My favorite time of year–International Quilt Festival!  Come along with me as I give you the whirlwind tour.  It is an annual tradition that my sister and I spend four days and three nights at the Hilton that is literally attached to the Quilt Festival by a walkway to the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas.  Here are views from our room:

Nannette, and I love to fuel our excitement by viewing the entire show first from the fishbowl window on the second floor.  Several quilters taking selfies inspired us. 🙂

Okay, now for the show…

As you enter Preview Night, Winners Row is front and foremost.

The winner of the Founders Award gets $7,500, and airfare to, and accommodations for, the International Quilt Festival!

Peter Hayward from Spain wanted to take op art to a new level with graduated color and concentric lines.  I wish you could see this quilt in person.  Your eyes play tricks on you as the fabric appears to be in motion!

Ben’s Midnight Garden is traditional applique inspired by a mid-nineteenth century wool rug.

One of my personal favorites among the winners was an original design by Joanne Baeth inspired by old fishing boats in a boatyard in Oregon where she was salmon fishing.

This amazing quilt, “Tagged,” was dedicated to the nearly 30,000 Japanese internees who were children during the internment camps on the Pacific Coast after Pearl Harbor.

Of course, equally fun as viewing the quilts is shopping in the row upon rows of booths selling fabric, trims, patterns and quilts, sometimes antique.  Here are some of our favorites:

Gypsy South from Atlanta, Georgia.

There were booths playing games for prizes like thread and fabric!

At Pineapple Fabrics you could “spin to win” fabric. My sister and I each won a miniature charm pack!

Miss Rose Sister Violet always has exquisite items such as trims, patterns and clothing.

I always visit, and stock up, at Trims on Wheels presented by a lovely couple, Edie and Luc Roelens, from Hillsdale, Wyoming.

Quilts by the Bay had a beautiful booth as usual.

The Sampler (the-sampler.com) always has tons of luscious Kaffe Fassett fabric.

I don’t know if you’ve been introduced to Adult Coloring yet (very soothing activity) but the craze is cheerfully spreading, with me on board!  Appearing in various booths, including this one:

Here is a booth featuring authors who were autographing their books for customers:

And now for some rapid fire eye candy quilt pictures that I just snapped every time I saw a quilt that dazzled me:

Yes, those are tiny little pieces.  Here is the story from Bernadette Houghton, Columbia, South Carolina:

“I was going to try making a miniature quilt at a quilt camp, but ten days before I was to attend, I fell and broke my hip.  After I got out of rehab, I decided to make a full-size quilt for my bed instead of the miniature, beginning with the half-square triangles I prepared for the camp.  The quilt was completed one month after my hip was pronounced fully healed.”

And here is a close-up just to give you perspective:

I didn’t get the name of the next quilt, but in the close-up you’ll notice hidden kitties…there were several.

 

In addition to quilts, some displays featured costumes:

Three more fashions:

And some displays featured dolls:

This is a display of food made of fabric:

And then there were dioramas:

Dioramas from a display called “In the Yarn Barn.” Animal lovers across the country knitted or stitched creatures to “live” within this fun exhibit.  Each animal is quilted, knitted, crocheted, or stitched.

Of course, there are a variety of classes offered at Quilt Festival, some lasting a whole day and some hour-long lectures.  This year, my sister and I chose a lecture by Kaffe Fassett featuring a color theme with comments and slides of his glorious quilts.  His latest book depicts quilts presented at the show this year called Ancestral Gifts.  The collection displayed the actual antique quilts that inspired him, side by side with his interpretation–a modern colorful quilt!  P.S. He’s also back to creating knitting designs!

I also attended a lecture by Cheryl Kuczek, titled “Master Designer Handbag Making Techniques.”  One of the featured bags was Xine Basket Bag for which I purchased the pattern.  

As usual, I peeked into other classrooms to snap a few pics for an idea of what else was cookin’.  So inspiring!

The Craftsy Studio was there:

Did I mention that Quilt Festival usually falls during Halloween?  I captured a few characters that showed up:

Now look closely at the next picture and you’ll notice that the gentleman on the left has a plunger through his head, and the lady to the right is sporting scissors through the head! 🙂  Yep–a howling good time at Quilt Festival on Oct. 31!

And what, may you ask, will become of the educational four days of fun?  Behold the patterns and kits I purchased and plan to execute!

I loved the real life sample of this five layers of petals pillow offered in the Material Girl booth.  Can’t wait to make it in my own colors and fabrics!

I chose this Mini Messenger pattern (with kit) to learn to make a bag with a twist lock. 🙂

Two other bag patterns I now own are made from wool, a clutch and a larger bag.  Purchased from Heart to Hand.  Awesome booth with excellent samples of their patterns.

Not only is the Miss Rose Sister Violet booth  beautiful, they now offer patterns of the following bags that are right up my alley!

One more bag pattern caught my eye at one of my favorite booths, Abbey Lane.  Here is the Maxwell Bag:

For some reason, I have the urge to sew an item of clothing and bought three yards of batik to make a jacket.  And now I also own the kits to make the following:

And…

So…tremendously inspired by blogging this review, I am ready to work on my projects!  Until next time…Love, Anny