Nannette snagged the best purchase of all:  an actual wall hanging from the quilt gallery to hang in her horse arena!

The artwork is entitled, “Home!”  by Cathy Wiggins from North Carolina.  Cathy achieved the look of a finely tooled Western saddle by quilting leather and applying dyes.  She used real conchos on the saddle and studs on the hat brim, then left the raw edges of the hide.  Everyone was interested in how Cathy “quilts” leather!  Her exhibit consisted of many fine pieces, all true works of art, introducing her own new and special techniques.

While we mostly shopped that first evening, the next day was back to the show, and a class for me.  Hanah Silk Flowers was taught by Faye Labanaris.

We created roses, pansies, and posies from bias cut silk ribbons and velvets. 🙂

In addition to registered classes, you are treated to a schedule of demonstrations provided by Craftsy.  We enjoyed learning from Annie of byAnnie.com who taught us about purses, hardware, zippers, and patterns.

And now on to the show!  We’ll start in the Winners’ Circle with the most prestigious overall award, the $12,500 winner of Best of Show.  

This year’s honor goes to Cynthia England of Dickinson, Texas.  Reflections of Capetown took a year to make and contains 8,400 pieces.  Cynthia was teaching quilting in South Africa when a side trip to a fishing village afforded her this scene of boats and reflections.  Her inspiration was the photograph she took, which she transformed into a masterpiece quilt of hand applique and machine quilting.

Silk Road Sampler by Melissa Sobotka was another all-time

favorite of mine.  This quilt depicts a spice bazaar established in 1597, evoking smells and tastes through the imagination.  The bottom is bordered by tassels.

Bouquet Royale by Margaret Solomon Gunn from Gorham, Maine, won the Baby Lock World of Beauty $7,500 award.

Mikyung Jang from South Korea, portrayed one of the most beautiful old castles in Korea through intricately machine quilting and hand dyeing.

Another winner was Unknown Man, fused applique, by Marina Landi and Maria Lucia Azara from Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The $7,500 Founders’ Award this year went to Sally Magee from Texas for Baltimore in Bloom, a design by Sue Garman.  This quilt took Sally 3,000 hours to applique and 1,000 hours to hand quilt!

I don’t pretend to know how  the quilts are judged but each one is amazing.  The quilts that follow are simply ones that made me go, “Wow!”  Royal Palm Hawaiian by Laverne Matthews is a huge quilt with stunning colors.  Her design source was folded paper cut designs.  It was hand appliqued and quilted.

Another quilt that caught my eye with its striking colors is Chambord Fantasy by Jacqueline Manley from Reno, Nevada.  While traveling in France, she photographed the architecture of Chateau Chambord France with its quirky towers for her inspiration.

What’s this???  While meandering through the quilts, in one corner of the building, I came upon a sign… though I’m not sure what takes place there, I did see one lone man sitting in the corner… 🙂

Now here’s a quilt!  “Crocodylus Smylus” by Susan Carlson of Harpswell, Maine, is 22′ x 6′ and weighs 30 pounds, taking two years to complete.

“Stevie” is nicknamed for naturalist Steve Irwin and is a life-size replica of a real saltwater crocodile.  If you would like to see a time-lapse video of this quilting creation, go to susancarlson.com.

“Stevie” was part of her eleven quilt nature exhibit, including:

And…

Hmm, seeing a pink rhinoceros reminded us that we’d better call it a day and check out the Pappasito’s drink menu for a large scrumptious sangria!  Paired with nachos and quesadillas, it was the end to a perfectly quilty day.

Friday brought us back to reality as it was our last full day.  Yikes!  On with the Tour de Quilts. Moving faster now…   African Sunflower by Peggy DeLaVergne:

Autumn Leaves by Nancy Ryan reminded me of the fall I long for in Indiana…

Head 7 by Diane Siebels was a depiction of the merging of human beings with the constant influx of data:

Pseudo Lunar Topography by Meggan Czapiga:

It Takes a Village by Susan Bleiweiss:

Suburban Nest by Sara Sharp in Austin, Texas.  The inspiration for this quilt was when the artist noticed that sparrows had built a nest in a commercial sign on the Nest building. 🙂  The 3-D effect of the nest is adorable in person.

Beauty in the Darkness – Artist Kim Boroway:

Nannette and I broke for lunch upstairs where ladies just share large round tables.

There we met Debbie Wick of Elmira, New York, the artist for the following luscious quilts in the Primitive/Folk Art Style.  Maggie Grace’s Garden (design by Di Ford-Hall) took two years to complete, and is hand pieced, appliqued, and quilted.

Another amazing quilt by Debbie is Cottage Garden by Blackbird Designs.  Hand appliqued!

In the same traditional category is Folk Art Flowers by Paula Wexler.  Hand appliqued and hand quilted.  Using many different fabrics, her challenge was limiting it to just four colors.

The artists are Unknown for the following beauties.

