Warning! Warning!

Not only is this post super picture heavy but it is full of wonderful and fantastic goodies that might make you pull your credit card out and commit a serious online shopping spree.

This year at the International Quilt Festival I was determined to be better than in years past - when I exercised NO CONTROL whatsoever and came home with a HUGE bag full of fabric. So this year I kept asking myself do I need this, will I use this, and I am happy to report I put SO MUCH back on the shelves.

Yet, somehow I STILL came home with all this.

Whoops.

Fist off I got Yoko Saito of Quilt Party Japan's 156 Patchwork Designs book which is STUNNING. Seriously y'all this book is awesome and worth every shiny penny. Plus she signed it for me!! (And photographing that liquid pencil she used sure was difficult!) I also picked up a copy of Carol Doak's 50 Fabulous Paper Pieced Stars which I have been wanting ever since seeing this epic mini quilt.





Then my most epic find of the day was these 3 yard bundles of Tula Pink's Neptune line which is one of my favorite lines of fabric EVER. Plus these are 2 of my favorite prints from the lines EVER! And they weren't crazy over priced like some rude people on ebay, and I only paid $9 a yard! LUCKY!!!



I got 2 charm packs of Cosmo Crickets 1934 line which I love, a fat quarter bundle of these gorgeous South African fabrics from Coral Tree fabrics, and a GORGEOUS oakshott fabric bundle that is my favorite range of colors.



Being that I adore all things English and Irish I totally jumped on these British themed prints from Kokka, Echino, and who knows what!



Oh course I kept my eye out for some Japanese fabrics that I couldn't bear not to take home and I was not disappointed. I have been looking for these little blue bunnies for a month! I also got these lovely cotton square with this fabulous design and color scheme that I want to use as a center panel in a quilt. This is my favorite brand of shasiko thread. It is strong, brilliant white, and a good price.



Another Japanese print I got was this awesome Kokka print that has large stripes of different prints. I love the burnt orange color scheme and especially the washing labels!



Another fabric love of mine is cutsie type fabrics that are great for small projects and fussy cutting, and I managed to find tons of those! My special fabrics is the aqua sushi print on the right, and those cracked out looking bunnies on the bottom. I mean come on their eyes are bulging and their little tails are all fluffed up like a really pissed off cat. That just says cracked out to me!



Finally I got a couple more random prints without much rhyme or reason. Those stripes were just lovely colors, the etchings print of the architectural drawings were just pretty, and the Japanese buttons too sweet. That fun truck print is going to become the backing for a quilt for my dad (someday).



All in all by the end of both days that I spent at festival it is safe to say my shoulder was hurting from carrying around sacks of stuff and my wallet was much lighter, but it was all oh so worth it!

Geeze I LOVE quilt festival!!



Also today I went to the opening of the Texas Quilt Museum in La Grange, Texas but more on that later in the week!

Oh my goodness, I am exhausted.

Quilt Market and Quilt Festival have come and gone leaving me in a whirlwind of exhaustion! 

The Houston Modern Quilt Guild Market Meet Up was a bundle of awesome-ness.  So many people showed up, so many prizes were given out, so many great conversations were had.  Then in the middle of the week I got interviewed by the Houston Chronicle.  Then I spend wednesday and thursday shopping till I literally dropped (pics of all those goodies are coming!) Wow my feet were killing me at the end of both those days! Then friday-sunday I attended a conference for work in the Hilton Americas next door to the quilt festival meaning half the time I was at my conference I was wishing I was at the festival!  Then saturday night was the HMQG Festival meet up!  Not as many people came but it was still a blast with new friends made, prizes galore, and a fantastic chocolatini!

Sadly though during this crazy week I took almost NO PICTURES!! Argh!  It was just too hard to shop, chat, laugh, drink, and enjoy myself all while taking pictures.  And the few I did take were half blurred and pretty crappy. 

I do have to share this AMAZING FIND with you all though!  3 yard Neptune bundles!! OMG be still my heart!



All in all though it was the most awesome week ever.  And I need a 3 day nap.

Embracing Modernism

Photo by Nick de la Torre of the Houston Chronicle

Cherri House and I were interviewed by the Houston Chronicle about modern quilts and the International Quilt Festival since she is the founder of the Houston Modern Quilt Guild and I am the current president.

You can read the article here if you are interested! 

Eeeeeeep!!!

No I am not scared because it is Halloween - I am freaking out because I am so happy and excited right now!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE International Quilt Festival.  I love how quilting fever basically takes over the city.  The shops are in high gear, everyone online seems to be getting ready to come to the city and I feel like everywhere I turn there is more fabric I should by.

I don't know if many of you guys know this but I am president of the Houston Modern Quilt Guild, and to make it an even better week we held a Market Meet Up on Saturday and SO MANY PEOPLE CAME!! Seriously, I was scared everyone would be too tired after a full day of market to come and it would just end up being our guild members hanging out having a beer (which would still have been fantastic!) but seriously like 50 people came!!

I was totally starstruck like 20 times!!!

Some in attendance were Houston's own Cherri House and Lizzy House (omg her new Outfoxed line is to die for), Aneela Hoey, Laurie Wisbrun, Ann Kelle, Kathy Mack of Pink Chalk Fabrics (one of my fave online retailers!), the original Mama herself - Krinstin Link of Sew Mama Sew,  John aka Quilt Dad, Julie of Jaybird Quilts, Pokey Bolton,  Rashida Coleman Hale (whose new Washi line has me near fainting), and so many others.  Plus there were people there from modern quilt guilds all over North America including LA, Philly, Albuquerque, San Antonio, and Calgary just to name a few..

