International Quilt Festival World of Beauty and What's for Dinner

Welcome back! It's Day 4 of my blogging about the International Quilt Festival in Houston and I am jazzed to review some of the quilts at festival, this year. With so little time to checkout the quilts, I made my way to Innovative Applique in the World of Beauty judged show where I was blessed to have "Parrotise" accepted. This is one of my favorite pieces that I have created and it was so fun to see it in Houston. I have never entered anything into Innovative Applique and it was a pleasure to see how so many artists were using so many creative ideas to express themselves. What a treat?!!!! I have to say, I DID come up with the idea for my next quilt while at the show and I am itching to get started on it!!! Next, I meandered to the Group Quilts Division of the judged show where Mod 7 was being displayed. Mod 7 was named for it's modern look and the seven artists, Sherri Mc Cauley, Martha Tsihlas, Leslie Tucker Jenison,  Kathy York, Frances Holliday Alford, Connie Hudson and myself who collaborated to create it.

Above left is a photo of Mod 7 and to the right is the title and description along with all the techniques that were used to create this piece. I absolutely love the bold graphics using mainly black and white with subtle touches of cobalt blue and chartreuse. I am so blessed to work with such fabulous artists!!! Finally, with only a few minutes to spare before my next class, I made my way to the "What's for Dinner" special exhibit. Wow, I love this exhibit and how each artist interprets their vision of food and fiber. There were so many creative pieces there and just looking at them was so much fun!!! This year, they also opted to have centerpieces and items for the table. My 3 dimensional fiber art flowers and vase were set along with a fabulous Alphabet Soup by Frances Holliday Alford.

I love this!!! I do hope they repeat this special exhibit again. I have so many ideas for next year!!! I hope you have enjoyed this blog post and tour of the show floor at festival. Please join me tomorrow as I have a surprise in store. Wishing you all a most tantalizing Tuesday, my friends!

Dinners with Dinner at Eight Artists and Fiber on a Whim

Welcome back to Day 3 of blogging about my experiences at the International Quilt Festival in Houston. Today, I would like to focus on a very special Dinner at Eight Artists, exhibit, “Affinity” curated by Leslie Tucker Jenison and Jamie Fingal. This is always a very special show at festival and this year is perhaps my most favorite of all! Forty artists each created a 40X40 piece for the exhibit. My piece, “That’s Amore” is shown above. The show debuted at IQF for market and festival and it was met with great enthusiasm! Later we all gathered together on Friday evening to celebrate with a wonderful dinner at 8:00, naturally. After dinner, we discussed next year’s theme and played a game of spoons. I really have to practice more for this!

The photo above left are my good friends, Rachel Parris and Frances Holliday Alford doing a fabulous job of holding their own in the spoon game. I envy them! And you may notice the new “Affinity” book at the table which we all had copies of and circulated around for each other to sign. The photo above, right captures the lovely and fun spirited Susan Fletcher King and Linda Teddlie Minton. And I did not manage to get a photo of Pokey Bolton, our honored guest but she was there along with fellow honored guest, Lisa Ellis. So much talent under one roof, for sure and a good time was had by all!  I am so blessed to be  part of this fabulous group of women.
And speaking of amazing women, the next evening, I was also blessed to dine out with Kristin Rodriguez and Jan Girod of Fiber on a Whim. They always know the best places to eat in Houston and Saturday night was no exception. We ate a wonderfully, delectable meal at Mannie’s. Because Kristin and I both LOVE hot and spicy food, Mexican Gulf seafood with an Asian influence, was on the menu for Saturday night. Wow, what a treat?!!! I hope you have enjoyed this blog post and that you will join me tomorrow when I continue my tour on the show floor to explore more exhibits and quilts. Wishing you a fabulous Monday, my friends!

 

Window Shopping at Houston International Quilt Festival

Welcome, I know I said I would blog about both the quilt festival show and the goodies I procured while at festival but I thought today would be better suited for some afternoon window shopping. As promised, here are some of the photos of goodies I managed to find while in Houston. Earlier this year, when I judged the quilt show in Kerrville, I came upon this thread that I absolutely LOVE!!!! It's called Glide and it has a beautiful sheen to it but best of all, it sews like butter!!!! There's about 47 spools of thread here and it is a good start to my collection. Eye candy for sure! I am so jazzed about this find! I also was introduced to Bunny Paper, a new product from Attached Inc. by Iris Karp that works so well with their Mistyfuse. Bunny Paper is amazing! You iron your Mistyfuse to the back of your fabric. Procure the design you would like to transfer onto your computer and print it out on Bunny Paper. When you iron the Bunny Paper onto the Mistyfuse (back side) of your fabric, it transfers the design. How cool is that?!!!! I will be playing with this and doing a blog post on it soon so feel free to check back for more information. And I just had to pick up some lovely hand dyed cotton and linen fabric from my good friends, Kristin Rodriguez and Jan Girod of Fiber on a Whim. Their hand dyed products are so wonderful to work with and have such beautiful sheen! The fabric all the way on the right just kept calling my name every time I walked by so I finally relented and purchased it! And a girl has to have a stiletto!


I also found some goodies for creating my 3Dimensional flowers, some cording, gorgeous hand dyed velvet ribbon, hand dyed silk cocoons and crocheted beads. They are scrumptious and I can't wait to play with them! Then to sooth, my mixed media side, I had to purchase lots of stencils, paint, Tsukineko ink, silk screens, blue foam moldable stamps, tiny daubers for fine dots, combs for gelatin monoprinting and best of all, two fabulous sets of paint brushes. These brushes are like gold! There are five brushes in each Aqualon Wisp set. Two years ago, when I was last in Houston, I came upon my first Aqualon brush set and they are to die for! There are four brush sets in all: the fan set which allows you to create shapes reminiscent of clams and fans, the filbert set which lends itself to painting feathers, the flat set which allows for easy panting of checkerboard surfaces and basket cross hatching, and finally, the angular set which is wonderful for painting trees and foliage. My mouth just waters when I think about playing with these! With so many goodies, it's hard to decide what to play with first!!! Though, I have to tell you, I am leaning towards the paints and brushes!

I hope you have enjoyed these product reviews and that you will check back with me tomorrow when I blog about the show at Houston International Quilt Festival. Wishing you a fabulous Sunday, my friends!

International Quilt Festival Workshops at Fiber on a Whim

I am back from Houston International Quilt Festival and am just now getting a chance to start blogging. Wow, what a ride?!!!! I arrived on Thursday in time to teach Artful Coloring, a one hour workshop for Fiber on a Whim on the festival floor. I love that booth! And I absolutely loved seeing the look on my students' faces as they created two pieces of painted art, one on black and one on white fabric using acrylic textile paints, gelatin printing, stamping and stenciling. We all got messy but had a blast! This class was repeated again on Saturday. In between painting classes, I taught 3 Dimensional Fiber Art Flowers and was blessed to have two of my peeps from Austin sit in my class, Beth Kennedy and Lois Moran. They are awesome artists! Each student created their own unique 3 D flower and were able to walk away with a finished flower lapel pin. How cool is that?!!!           I had a blast teaching at Houston this year and got to connect with so many friends and make new friends as well. Love that! Tomorrow, I will post about the show and goodies that I managed to find while there. I hope you enjoyed this post and I look forward to sharing more of my experiences at festival with you. Wishing you a fabulous and creative day!