Thursday, November 6, 2014

Houston....Whatta Trip...........

Greetings all!

I would like to share with you all my trip to Houston.........in photos!  Please be aware this post is jam packed with photos of my trip there with my wonderful parents, quilt shops, antique mall finds, as well as the many quilts that were so inspiring at the International Quilt Festival in Houston.

I hope you enjoy the many photos and please share with me which quilt is YOUR favorite!


If you didn't know by now, I always have a travelling project with me and here I am working on it at my parent's home the night before we left.
I have been working on 10 gazillion half square triangles for a while now!

First stop was Marshall Dry Goods, Inc. in Batesville, Arkansas.
Oh yeah, we drove there, because, I never get to drive anywhere with my job and actually
SEE the countryside, and stops along the way.
Picnic lunch anyone?????

 Nice idea for plaids!
This quilt was found at Mid-Towne Antique Mall in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Another beautiful antique tulip quilt found at Mid-Towne Antique Mall in Little Rock.
I should have splurged for this one because it is really lovely, and well made.
It would be a really pretty Christmas quilt, don't you think?

We stopped in Texarkana the first night, and the next morning got up bright and early and headed to Mineola, Texas and Stitchin' Heaven.
This was a great little shop full of wonderful kits.
And, darn the luck, I had just missed Bonnie Hunter!!!!!



We then went to Tyler, Texas and stopped at Ye Old City Antique Mall.
I really loved this place, and a couple of the booths had exceptional antique quilt displays.


The nice lady that had this booth was there and was telling me about these blocks.  
The best she could surmise is that these were made by a teacher of a school or Sunday School class.
There were several blocks here........so tempting....but, Houston was coming up!  $$$$$




Driving on through East Texas..........


We visited Heart and Home Quilt Shop in Jacksonville, Texas.
The owner was absolutely delightful, and she had a lot of vintage sewing machines.
Many of them are used in her classes there.


We stayed in Livingston, Texas on the second night.


My dad LOVES to travel......and he had always wanted to visit Galveston, Texas.
It is a very short drive from Houston to Galveston, so you better believe I was gonna take him there!

He just HAD to touch the water......he would have jumped in, but, it was a little cool this day!


We then settled into our hotel in Houston, and awaited the arrival of my friend and quilter Ann.
I was able to get Ann a pass to fly down for a couple of days so we could enjoy the International Quilt Festival and view Radar together.

Truth be told, my mother is self admittedly NOT a good traveler.
She gets really nervous in large cities where there is a lot of traffic.
We thought it would be best to take a cab to the convention center for festival so we could avoid having to park.  This was my mother's very first cab ride!
I have to give props to our cab driver though.....he really drove nice and easy for my mom.
Can you see how nervous my mom is??? Poor little mama!  The things she does for her kids and grand kids!

 What a beautiful site to behold upon first entering the George R. Brown Convention Center!
This was the festival's 40th anniversary!
What a stunning display of RUBY quilts to help commemorate the occasion!

We HAD to find "Radar" right off the bat!
No awards this time, but, what an honor just to be accepted into the show!

 Ann, along with me and my parents.

What a blessing it was to share this experience with my mom and dad!

I loved seeing the faces of my parents......they were literally in awe of the beautiful works of art!


Quilts?

Quilts did you say?

You wanna see some quilts?????

Well, alrighty then........enjoy the show.................there were several quilts I would have loved to have photographed, but, they were parts of exhibits where photography wasn't allowed.


Winner of Large Wall Hanging, "Hurricane" by Jannike de Vries-Bodzinga.
What a lovely and fascinating artist.
STUNNING!

It was great being able to see and speak with the creators of these quilts.
If you see someone standing in front of a quilt in the following photos it is because that
person created that particular work.

 Victoria Findlay-Wolfe's quilt "Lace."
Victoria has a really great blog post about entering quilt shows here.


















Lunch time at Quilt Festival!!!!!





Ann quilted this quilt for Casey York.









 The Australian Quilts Exhibit was beyond beautiful!





 The Quilts of Valor booth.





















 My dad loved the title of this quilt as it is a phrase he uses quite often, "Mass Chaos."



 "Samson and Delilah"
















We drove the entire trip back to my parent's home in Southeast Missouri the very next day!


I have to admit, I think this year's International Quilt Festival was one of the best I have attended..........and not just because I was blessed to have a quilt in the show! LOL

I hope you enjoyed all of the eye candy!
I was really inspired by all of the quilts.....time to start a quilt now!