Oh and not exactly quilt related but Bobby King of the Houston Texans was at the bar too!!Although not exactly for Market!

The sad part was that I didn't get any pictures of the night because there were just so many people and I spent the majority of my time talking with people and handing out door prizes.  I was even lucky enough to snag a charm pack of Lizzy House's Outfoxed fabric which I have already made a pillow out of!

Another awesome thing this week was the Cherri House invited me to talk to the Houston Chronicle with her about modern quilting!  This meant I got to go down to market, get a badge, and a sneak peak at the exhibition.

I was so excited and had a lot of fun chatting with her as we walked through the exhibition hall and pointed out modern quilts to the lovely lady from the newspaper.  Plus I loved getting to check out the show before the festival starts, but was pretty bummed the winners of the quilt show hadn't been announced or hung yet.

After we were done talking I went upstairs just to watch people start taking down their market booths.  Y'all may not know this about me either but I work in a very large museum and part of my job includes installing and deinstalling the exhibits so I have a pretty good idea of the time it takes to load and unload a room that size, and the fact that they basically do it between monday and wednesday night BLOWS MY MIND.

 

Sorry the photo came out a bit blurry, the window on the second floor I took this through wasn't the cleanest. 

Either way it is GOODBYE MARKET, HELLO FESTIVAL!!

And if any of you lovely readers are going to festival be sure to join us Saturday night at the Hyatt hotel bar at 8pm for the HMQG Festival meet up.  There will be TONS of prizes, people, and chatting!  And seriously, the prizes are awesome - just take a peak at the sponsers! 

Modern Quilt Guild Market Meet Up

The time has come!

This Saturday is the Modern Quilt Guild Market Meet up hosted by us here in the Houston Modern Quilt Guild.

The details:

Market MQG Meetup:

Saturday October 29th

The Hilton Lobby Bar

8:00 PM

We are having some crazy awesome door prizes from some amazing sponsors. 

And next Saturday we are having a Festival meet up! At which there will be EVEN MORE PRIZES!!

Festival MQG Meetup:

Saturday November 5th

The Hyatt Lobby Bar

8:00 PM

 

All are welcome to either event so please come and enjoy!

Lookie Lookie!

Look at this film I saw this week!

Stitched.

Here is what the filmmaker has to say about the film.

Stitched captures the enormity of the quilting world with more than 21 million quilters in the US alone. It’s an industry filled with quilting superstars who have developed a following by teaching their craft.

Stitched begins with the largest quilt show in the nation held annually in Houston. The documentary also features the Paducah quilt show, one of the largest tourist attractions in the state of Kentucky.
There are tight bonds of friendship between many quilters including among the three main characters who are friends and who have mentored each other. Caryl Bryer Fallert taught Hollis Chatelain who in turn taught Randall Cook.

Behind every stitch, there is a story of friendship, art and passion.

Check out the screenings for the film for a location near you or just go ahead and get the DVD! 

You won't regret it!

Quilts of Wood

I have been meaning to share this ever since I got it at Quilt Festival in Houston!



This ornament was made by Rob Nettleton.  He uses no stains or dyes. All of the colors are simply the wood's natural shade.  My favorite is the purple-ish tones wood at the points of the star!

I thought these were just so lovely and wonderfully creative. I can't wait to put it on my tree this Christmas, although it will definitely be out and displayed all year long!

Inspiring Monday

This weeks inspiration comes not from Flickr but from some of my favorite quilts that were exhibited at the Houston Quilt Festival this month.  I absolutely love festival.  I leave the convention center completely exhausted but beyond inspired and all I want to do is going home and sew all weekend.  This year was no different. 

Click the photos to get to the Flickr page which has a little bit of extra info.

Quilt Festival Anyone??

This is where I am heading today!!! (*insert girlish squeal here*)

So excited and so glad I live in Houston! No doubt I will have lots of goodies to show later so stay tuned!

**EDITED TO ADD** Holy cow did I get some amazing goodies including Tula Pink, MoMo, and Kaffe shot cottons!  But wow, what an exhausting yet awesome day!

The Austin Area Quilt Guild Show

This past weekend I went to Austin, TX (one of my favorite cities) to go to the Austin Area Quilt Guild show at the Palmer Events center.  While nothing can compare to the Houston show this was pretty great.  There onver 60+ vendors (although it didn't seem like that many) and so many quilts on display.

These were some of my faves...(detail shots are on my flickr)...





Selvages!



















Winner of Best in Show!



All in all it was a great show and I had a great time.  Part of my good time though was thanks to the visits I made to a couple of craft stores up in Austin including Ginger's Needle Crafts, The Quilt Store, and Common Thread. 

Oh and Pluckers of course! Yummm....WINGS.

The best store I visited though was definitely The Stitch Lab run by the amazing Leslie.  They had an unbelievably awesome modern fabric selection, all the Sublime Stitching patterns and tools, and the most wonderful, helpful, and fun staff.  Not to mention they offer tons of classes and rent out studio time at an insanely low price.  I highly recommend it!  It's worth a road trip!  

Now I am definitely ready for the Houston show come November!