Houston International Quilt Festival

This was the reason for our visit to Houston. It is one of the largest quilt shows in the world. We stayed in the Hilton Americas which had covered walkways to the exhibition centre. The hotel was so full of visitors and exhibitors to the show that we had to queue in the mornings for breakfast. The show was open from 10.00 to 19.00 everyday (except Sunday) and that's how long we spent there. We think we just about managed to see everything. Here is a partial view of the traders hall.

We were there over Halloween and were surprised at how many people dressed up. Even those not in full costume wore hats, including the security and hotel staff.

When I went to the NEC in August I saw two artists whose work I really liked. It was lovely to meet up with them again in Houston.

Laura Wasilowski (artfabrik) and Frieda Anderson (friestyle.com)

We were amazed at the number of stands selling antique and vintage quilts and fabrics. It was really exciting seeing so many old and beautiful quilts. The stand holders were all lovely and quite happily showed us quilt after quilt explaining their origins and techniques used.

There were so many quilts to look at we had to limit ourselves to about two hours at a time in order to fully appreciate them. The standard of work was exceptionally high. These wholecloth quilts were absolutely amazing.

Laurie Tigner (laurietignerdesigns.com) and Bethanie Nemesh (whitearborquilting.com)

Lots of the quilts used traditional techniques.

Margaret Williams, Eileen Daniels (danielsstudios.com) and Janet Stone

There were also plenty of traditional patterns with a modern twist.

Teri Cherne 

Modern, abstract quilts showed that this is a thriving experimental field of artistic expression.

Amanda Hohnstreiter (mysewcialhour.com), Leanne Chahley (shecanquilt.ca), Leslie Tucker Jenison (leslietuckerjenison.com) and Marilyn Smith (marilynjsmith.blogspot.com)

As you will know if you've been following my blog, I love dyeing and printing so I was very interested in all the wonderful quilts that featured dyed, printed or painted fabrics.

Andi Perejda (andiperejda.com), Jeannie Moore (jpmartist.com), Lyric Kinard (lyrickinard.com) and Wen Redmond (wenredmond.weebly.com)

These quilts were just a few of those featuring birds and animals of all descriptions.

Barb Forrister (barbforrister.com), Joanne Baeth (joannebaethquilts.com), Jan Reed (maverickquilts.wordpress.com), Terri Stegmiller (terristegmiller.com) and Sandra Lauterbach (sandralauterbach.com)

Flowers featured on many of the quilts and the workmanship was absolutely stunning.

Two by Andrea Brockenshire (ambfiberartanddesign.com) and Nancy Sterett Martin (quilt-patches.com)

Roxane Lessa (roxanelessa.com), Lauren Strach and Marianne R. Williamson (movinthreads.com)

Laura Fogg (mendocineartists.com) and Susan Brubaker Knapp (bluemoonriver.com)

Suzanne Gummow (sgummow.blogspot.co.uk), Lauretta Crites (laurettacrites.com) Suzanne Kistler (flourishingpalms.blogspot.co.uk)

Interesting use was made of felted blankets

Blanket blocks, blanket trees and Missie Carpenter (traditionalprimatives.com)

Architecture as a theme was also very popular and this first one is reminiscent of the photo of reflections that I took in Houston.

Roxane Lessa (roxanelessa.com) , Kathy York (kathyyorkartquilts.com)  and Terri Krysan & Page Johnson

These three quilts are by Susan Bleiweiss (suebleiweiss.com)

Betty Hahn (bettyhahnfiberart.blogspot.com) and Diane Doran (dianedoran.com)

These quilts were just such fun

Margarita Korioth (margascrafts.blogspot.com), Kathy York (kathyyorkartquilts.com) and Linda Anderson (laartquilts.com)

This was my favourite quilt. The photo doesn't do it justice - it was absolutely stunning. It looked as though the bobbins were coming out of the wall.

Melissa Sobotka (msfiberart.com)

The visit to Houston was a wonderful experience and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Houston

At the end of October I flew to Houston, Texas. The city was beautiful, lovely and clean and very empty as much commerce goes on underground. During an open top city tour I captured these wonderful reflections in the glass towers.

One day we went to The Heights area of Houston where there are lots of antique and vintage shops. We found one shop that specialised in items for 'Day of the Dead'. Inside they had a display of actual altars that local people set up in their homes.

Obviously if you are in Houston you have to visit the NASA Johnson Space Center. It was fantastic - so exciting to be there. As you arrive you are greeted by the Independence Space Shuttle on top of its carrier aircraft.

Then in the Rocket Park you can see a Little Joe III and a Mercury-Redstone rocket.

Inside a huge hanger is the Saturn V rocket that took part in the Apollo missions.

We went into the mission control center and actually went into the one that controlled the moon landings. Although this is no longer used on the floor below is the control centre for the space station. There was a live feed to this and to the space station. I was very excited.

In Building 9 we saw the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility. Not only did it contain mockups used for the training of past missions it also had equipment for the space station and for the forthcoming Orion mission to Mars. There were people in there actually working on this equipment.

There was also a museum area that contained moon rock you could touch. It also had the Apollo 17 command module from 1972 and the Faith 7 Mercury capsule from 1963.

The display of spacesuits from the beginning to the present was also really interesting. The first one here was worn by Charles Conrad on the Apollo 12 mission to the moon. The second is a more modern one.

This was a great visit and I would definitely recommend it.