Monday, November 14, 2016

I Went to Houston, Y'All

I was very lucky to attend the International Quilt Festival in Houston this year. I was there with four friends for five days. What a blast! The quilt show is huge, fabulous, and a fun experience. The quilts were awesome and just kept going and going. More than once I thought I had seen them all, when I'd catch a glimpse of yet another aisle that I had not yet examined. I was so inspired! There were some great special exhibits and a huge variety of quilts. I am going to start right in and show you a few quilts. In the next few days I'll show you more and more, and also will tell you about the fun stuff we did (hint: we ate very well.) By the way, I got sick upon my return home, so it has taken me a while to get my pictures organized. Please enjoy some of the lovely quilts:

beautiful carpet in the skyway where we entered from a neighboring hotel

Age of Asparagus by Connie Fahrion of Texas

Geese in the Parking Lot by Phyllis Tarrant of North Carolina

Portrait Noir (a self portrait) by Trish Morris-Plise, quilted by Sandra Bruce of California

Mother and Children by Bodil Gardner of Denmark

Cross Woven by Victoria Findlay Wolfe of New York

White Lace on Red Velvet by Lauretta Crites of California

Source of Life by Hollis Chatelain of North Carolina (in the "Water is Life" exhibit)
I took one class while in Houston, and it was a class by Hollis Chatelain. It was a lecture/demo type of class. We watched her paint a face and then after the break she quilted on it (or a look-alike that was already dry). She is very talented, but it is probably not a technique I will ever do. I'm not comfortable with painting and would find it stressful to mix a lot of painting with quilting. A tiny bit? Yes.. I have tried and would like to do more. But I will never do large, gorgeous pieces like Chatelain's. I feel lucky to have witnessed her doing the process. Her quilts are awesome.

La Passacaglia by Sharon Burgess of Victoria, Australia

Here is someone in contortions to get just the perfect shot.

We ate lunch at the food court, and we bumped into this famous person... do you know who he is???
Yes, it's Rob of Man Sewing! You can see him on videos at Missouri Star Quilting. He's very friendly and lively, as you can see from these pictures.

That's it for now! I must go get my "put an end to this cough and cold" sleep.

1 comment:

BrendaLou said...

I first met Hollis many years ago at Quilt Market while admiring a quilt she had done. It was of an African woman who looked like a member of the Wodabi tribe that a good friend of mine worked with. I asked her about it and the title was indeed, "A Wodabi Woman." We got to talking and she knew my friend! He has worked among the tribe for over 20 years, bettering their lives with wells and helping them build their traditional dwellings on a more permanent site (they used to be nomadic, but they have been forced to be semi permanently placed by encroachment of cities, etc). Jeff is known as a wise man among them and set up grain depositories for them, helped them to catch and raise goats (their main source of protein)and set up women as the keepers of the food stuffs (instead of the men who believed if it was in hand it should be eaten...nothing saved for later. The women understood that a type of rationing would keep their children alive throughout the winters). Jeff was kidnapped early Oct. and is being held for ransom. Please pray for my friend and the Wodabi people.