An especially colorful and delightfully kaleidoscopic type quilt is the Millefiori.  The term millefiori is a combination of the Italian words “mille” (thousand) and “fiori” (flowers).  Enjoy!

My Butterfly Garden by Dawn Monk of Seaford, East Sussex, United Kingdom.  It took fourteen months and is hand-pieced with 150 different fabrics.

La Passacaglia:  Sometimes More Is More, hand-pieced by Mary Althaus.

An award-winning Texas’ Guilds Traditional Quilt is Sunshine by Judy Wolff from Lincoln, Texas.  This quilt has 80,402 pieces!  Wish you could see it in person.

In the category of Art-Naturescapes:

Sunkissed by Theresa Olson from Port Saint Lucia, Florida.

The Innovative Applique division offered:

Moonflower by Molly Hamilton Mcnally of Tehachapi, California.  Her inspiration was “the humble daisy.”

Tulip Fields by Anna Faustino of Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania.  The black outline was cut freehand.  The vibrant colors were inserted between the batting and the cut black, then fused into place.  Her inspiration was Hollands’ tulips.  Love this quilt!

Birds Fly… by Barbara Lies, Wheaton, Illinois.  The openwork bars are a hand and machine applique process developed by the artist.

In the American Tradition category is El Camino Serenade by Denise Nelms of Irvine, California.

“Sarah’s Revival in Blue” by Gail Smith from Barrington, Illinois, is hand appliqued from a Sue Garman design.  Huge quilt that is stunning!

Quilts de Legende category offers “Illusion d’Optique” by Anne-Marie Sierra of Paris, France.  Another large masterpiece!

The Innovative Pieced category included “Quahadi” by Marla Kay Yeager of Ava, Missouri.  This quilt was five years in the making.

One of my favorite sections is the Art Whimsical Category.  Of course, I was first attracted to the Golden Retriever…

Obsession by Tonya Littman of Denton, Texas, even bordered the bottom with miniature tennis balls!

Grace Sim quilted an original design inspired by coloring books and Swarovski crystals called iColor Longhorn.

A really cute and colorful quilt was designed by Cindy Cooksey of Irvine, California.  It’s called “The Innkeeper Wore Black” and it was inspired by a visit to a bed and breakfast.  It was a colorful B & B, with bold patterns on everything except the talkative innkeeper, who wore black.

In the Patterns category:

“On the Same Page” by book lover, Linda Anderson of La Mesa, California.  Based on a photograph of a family member.  This is a huge quilt that is amazing in person.

Another in the Patterns category is “Tiles” by Cathie Hoover.  Her inspiration came from sidewalk tiles in Barcelona.

The next category is termed Hands All Around 2016 sponsored by Quilters Newsletter Magazine.

“Nature 1” by Bella Kaplan from Israel is based on the agricultural area where she lives.

A large quilt, “Portrait Noir” by Trish Morris-Plise from Nevada City, California, is a self-portrait.  The names of people who are important in her life, as well as events and places, are quilted into this quilt.

The Art Pictoral category offers quilts that are amazingly life-like.  Here are some examples.

“The Big Dry” by Camilla Watson of New Zealand.  “The Big Dry” in Australia lasted from 1937 to 1947.  Rivers ceased to flow and dust storms raged.  Many property owners were forced to leave with whatever items they could carry.  This quilt was based on a photograph taken by the artist’s father.

“Lazy Afternoon” by Hiroko and Masanobu Miyama of Tokyo, Japan.

“Cat Tails” by Pat Durbin, Arcata, California is clever.  Love this!  A cat tail among cat tails…

“Ay-Cock-A-Doodle-Doo” by Deborah Bradley of Kingwood, Texas.  The artist’s dear friend had lost her father but still had all of his ties.  So the artist used the ties to create a memory quilt honoring her friend’s father, Byron Wolverton Aycock.

“The Venetian” by Jan Soules, Elk Grove, California, was inspired by the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas.

“Wheat Field” by Melissa Burdon of New Zealand.

Fons and Porter’s Love of Quilting and Traditional Applique category included:

“The A-E-I-O Ewes” by Janet Stone of Overland Park, Kansas, a beautiful and clever quilt.  The title came to her while lying awake in bed. 🙂  The fabrics are hand-dyed by her friend, Gilbert Muniz.

“Fruits of Labor” by Liza Harrison of Santa Rosa, New Mexico.

“Fantasy Flower” by Keiko Ike, Kochi, Kochi, Japan.

“Z is for Zinnia, C is for Cosmos” by Kathie Kerler, Portland, Oregon.

Maybe it’s appropriate we end here with the z’s…  Say good-bye to our beautiful second home lobby

Say good-bye to our favorite relaxing spot by the water wall…

And although you can’t see it here, parallel to the water wall is a mega Starbucks!  You served us well, Starbucks–we’ll see you next year!

And now I deposit all my treasures on the cutting table, waiting for me to sift through, organize, and get busy!