threadfairy: 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.