Art Quilts and Houston Quilt Festival

Dear Friend,

Hello and glad you're here.

The International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas is another interesting destination even if, like me, you're not a quilter. There are hundreds and hundreds of beautiful traditional quilts with patterns we are familiar with from grandmothers, moms and country decor. There are also hundreds more one-of-a-kind exquisite quilts worthy of display on a wall rather than used for warmth on a bed. The two quilts pictured on this page,are one-of-a-kind quilts by a quilt artist. I went for only one day last year since I am not a quilter and was just there to see the quilts not shop or take classes. Was I amazed to find the International Quilt Festival, absolutely gigantic and impossible to see in one day. I didn't even get to walk past all the quilts. I spent the first half of the day looking through the booths with hand-dyed silk purses and jackets, sewing accessories for machine and hand sewing such as needlepoint stands, and sewing machine software, the fabrics, project decorations, quilted items, all available for purchase, were overwhelming and something that I didn't realize would be there. I found a beautiful sterling silver needlecase which I have loved using. I do needlepoint. If you love to sew or work with fabric in anyway this show would be a memory maker for you. I will go again and will stay 2 days the next time. The web address for the show follows.

I am including a web address for the quilt artist who created the quilts pictured on this page. I found her on the internet. She has both a home page and a blog. This address is for the blog. From her blog you can get to her homepage. I have not taken a lesson from her nor purchased one of her quilts, but would love to own one. "A Walk In the Woods" is the name of her blog. Her address is www.friestyle.blogspot.com/ . These are the unique art quilts pictured on my page. There are many others shown in her blog and webpage. Just beautiful.

International Quilt Festival (Houston) - The Festival information for 2006 is not posted yet, but this is the website where it will be posted when available. The dates are in the first week of November this year. This company hosts two other shows that the general public may attend. One is in Chicago and one in France. The information about all their quilt shows is at www.quilts.com .

I flew into Hobby Airport on Southwest which is a little closer to the Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston than the Bush - Intercontinental Airport, but either airport will have a shuttle that goes to the hotel attached to the Brown Convention Center. I made a reservation in advance for my shuttle ride.

I have a quilt that my husband's mother made when she was about 13 or 14 years old. It is so very pretty.Here's a picture of it. I am grateful for it.

Take care,

MaggieGladYouCame