Houston sightings

Sew - today I had planned to post info on the classes I took in Houston. Unfortunately, my camera card isn't playing nice and letting me rotate pictures. How about I post some random pictures that don't need rotating?!

This is the chandelier in the Hilton-Americas Lobby. The glass is made by Dale Chihuly and if you ever get the chance to see an exhibit get there yesterday because his work is strange but oh so beautiful. Luckily the hotel was attached to the convention center by covered walkways over the street. It made for easy drop offs after class or a shopping jaunt.

Speaking of the convention center - I swiped this from someone else's blog as it was taken from her hotel room on a different block of downtown. I am pretty sure this isn't even the whole Center in her photo. This Center is HUGE - supposedly the size of 7 football fields and it felt like it when you realized there was something at the other end you wanted to go back to. To the left side of the photo, in the park, was a "hill" over the entrance to underground parking. On Friday that hill served as seating for a silent movie accompanied by a band playing music. How cool! That park was busy every day I was there...

This is the view from our hotel room looking in the opposite direction. This is a concert venue near the Convention Center. The que was for a Guns-n-Roses concert.

This was the actual downtown area. The skyscraper on the far right appeared as a flat sheet of paper from our position. It was really a diamond but a neat illusion from our room.

These carpets were everywhere in the hotel – just a gorgeous/delicious jumble of color and design.

This 3D world map was in the lounge/café in the lobby area

Huh – forgot I took this picture of PART of the convention center. Can you read the little digital sign? It says “Welcome Int’l Quilt Festival.” Quilt Fest is supposedly the largest convention in Houston.

And last but not least for today, this was taken from a window on the second floor overlooking just a portion of the 1100 vendors. You can see the aisle markers - this is less than half the sales floor.

Shopped til I dropped

Yes, I literally dropped each and every day. Dodging scooters, strollers and gawking shoppers is hard work when there is sew much to look at. Every time I wandered around the shopping area I found new stuff to see, even if I had already been to the same booth. Partly because I skipped some booths that were too crowded the first time but I also noticed new merchandise as the old was sold off.

Do you remember the quilted sweatshirt jacket I made? I hope so cuz I can't find the post where I blogged about it. Anyway...the jacket was made with Cherrywood fabrics and I wore that jacket when I went to the Cherrywood booth. Surprise Surprise - they gave me the little bundle of fabrics for "advertising." There are two 8FQ bundles there, one labeled Kiwi Berry and the other Madagascar, that I hope to use for hexie projects. Somewhere online I saw a runner with larger hexies that was graduated in color from one end to the other. I hope to make at least one of them for a Christmas gift. The bag is Cherry scraps - can't wait to get into that pack.

Yup - more fireman fabric. The quilt needs matching pillowcases ;) I bought enuf to make the body of 2 pillowcases as the firemen but then someone mentioned they wanted to know where to buy the fabric (really hard to find) so maybe I make the pillow end in firemen and sell the rest? The sushi and Asian cat top left and sewing house mice bottom right were just because purchases. The butterflies and yellow cat fabrics on the bottom left were to try fussy cutting hexies.

Gotta buy Texas fabric when in Texas!! 2 FQ with the intention of gifting one - we shall see. I always purchase neutrals so they were a given. The black, red and blue were for the Orca Bay mystery - altho now I have seen so many other color combos online I am kicking myself for not being more inventive.

Yes, there really was a tea booth at the show! What fun to have a little sample. I purchased some Orange Roobibus that smells divine and she told me that my tea might come out bitter sometimes because I was steeping it too long and had too many tea leaves - hence the spoon. The kit on the left, my only "regret" once I figured out exactly how much I had spent this weekend, is a kumihimo starter kit and book. Kumihimo is a way of making braids and I can make round or flat braids. You can even add beads to the braids.

You know I had to buy zippers! A teeny bit more expensive than locally but different colors. The cat scissors are for me and the fish scissors are a gift. My first Zentagle book is geared towards quilted projects. I thought it would be an easy place to start and see if I am any good with Zentangle since I can't actually doodle worth beans. I really look forward to the freemotionquilting aspect of it. The wooden stamp is used to stamp fabric. The demos showed black images on hand dyed or batik fabrics and it was stunning. It came in the little bag. They also had much larger stamps but I felt this was a good place to start.

There is also a picture of the threads I bought but Blogger is having fits so that's it for today...
I also have to go thru the rest of the laundry basket to see what other purchases are hiding. Oh and I think I packed some things in my shoes...

Design Wall Tuesday - 11/8/11

Yup - I made it back safe and sound from Houston but I think I am the most exhausted I have ever been in my entire life. By the end of each day I was just shuffling and stumbling along. One should never shop when they are that tired...don't ask me how I know...

My actual design wall is exactly the same as it was last week. The design wall in my head is a whole 'nother story!!! After looking at 1100 vendors and probably as many quilts, my brain is full of ideas, colors and designs. A huge jumble of ideas, colors and designs.

I was especially excited to see several booth demonstrations with rulers I already have but had never used - now I have several ideas to use stuff I already own. I bought fabric - you knew that, right??!! - for the Orca Bay mystery, fussy cutting hexies and a few for just because. I bought some rulers, needles, pins and lotsa thread. There are even some freebies from booth give aways and classes.

This laundry basket is haphazardly full of purchases and supplies I took with me for 2 classes.

As life gets back to normal I'll be able to write posts on my classes, the vendors, the quilt show, the food, etc. What would you like to see first?