The Houston Quilt Show - Nov 3-6

Hoffman Challenge - first place, Ann Faustino of NJ  "Butterfly Dance".

After years of hearing my friend, Karen, talk about the Houston Quilt Show, I accepted her gracious offer to come see for myself.  She sent me a link to a web movie so that I would be in some way prepared for it, but truly nothing could have prepared me for it all.  Imagine a space roughly the size of an air craft carrier devoted to nothing but color, form, pattern and all things fiber arts.  Yes, I was truly in little piggy heaven.  And although nothing had anything really to do with hand embroidery or cross stitch, that made no difference at all.  My eyes are filled up with the shear magnitude of color and pattern.  I can say for sure that this certainly isn't your grandmother's quilt anymore.  And yes, its bee over a week now that I've been home from this.  It will tell you a little something that its taken this long for my brain to settle with this because 2 days wandering around in all this give a whole new meaning to the ideas of "overstimulated" and "brain overload".  Magnificent - extraordinary - amazing - delightful.

Am I going to give up embroidery for quilting - well, probably not.  Although I did get some quilting books and buy a number of irresistable fabric samples.  I will probably make a quilt or two here and there.  I think the real lasting impression this is going to make on me is that it has completely blown the doors off my idea of what is possible in terms of color theory. I think that is going to be my next avenue of research.  I need to look into this color thing.  I don't do too badly as it is just following my instincts, but taking a short side trip into the academics of it may well open a few doors.  It may also give my overheated brain a way to file and sort all the rest of it.

Meanwhile I am excited and delighted and grateful beyond measure to my dear friend who opened up this whole new world of art to me.