I have been remiss at keeping up with my blog recently. I’ve been pretty busy teaching, traveling and with making Custom T-shirt quilt orders! Having recently returned from six days in Houston at the International Quilt Festival I am excited to share some of my favorite moments and memories.

The International Quilt show was celebrating 40 years of Quilt Market and 45 years of the show or Festival. They had a really impressive display of blue and white quilts, the Sapphire Celebration, that they hung from the ceiling in a huge square that displayed quilts from the front and inside. Photos did not do it justice. One quilt that they featured in the promotion of this show was Maggie Vanderweit’s quilt Indigo Party. I love its simplicity.

There were so many inspiring quilts that will have taken the makers months or years to make! As I walk around and look at the quilts on display and the prize-winning quilts, I say to myself I must try harder next year! To me the quilts look so much smaller hung at this event so my goal this coming year is to make a BIG quilt.

I loved the unusual appearance of this quilt and the bright colors. It was made by a Ukrainian quilter who won an award for her other quilt, see below. The quilts were hand appliquéd, embroidered and quilted. She made unusual binding strips that she tied in knots and layered, something I had not seen before.

I love how Natalia was in her Ukrainian national dress. She spoke little English.

Walking around the World of Beauty quilts was wonderful but there are also all the special exhibits to see. Here are a few; Better World curated by Susan Brusker Knapp and Lyric Kynard (this I tried to get into in the summer), SAQA:Upcycle was inspiring, Altar Offerings by students of Jane Tenor-Coscarelli, Inspired by Endangered Species, The Bob Ross Challenge by Cherrywood Fabrics was so much fun, Pieces of my Life by Shuzuko Kuroha and Florence in my Heart quilts by Annamarie Brent. One impressive quilt was made by Shruti Dandekar and measured 210’’ x 86’’

Coronation of Chatapati Shivaji Maharaja

As part of the faculty at Houston I taught six classes in four days. As you can imagine this is pretty tiring with not a lot of downtime especially with events happening in the evening too. I was lucky enough to have a three hour lunch break which gave me time to prep and set up for the next class, then grab lunch and head to the quiet of my hotel room. I did share that room with quilt artist Sandra Mollon which worked out perfectly and staying at the Embassy Suites was an easy walk and we appreciated the hearty, early morning breakfast and free happy-hour.

My first half day class Sunlit Sunflowers

My fabric collage classes were all well attended and I think students loved learning a new technique and working on their projects. Many even finished which made me happy. My free-form cutting technique using no pattern pieces can feel alien to some students who are more used to the rigid rules of appliqué.

Fabric inspired by Scottish pheasant hunting scenes!

For my classes I do provide kits which does help speed up the project especially if you only have 3 hours. As you can see above this student brought her own color palette and fabric for her bulldog. I love this! This year I taught my pet portrait class breaking it down into two classes; making the pattern and then working on the collage. This was a success but I think next year if I can have it as a 2 day class then all the students can attend both sessions.

The special part of being at Houston are the people you meet. Some of them were students who have been following me on social media and are “fans” and so excited to meet me! That does seems strange. Meeting other quilters who’s name is so familiar or catching up with teachers that you rarely see. Having an interview with Ricky Tims was pretty special! And then I had a real life former astronaut in my class, Jan Davies who has spent 673 hours in space. I googled her!

A pleasure sharing the classroom with an astronaut Jan Davies

I arranged to meet Shanker and Mala from Dubai who have the only quilt shop in Dubai called Classic Quilts and they are the organizers behind the Dubai International Quilt Show. It was really interesting to chat with them about how they are trying to promote and encourage sewing and quilting in Dubai. I am lucky enough to be one of the teachers at their upcoming show in February 2020. I will be teaching a 2 day workshop titled Faces where students can work from a photo of a face or I will have kits and a pattern for my quilt Nameless Afghan Girl. I received permission from photographer Steve McCurry to use his famous photo.

I hope I have caught you up on some of my activities and projects I have been working on. We only a few more weeks till Christmas and I just have 3 T-shirt quilts to make! That feels good. I will be spending the end of next week and weekend traveling to Rhode Island and teaching to the Narragsett Bay Quilt Guild. I’m prepping for that this weekend and looking forward to that trip although traveling form California I’m going to be in for a bit of a temperature change.