Houston Trip

I have had this song stuck in my head since last Friday! Etta and I ran into Rice (rhymes with Lisa) Freeman-Zachery at the quilt show on Friday. Rice had interviewed Etta by phone back in the summer for the cover article of the July/August issue of Belle Armoire Magazine, but they hadn't yet met face to face. During the conversation, Rice told a story about a post-quilt show dinner where one invited guest who was served fish with the head still on had kinda freaked out---Jekyll and Hyde style! Well, at the mention of heads-on-fish, I couldn't stop myself from singing a little bit of the afore mentioned song, which, it turns out, was pretty much unknown to everyone else in the conversation. There were some strange looks followed by mesmerized silence/stares...I wasn't sure whether to continue singing for their amusement or crawl into a hole!...(they were amused)...long story short, that song has been stuck in my head ever since!


We arrived in Houston last Tuesday, after a bumpy flight on a small plane. We took the Super Shuttle to our hotel (Holiday Inn Express)...this was about a 30 minute ride and cost $23.80 each. After unpacking our stuff, Etta and I walked the 8 blocks to the Houston Center, next to the Four Seasons Hotel. There is a food court on the 3rd floor with many options to choose from, as well as a sit-down restaurant called Ninfa's. We chose Ninfa's and got a table by the window overlooking the city streets. We both ordered a soup which was awesome! Although it had a different name, it was a chicken/tortilla-type soup. It was served as chicken meat in broth in a bowl and was surrounded by rice, tortilla strips, avocado, and pico de gallo to add as desired. Yum!

Tuesday night was the awards show, where the winning quilts were announced/unveiled.




On Wednesday, we met up with two of Etta's friends, Deb and Becky, and took a taxi to High Fashion Fabrics in Houston. Just walking in the door, I caught my breath...wow. This was fun!


Right away, Etta made friends with one of the 'models' at HFF.




Need a black wool? Perhaps a grey, or maybe a navy? Solids and pinstsripes and plaids, lightweights and heavier...oh my! How about a 4-ply silk for a blouse? A burn-out velvet? The selection here was unbelievable! The prices were all over the place...there were fabrics priced at $17 yd which were on sale for half price ($8.50), and other fabrics for nearly $200 yd!




I was blown away by the selection of wonderful fabrics at High Fashion Fabrics in Houston. There were so many 'special occasion' fabrics...there is nowhere NEAR anything like this available to me locally. It was fun to pet these fabrics and imagine what they would be when they grow up!





After our fabric shopping excursion, we AGAIN went to lunch at Ninfa's, as Becky and Deb wanted to try the soup we had raved about. Etta and I didn't mind eating it a second day in a row!




Walking the several blocks back to the hotel took us through this lovely area in the Houston Center Gardens:






This is me, in the pathway through the grove. These big trees were just lovely and created a wonderful atmosphere!






In the Discovery Green Park, across from the GRB Convention center, we found 'Cool Globes: Hot Ideas for a Cooler Planet', which is "public art with a purpose...to inspire individuals, corporations and government officials to take action against climate change."
http://coolglobes.org/




On Wednesday afternoon, we met with another group of ladies for an afternoon chat before the show opened.
Here is Etta and Diane Herbort exchanging ATCs.

Then at 5pm, the quilt show opened for 'preview night'. At this time, we could actually BEGIN shopping! And we did.