Festival Recovery and Little More Than Naps

Yesterday's trip to the Houston Quilt Festival was fabulous, of course.  The one downside: one day cannot possibly be enough.  I really wanted to see more.  I did see about two/thirds of the quilts. Having been before, I knew I'd have to make some choices, so I started my race with a strategy.  I looked at the floor plan and made my decisions--"In Full Bloom," "National Parks," "In the American Tradition," "Modern Quilt Guild" and so many, many more!

I just bought a double wedding ring die set from Accuquilt, so I was especially interested in how other quilters have played with the block.  Of course, I wanted to see all the really big winners (you'll be very impressed), and everything IQA sounded interesting.  Do you see the dilemma here?  

The only way to handle it, I've discovered from previous festivals, is to push myself through, eat a quick lunch and choose extra carefully in the afternoon.  We got a late start, had a later breakfast, and chose an even later lunch.  Apparently everyone planned to eat lunch at 1:00, because we stood in line for quite some time and had to wait for a small group to get up before we could get seats.  All in all it was truly enlightening and pleasant.  

We left late (why not since the whole day ran late?) and then decided to have gumbo at a niece's home, so our arrival was truly late.  Today I've been dragging around zombie-like but managed to visit the in-laws, do the Halloween shopping for the grandkids, and sew just a little.  It poured down rain the entire day, so there are still flowers sitting on the worktable waiting to go to the cemetery.  

Today has been rather long, even with the naps.  I say naps in plural because I tried to wake up and move several times, but it was really impossible.  I'm not sure how long I rested, but I am sure that it took most of the afternoon.  The sound of rain falling on the roof didn't hurt the situation nor did snuggling under my favorite quilt.  

As for the rest of the day: The in-laws are doing fine, the baskets and bags are all arranged for tomorrow's lunch when everyone should be here, and I'm close to finishing my customer's tie quilt. And that has been my weekend thus far. Not busy, but not boring and certainly the quilt festival was more than I had hoped for.  Enjoy the few pictures I've posted.  I am waiting till tomorrow to post more.  It feels wrong to post lots of pictures of a show that is still going on, so this is just a sneak peek.  

Happy Quilting,

Pin It Weekly #125

International Quilt Festival

Houston 2015

October 29-November 1, 2015

George R. Brown Convention Center

Houston, Texas

Houston is coming quick, y'all!  I hope you have an opportunity to go and to meet you would be fantastic.  I love meeting quilters during lunch (which I've learned to do early).

So, to celebrate the big event, starting tomorrow, here are a few photos, mostly detailed, of some winning quilts from shows around the world and gleaned from around Pinterest, but you can find them on my "heart, quilts" board.

See ya there in two days!

International Quilt Festival

Houston 2015

October 29-November 1, 2015

George R. Brown Convention Center

Houston, Texas

Sunday Quilt Inspiration: Architecture

Houses, schools, buildings.  Windows, doors, walls and floors.  Anything architecture applies.  

Whew! Quilting Is Hard Work

Really, it is!  My back is very sore but that should not surprise me since I quilted a whole quilt today.  Thank goodness that quilt is only about 50 inches square.  Any larger and I would not have made it.

Can you tell what it is?  Here are a couple of hints: it's really heavy, it's not the usual cotton, and it's got some very unusual colors and design.  

I'm in the middle of making a Dresden Plate tie quilt for a customer.  I actually began this project last weekend, but I did not get very far.

I was above my head in measuring and making the ties fit the quilt. Today my darling husband came in and did the math. It turns out that the math wasn't so hard.  Apparently I was on the right path but stopped too soon.

This is one of those times that I'm really grateful that I have such a large work table.  I spread the gray backing down on the table, found the centers on both side, and started laying ties down.  We did lots of adjusting to get the points even, and I had to trim down the center quite a bit, but in the end it worked out.



Then I loaded the long-arm and got busy.  It was difficult stitching down the ties, but once those were finished, the rest went quickly. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get to trim the edges, prepare and sew on the binding, then just close up the center.  It would be nice to have this project finished before we leave for Houston later in the week.  
Are you coming to Houston?  

Pin It Weekly #124

Ready to share your pins?  It's that part of the week!  I'm not sure that I'd say App It was a success, but it was fun and a few folks did add their ideas. Thanks to everyone who participated!  We'll do it again.

Rachel from Let's Begin Sewing

Rachel, at Let's Begin Sewing, posted some of the handwork she has been doing lately.  It reminds me quite a bit of Kaja's work over at Sew Slowly.  There's something about these beautiful stitches that speak to me.  I think it may be the idea that I could, indeed, do something like this.  

Kaja's denim work at Sew Slowly

What it has gotten me into doing is looking at lots of Sashiko on Pinterest.  I should probably start a board, but for some reason I've ended up following links and reading lots of articles on the types, history and how to's about Sashiko.

So, really, all I have to share are the some of the pins I found with a quick search.  But be warned: it's a bit addicting and you find yourself going down the rabbit-hole.  I came out about an hour and a half later, knowing all sorts of things about this type of quilting.  I feel a bit obligated to do something with all this knowledge!