Houston...Final Shots

The last pictures I have from Houston are the dolls....what an amazing array of handmade, quirky, beautiful dolls. I have to say I never had a desire to make anything like this, and after seeing these...I don't think I'd have the patience...they are incredible. I'd rather sew the clothes for them :) Click on the pictures to see them up close.

This last picture is Lorraine Torrence's jacket, for which she sells the pattern and everything you need. She had a great (and large) booth with many samples, jackets and vests for sale, many patterns of her own designs and fabric to complete them. And she is a wonderful person to know...love her.

I had a fabulous time in Houston...can't wait to go again.

Marcia

Houston...Part 3

When you stand on the second floor of the convention center, you can look down on the show floor...this is about 1/3 of the vendors...the quilts used to be integrated with the vendors...but now they are in a separate area....as big as the vendor area. It is laid out beautifully.

Here are a bunch more quilts...click on them to see more detail.



This quilt below was an interesting piece...the color grabbed me.

Caryl Fallert won another major prize.

This prize winner (below)was beautifully done, and....mmm...different :)

Love the fabric in this one...gave me many ideas.

This was the view from my room...the convention center is on the right...connected by a skywalk.

A few more next time...dolls, vendors and displays.

Marcia

Amazing Houston...Part 2

The Bernina Fashion Show!!!! This was the winning outfit...a beautiful dress by Starr Hagenbring. I think this dress is spectacular....I do love organza...and it has hand-painting and stitching splashed across the many panels of different colored organza.

Starr was also a vendor, and I bought one of her kits for a great jacket....she has a very unique way of preparing and packaging her kits...I can't wait to make it.

Five more of the outfits that I got good pictures of...I thought all the items in the show were great.

Great beadwork!

Starry, Starry Night!

Still more tomorrow!

Marcia

Amazing Houston...Part 1!

I haven't been to Houston for the big Quilt Show in many years....and it's more amazing than ever! My legs ached and I had 7 bandaids on my feet...but it was worth it....WOW! So many vendors selling so much great stuff...and so many lectures and tutorials and hands-on experiences. I had such a good time....and I ran into some old friends and made some new ones. Below are some of my favorite quilts, some of the winners and a couple pieces from the cloth exhibit curated by Jane Dunnewold.



Love the dyed fabric in this quilt!

This was quite cool....something about Monet's garden.

I LOVED this winner, and I told her so....it was so unique and fresh....the shadows were created with stitching....my favorite of the big winners.

This was one of the artcloth pieces.

Another artcloth piece, done by Jane Dunnewold.

Best of Show by Hollis Chatelaine.

Click on this to see up close.

A quite impressive piece.

Another piece by Hollis...I'm a little partial to this piece...wonder why :)

This was a cool piece...love the fabric.

More tomorrow...

Marcia

Happy Halloween!!!!

A year ago today this is where we were...at my daughter's wedding at Disney World....the reception was a masquerade ball, and the bride and groom were vampires! It is truly her favorite day of the year....always has been. Click on picture to see their faces up close!

So every year she has a big Halloween party, and this year she and Mike had a new home to decorate and party in....and, of course, I had to be there!

We had a great time...PrimaDonna was there, and Cinderfella! Scooby Doo (Keri) and Tiki god (Mike) welcomed all their friends!

Marilyn Monroe was beautiful, and Jon stumped many with his costume....not a shepherd!

Mike made a beautiful ballerina....and took home the prize for best costume.

Tina, Scooby and Qynnh mug for the camera.

SHARONNNNNN!!!! Yes OZZY!!!!

Ride 'em cowboy......Randy always has a great costume.

When Monty and Mike weren't smiling, they truly were scary clowns :)



Loved this "costume"!!!! He brought the whole diorama!


Keri is a serious collector of everything Tim Burton, most especially Nightmare Before Christmas....this is her loft.

And the Nightmare Before Christmas bedroom.



I'm off to Houston tomorrow for the International Quilt Festival. Of course I'll take pictures!

Marcia

What A Class!!!

My class at the Crow Barn in Baltimore, Ohio with Jan Myers-Newbury was fabulous...what a week! Nancy Crow has done the quilting and surface design world a great service by building this amazing space in which to work. Nancy had a quilting class upstairs with 22 women...our class was downstairs with 16 women. Everyone in our class did different and beautiful work. Below is a picture of Nancy Bailey's last piece of fabric, and her best! It has three separate techniques and is a show-stopper.

This is how some of my pieces started....I used a different technique on each one....and it was just the first layer on each. Every piece of fabric in these pictures started out as plain white.

This is the dye studio....a dream space!

And this is where we ate our two meals a day....cooked by the wonderful Margaret....she helped me stay on my weight watchers program...and the food was wonderful. I actually lost 2 pounds when I got home.

And after multiple applications...this is some of my finished pieces of fabric. I went a bit further with a couple of them....it's addictive! I folded, and clamped, and wrapped on a pole and scrunched it down, and then dyed them....each yielding a different result. Yum!!!


The last day we had to design a composition using the pieces we had done. The center red fabric was my last one done, and became the inspiration for my piece. It will have all circles, and the narrow piece on the left will be repeated on the right....stay tuned.

There's another class next year...advanced...most of the class was going to sign up to come back...that will be fun...I better have it done by then :)

Marcia

Jan Myers-Newbury

Nancy and I are off to Baltimore, Ohio on Sunday to the Nancy Crow Barn for a week-long class on shibori-dyeing with Jan Myers-Newbury. This is one of her pieces...it makes my heart sing! I have been an admirer of her work for a long time, so I'm very excited to meet her and spend a week playing with her techniques and making beautiful fabrics.

I'll post pictures during the week if I can...otherwise, when I get home.


Marcia

Jane Dunnewold jacket

A few years ago I bought this silk fabric from Jane Dunnewold at one of her classses I went to...but neither was big enough to use on it's own. So I combined them to make this "Anne's jacket" pattern....my favorite. I haven't decided whether to put a closure or not.

The fabric is so beautiful....I find it hard to do this much surface design on a piece...but when Jane does it I love it. It will be great when I wear it in Houston at the Quilt Show next month.

Of course, since I am doing great on Weight Watchers....it may be swimming on me by then...so I'll sell it....or I'll belt it like a blouse....we'll see. I'm off to work....this is my week this month.

Marcia