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.

Festival of Quilts - NEC

Another visit to the Festival of Quilts at the beginning of the month provided lots of inspiration. Through Our Hands had a wonderful display of work including pieces that changed throughout the exhibition.
Annabel Rainbow was adding painted details to her quilt.

Clare Smith's work had cups of dye or water with thread which allowed the liquid to wick down through the hangings.

The Tent Makers of Cairo had a fantastic stand as always. The designs are very intricate and at reasonable prices.

The work by Gloria Loughman showing buildings and landscapes of Australia were wonderful and made me want to go home and dye lots of fabric then try out her techniques.

Jane Rollason also made use of dyed and printed fabrics. I loved the dense quilting.

The series of quilts called 'Synapse' by Valerie Huggins really required a close look.

This piece by Anne Smith had a lovely child-like quality to it.

Dijanne Cevaal had produced a series of quilts featuring these interesting trees.

I loved the simplicity of this design by Frieda Anderson. I was pleased to find that she is going to be at the International Quilt Festival in Houston as I shall be going there in October.

Luke Hayes had a range of quilts based on figures backed by log cabin designs - very effective.

I liked the use of fabric strips behind the simplified flowers in this work by Suzanne Gummow.

There were also several examples of 3D objects and clothing. These are by Daisy May Collingridge and Helen Dickson.

Derwent Valley Mills

Earlier this month we traveled to Derbyshire to visit the Derwent Valley. The World Heritage Site runs from Matlock Bath down to Derby and has some of the first 'modern' factories. The first we visited was Masson Mills established in 1783 by Sir Richard Arkwright, It is a working textile museum and it was fascinating to see all the machinery. We also visited his earlier Cromford Mill built in 1771, the world's first successful water-powered cotton spinning mill. After a visit to Cromford - a village built for the workers, and the Cromford Canal we went to William Strutt's North Mill in Belper. This mill, built in 1804, was the first 'fire proof' mill. It was also constructed to deal with the buildings movement caused when all the machines were operating. A forerunner of the earthquake resistant buildings in America and Japan.

The following machines were used to unpack the cotton bale, card the cotton or wool and then create the sliver ready for spinning

As production of cloth increased individual hand spinners could not keep up with demand. The first picture shows a 'Spinning Jenny' developed by James Hargreaves. This could spin eight yarns at a time but the quality was only suitable for weft threads. The other pictures show spinning frames these were designed by Richard Arkwright and were originally powered by water.

These show the bobbins and pirns (the inner part of the shuttle that holds the weft thread) waiting to be wound

Jacquard looms are the most amazing looms ever. They use a series of punched cards to produce intricate patterns including brocade and damask. It was the first time that I had actually seen one of the machines for producing the cards.

These flat knitting machines were fascinating. The stockings on display featured what I had always called 'Clocks' but here it was called 'Chevening'. What was interesting is that the embroidery is worked from the inside of the stocking - I shall have to try this.

There were wonderful patterns to be found throughout the mills - I have only included a few.

'Long Row' houses in Belper were built for millworkers. The ground and first floor contained living quarters whilst the top floor was for spinning or weaving, hence the long windows.

Whilst in the area we also visited Crich Tramway Village. This is home to the national tram museum. Various buildings and other structures have been moved from areas where regeneration is going on and rebuilt to create a village street. The pub in the centre was from Stoke-on-Trent.

There were loads of trams to see - from the first horse drawn ones up to modern electric ones. There were also several you could ride on which was great fun.