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