Quilt Festival Houston 2017!

So happy to be in Houston, TX again for International Quilt Festival. It’s a lovely feeling to be standing

in freont of your own quilt -here my East/West - on the floor amid this gathering  of the best quilts in the country!p

Traditional quilts, art quilts, contemporary, modern -they are all here in abundance in the 

World of Beauty IQA Judged Show. And then the Special Exhibits from all around the world bring 

more of the best of the best to Houston.

A highlight for me was seeing all of the Cherrywood Van Gogh Challenge jquilts displayed together for

the first time. Here I am with my “Starry” and below are shots of the exhibit all hung together on 

A back wall of the exhibit space. A symphony of art in shades of blues and provencale influenced yellows. 

The exhibit got a lot of attention and the newly published book sold out by the second day of the show!

Meeting up with friends is always a happy part of the Houston experience. 

Three happy travelers -Robin, Roberta and myself in a  serendipitous reunion of our January trip to Japan on a textile

 tour with Susan Ball Faeder’s Quilters Express to Japan. Alison was also in Houston, but didn’t make it into the selfie!

And fellow artist and Fiber Fanatic member Sherry Kleinman was at the show with her

Daughter from New York. Both Sherry’s pieces in the World Of Beauty competition were representations 

of her grandchildren.

           Maria Shell who visited and taught at my quilt guild Westside Quilters in LA just last week won a  third lace prize in the abstract category! We celebrated with her over dinner on Thursday night!

               

Viewing the all the quilts and the over 1100 vendors is quite a proposition. I made it to half the vendors, 

but saw all the quilts on display. I was hampered slightly by a small accident  stepping unexpectantly off a

curb and severely wrenching my knee on the evening of my third day which resulted in a lot of ice packs 

and  ibuprofen in our very lovely room at the Four Seasons. 

So I missed my Saturday class and some vendors, but I’d spent  more than enough money, anyway!

Home to LA tomorrow... can’t wait for next time!

Check out more blogs at Off The Wall Fridays 

Quilt Festival Houston Part II

More of the sights and quilts at Houston Quilt Festival..      



Of course, there are vendors.......                                                                                      

Hundreds and hundreds of vendors.  I got in trouble with a few - some wonderful watery batiks, a light/magnifier for my machine,  A lovely piece of over dyed cotton from Wendy Richardson, a French cotton tablecloth and napkins, some repro glazed chintz from the ladies from Amsterdam and some big spools of YLI silk thread. There's lots of other stuff arriving the end of the week in my shipped box. 

I spent an hour or so volunteering in the SAQA booth selling books, cards, memberships, etc  where I met some wonderful quilters from Texas and all over the country. The last group  of 12" auction quilts for the SAQA Benefit Auction were exhibited and selling. My Mated for Life II was on the wall in the middle below the sign and sold! Always a great feeling of relief....  Two SAQA shows were on display - Celebrating Silver and Redirecting the Ordinary. What a great experience touring them with SAQA President Kris Sazaki! 

And, of course, there are winners in the judged show.... here are just a few of my favorites among them. 

Nancy Prince won Best of Show for this wonderful thread painted snow scene 

"On This Winter's Day" 

David Taylor's magnificent "Beneath My Wing" won the Fairfield Master Award for Contemporary Artistry for this intimate and sensitive portrayal of a swan and cygnet. All of David's quilts are hand appliquéd and very closely machine quilted - hundreds and thousands of tiny pieces. As you may know from seeing some of my recent work, I have a thing for swans. 

"Hurricane" by Janneke De Vries-Bodzinga of The Netherlands was awarded first place in Art- Abstract- Large. She told me that it is all hand appliquéd, but machine quilted. The color and movement of this was spectacular  - I was completely enthralled. 

The World of Beauty Award - "Gift of Appreciation "by Kyoko Yamauchi from Japan. Such wonderful detail and amazing workmanship. 

"Moody Beach, Maine, 1957" by Margot McDonnell from Arizona won a second place in Art - Pictorial . This one reminded me of the work of the French Impressionist Boudin - I loved the gray skies reflected in the water. 

And so many quilts that are truly outstanding, but went without awards.  I don't always agree with the judges anyway.  Here are some of my favorites from the long aisles of quilts in the judged show Quilts: A World of Beauty.....

Collaged entirely from various colors and sizes and textures of sewn on buttons

"Red Sunflower" by Susan Bianchi of Saratoga, California 

"Treasures of Egypt" by Jennifer Richenberger from Australia (I apologize if the last name is wrong, I can't read my notes) featured wonderful use of unusual fabrics and appealed to my closet Egyptologist soul. 

Two by one of my favorite artists and friend Sherry Kleinman, the one on the left "Geisha" painted painted on canvas and "Waiting Expectantly" on the right drawn on her iPad and then printed digitally. 

"The Iris" by Judith Roderick. Beautiful abstracted image of the flower. Bright clear color. 

Jerry Granata's "Samson and Delilah".  I'm taking his class in January at Road to California on quilting with unusual fabrics. He certainly does that!

My friend and traveling companion Sandra Lauterbach and her moving and very personal piece "The Wailing Wall of Krakow" digitally designed from her photographs, letters and documents telling the story of her Polish family's history in the Holocaust.

And a fabulous antique  from an exhibit of Mary Koval's Collection - a hand painted Indian Tree of Life cotton Palumpur in all its original unfaded glory. 

In the "Inspired By Libby" exhibit (honoring Libby Lehman) Laura Wasilowski's "Libby's Leaves" I adore her use of glowing color and purchased some of her hand dyed fabrics at the show. 

 

In a beautiful exhibit of French patchwork masterpieces sponsored by Bohin  "Etoile De Bethlehem"by Nathalie Ferri - quilting is truly international. 

So by 3:30 on Saturday afternoon I was totally exhausted and limped over to the lovely and comfortably elegant Four Seasons Hotel across the park to repair myself over a lovely pot of tea and pick up my bags before going off to the Airport. Festival is a terrific experience - absolutely go if you can! So much inspiration that I can't wait to get back into my studio and create something.  Won't be there next year, but see you there in 2016...

Check out http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com for "Off the Wall Fridays"

Just One More Thing From Long Beach.....

I just learned that there is now a video available of the West Coast Wonders 2010 exhibit which debuted at IQF Long Beach last week. It's on the Quilts Inc. website at http://quilts.com/lbqf10/enVivo/index.html

Just click on the videos link on the left and then on the West Coast Wonders button and it will run. My quilt "Balancing Act" is toward the end, but you can also check out the two wonderful quilts entered by my friend Sandy Lauterbach.

While your there, click on the "Beneath the Surface" button and see quilts from this exhibit from the Dinner at Eight Artists curated by Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison. The exhibited included a wonderfully whimsical work "Gone Fishing" by my friend Sherry Kleinman. Her quilt is not featured in the video but can be seen on her website. It's worth a visit!