While many families are still displaced because of storm damage from Hurricane Harvey, the areas I visited near the convention center were open for business and recovering well.
My hotel was about a 10-block walk to and from the convention center. Along the way, I noticed that a pigeon must have ignored the ‘stay off the pavement’ signs when this little strip of concrete was curing.
As I got close to the convention center, Avenida Houston—ongoing outdoor festivals and entertainment connecting elements of the downtown area—was in evidence.
To set a creepy Halloween tone, these eerie apparitions swing from the trees.
Each bride-like figure created the perfect atmosphere to set a spooky tone for All Hallow’s Eve.
Colorful streamers decorated several structures in the park and in the street directly in front of the George Brown Convention Center, where Quilt Market was underway.
Just inside the convention center, a look up reveals clouds and birds (!) drifting overhead.
Once inside the convention center. And on the trade show floor, it’s inspiring to see the creative displays at each booth.
Riley Blake had dozens of huge white paper flowers bordering their entire display.
These sponge french fries created a clever display in Christopher Thompson’s (Also Riley Blake) booth.
Oooh, look who’s on the schedule over at the Taunton Press booth! Yep, that would be me. I had a wonderful time chatting with old friends and new ones while signing books and showing off some Versatile Nine Patch projects. . .
Wandering from booth to booth, some vendors stand out. Of course, you know I loved this booth!
I made sure I set time aside to wander into the quilt show. After the close of Quilt Market, the trade show-Quilt Festival-for anyone and everyone, not just members of the quilt industry, begins. The quilt show is a wonderful escape away from the hustle and bustle of the vending booths and displays to quilts submitted from all corners of the world.
This one, Mini V, by Grace Sim of Weston Lakes, Texas, is only about 12-14” square!
It looks like I am touching the quilt, I am not, but I needed something in the picture to show the scale of all those tiny little pieces.
Pinecones by Lenore Crawford of Midland Michigan and it’s red birds in a riot of white and gray tree branches drew me in!
Here’s a close-up of one of the birdies.
Keeping Up Appearances by Jan Reed of Grass Valley, California. is an amazing study of one of my favorite subjects - birds - in this case an ibis preening its feathers. The detail is just fabulous! Batiks, thread, paints, and pencil create this eye-catching quilt!
Continuing along on the bird-inspired quilt theme, Making Amends by Carol Cote of Brights Grove, Ontario, Canada captures one of my favorites - the Atlantic Puffin. On my trip to Alaska this summer, I was able to see circuses of Horned and Tufted Puffins off the Alaskan coast. They are just so fun!
A detail of Making Amends.
These are just a few of the images that captured my soul on this trip to Houston. At the airport, I grabbed a lemonade (Huberts Lemonade) in the airport because I’m not really fond of the fizzy stuff they serve on the plane. Once I was settled into my seat with my travel stitching project in my lap, I noticed the inside of the top had a message for me!
Right-o! I like to think this way about all kinds of quilty endeavors!
Happy Stitching
Joan Ford
No comments:
Post a Comment