More Show-n-Tell

Ya know, I forgot to show you the things I got from the very FIRST booth I visited!!! This booth, called Quilt Tapestry Studio, is where Wendy Richardson dyes all kinds of new and vintage textiles. I bought several pieces of fabric, as well as several scrap bags...containing a variety of small pieces. I just loved her crocheted/lace pieces! And I picked up one pair of her colorful bamboo socks for a Christmas gift.

When you visit her website, be sure to check out that close-up image of 'Summer Bouquet', the quilt that hangs in her booth. It is awesome! Made from her dyed fabrics and vintage laces and crocheted pieces...look at all that beautiful rayon seam tape that meanders around the piece! And the rick rack...oh my!

Here are the beads I bought, that I mentioned in my previous post.

The faux pearls came from Melek Karacan. I really don't have a special need for these, but I loved them and wanted them!

I was actively looking for leaf beads and finally found them at the Bowerbirds booth. I had picked out 3 different colors of green to buy. While writing up my order, she remembered another batch of leaves she had that was not on display, so she just threw in a string of that color for free! How nice is that? It was the olive ones, in the top right. So I also bought a string of turtle beads...hey! I just couldn't resist!

Here is a closer look at the turtles...the flash creates a glare.


I love turtles...they are at home whereever they go!

Show and Tell

Here is a little 'show-n-tell' of stuff I bought at the International Quilt Festival in Houston last week.

From Pro Chemical, I bought a RAINBOW GRADATION DYEING kit, in the color EARTHY BLEND. This is enough to dye 30 fat eighths (9" by 22"). Since I am a novice when it comes to dying, I thought a kit might be a good start. However, I also bought a 2 oz. container each of GOLDEN YELLOW, INTENSE BLUE, and FUCHSIA. These are kinda 'primary-ish' colors, so I figure I can mix to make just about anything I want. I also bought 8 oz of PAIST MIX (used to thicken dyes if desired) and it's also used with the THIOX...Thio Urea Dioxide...that I bought to make discharge paste. I plan on having some fun with fabrics!



From Laura Murray Designs, I bought a set of 12 Shiva Paintstiks,
which I have been wanting for years now! But I also bought 3 additional colors which are new and not included in that set of iridescents.




From Pinwheels Trading Company, I fell for the Japanese fabrics called Daiwabo. I bought several fat quarters and a half-yard piece and a kit to make a small bag. After making my initial purchase, I went back for seconds, geting a kit to make a small quilt! I am not normally a 'kit' person, but I am learning to be one!

I also loved the fabrics at Webfabrics.net! Here again, I went back for seconds. I got three fat quarters in the white/golds, as well as a roll of 15-- 9" x 11" batiks in a golden/terra cotta range. But I was also drawn to those 'blenders'...and had to pick up a bundle of darks!

Ooops! I see I have included that smaller bundle in this picture...that was a mistake. It came from Back Door Quilts, and should be in the picture with the next items. This little bundle is in taupes, grays, blues and browns...with some green designs on some of them.

Also from Back Door Quilts, I bought a kit to make a 'penny-rug' style sewing roll-up case, called "My Little Chickadee". Again, not my usual M.O. to work from a kit (nor to do handwork!), but this will give me a project to work on when riding in the car on road trips.

I also got a BALI POP, a precut collection of 40 different 2½" x 44" batik fabric strips. This one is the SPUMONI collection.




Well, phooey! My photo of the lovely rayon batiks just disappeared! I'll try to get it back, but picturess act crazy when they are 'moved' after loading...it might not enlarge.
Here it is...I reloaded...cross your fingers.
I found the blue fabric first, then when I saw the purple dragonflies, well...I HAD to get it! And it needed a companion print...so the gold-with-bamboo was 'it'. These came from Indonesian Batiks.


As mentioned before, we visited HIGH FASHION FABRICS on Wednesday, before the quilt show opened. This is the only piece I bought! Can you believe that? I was overwhelmed.

This is a bamboo/lycra blend knit, and I think it will make a lovely top.




From Bold Over Batiks, I got this 'bundle of bungles.' It is a bundle of batiks and hand-dyed fabrics, and you can really only see what is on the outside...like buying a pig in a poke! The 'bungles'...flaws...were hardly visible to me--tiny white areas every here and there (no big deal!)..so I bought one.






Back at hotel, I opened the bundle to check it out. Inside, there were lots of colors! Most of the fabrics are hand-dyed, and a few are batiks...perfect! And as for 'bungles'...well, the only ones I saw were the ones on the outer fabric. I am just not as picky as they must be.







I stopped in my tracks when I came to the booth of Meg Hannon.
Her 'fabric jewels' were so unusual and so beautiful! I had to pick up a few small pieces! Be sure to visit her website to see the demonstration of how she makes this stuff...it is amazing!









From Lesley Riley, I got some TAP, which is Transfer Artist Paper. You use it in your inkjet printer to do image transfer. For this show, she had packages of 5 sheets which sold for $10...I don't see those on her website.










From Wild Thymes Pattern Company, I got a VINTAGE HUES SAMPLER of Valdani threads. These are colorfast 3-strand cotton floss for punchneedle, cross-stitch, embroidery, etc. I have a punchneedle project in the works and wanted the thread for that.





From Treasures of the Gypsy, I found this rubber stamp with lots of faces. I couldn't resist. It's not that I need more faces, or couldn't draw my own...I just love stamps like this! I know...









Jennifer Zanetti had some wonderful vintage ribbons and trims and I couldn't help myself...I got these "salesman's samples" of beaded trims as well as several yards of velvet ribbon in black and beige.





From the Quilting Arts booth, I picked up a 2010 calendar, which I am sure I will enjoy...next year!






I also bought some beads, which I now see that I forgot to photograph! I'll have to get back to you with those images!

All in all, the only regrets I have are the things I DIDN'T buy!

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.

I'm Ba-aaaack!

There is nothing like coming home from a long trip! Even if your accomodations were lovely (which they were), and your traveling companion was delightful (which she was), and you really had a great time (which I did), there STILL comes a point at which you long to be home!

And now I am!

Home, that is.


It is late and I am tired, but I look forward to telling about my experiences at the International Quilt Show in Houston, as well as showing some of the things I saw and bought, along with some of the people I met!



But for now, check out these lovely images.....this is my traveling companion, Etta McFarland, finishing her water before going through security at the Houston Airport (Bush Intl).






Etta and I couldn't resist hamming it up a bit while waiting at the gate. Turns out, it was the WRONG gate...well, it started out right, but then they changed gates on us, so we had to grab our stuff and hike to a different area of the airport. We both look like we need some 'special' help!






The plane was a small one...we had both chosen aisle seats (across from each other) but it turned out that my side of the aisle had only ONE seat per row...that's how small the plane was! So mine was an aisle seat AND a window seat!

This is the view on take-off, as we were leaving the Houston area.





Traveling east(-ish) from Arkansas, we cross the Misssissippi River into Tennessee.









We are descending to land in Memphis!

More later! I'm gonna crash now that I am on land! ;)