Thanks for all of the encouragement!
Kevin the Quilter

25 comments:

  1. Thanks for the pictures, Kevin! What a nice trip you had. Someday I'm going to make it to the Houston show. But, like your Mom, I'm not a very good traveler. My problem is usually boredom. Sometimes my sweet husband packs me surprise "activity bags" with treats and other little surprises to keep me busy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Congrats on being accepted into the show! I'm sure you probably mentioned it along the way and it just didn't register with me. Ann's quilting is stunning.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have no idea where to start... but... you had me at plaid!!! What fabulous photos - and your quilt - its beautiful!! I am glad you had such a great time!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I loved seeing all the quilts. So beautiful! Going to the Houston Quilt Festival is on my bucket list. It looks like you had a great time.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for the great pictures, I couldn't make it this year. Your parents are so dang cute, you are very fortunate to have them both around. Hugs, from Colorado

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for the guided tour Kevin!!! Great pics - it's almost as good as being there (almost!). I didn't see one of those quilts that I liked better than Radar. I did really like Samson & Delilah though - that was pretty awesome :) Loved the pics of you with your parents - you are lucky to have such a close family :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. How precious to be able to share this with your parents. Thank you Kevin for the wonderful road trip and Houston Quilt Show tour. Sew many amazing quilts and artists. Radar should have gotten a ribbon! Creative Quilting Bliss...

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks for bringing us all on a virtual ride-along to Houston! So much incredible eye candy, not the least of which is your Radar quilt! How precious to be able to share such a trip with your mom and dad.

    ReplyDelete
  9. What a fabulous trip with your parents!!! How fun to share your passion with them...and to see their son's quilt hanging in such an impressive show - so wonderful!!!!! All the pictures were so wonderful - thanks for sharing your trip with us!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Looks like a fantastic trip! I know you've been busy, but, did you get a chance to check your email? I sent you a message with a contact at Ft. Leonard Wood, but I haven't heard back from you. Hope all is well!!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thank you for the virtual tour, even the wonderful shops along the way! So, what did you end up spending your money on? :-} How sweet to travel with your folks, I bet they both enjoyed your company, even if Momma doesn't travel well ~
    pokey

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks for taking us along on the trip to Houston. It's hard to pick just one quilt from so many. The Samson & Delilah was really unique and I was surprised to see so many traditional scrap quilts at Houston. You usually think of more art quilts at that show.
    So glad your parents got to experience the Houston Show. Thanks for sharing with us.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thank you for sharing the lovely photo,s .quilts are beautiful.
    so nice that you shared this trip with your parents.

    ReplyDelete
  14. So nice you got to go, AND had a quilt in the show! Congrats!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Thank you for all your wonderful pictures

    ReplyDelete
  16. Great trip, enjoyed going along with you and your folks! Dang on the almost Bonnie sighting!

    ReplyDelete
  17. I didn't quilt when I lived in Texas. I didn't know about the show back then. I've never gone. Lovely quilts. Glad you got to go again. Wish you'd had time to eat at Guido's in Galveston. Yummy seafood.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Hands down best quilt would definitely be "Radar!"

    ReplyDelete
  19. Thanks for sharing all the photos. There are some amazing quilts there. It's a long drive to Houston, but it looks like you found lots of fun places to stop.

    ReplyDelete
  20. WOW! Thanks for sharing all those beautiful photos. Makes me feel like I was there. Congratulations on having your quilt there. Truly, my favorite is your Radar quilt. Looks like everyone was having fun making some great family memories.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Thanks for the show pictures. Your Radar quilt is gorgeous! It is so wonderful to see your parents being supportive of you and your art. :-)
    Kathy

    ReplyDelete
  22. This was a really fun post. It's always a treat to see quilt shots from shows, but I love the story of the trip with your folks!

    ReplyDelete
  23. THANK YOU!!! I was unable to attend this year and your did a superb job picking the 'good' quilts! Glad you had a wonderful trip!!!

    ReplyDelete
  24. I Want to use this medium to appreciate an online ghost hacker, after being ripped off my money he helped me find my cheating lover and helped me hacked his WHATSAPP, GMAIL, kik and all his social media platforms and i got to know that he has being cheating on me and in less than 24 hours he helped me out with everything, hacking setting is trust worthy, contact him via: hackingsetting50@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete