In November 2018 I went to the Houston Quilt Festival for the first time
ever!
I had entered quilts in different challenges and it happened that 4 of those would be in this show. So I thought I should go to see them there.
I arrived on Wednesday late in the afternoon, but decided to
go to Preview night right away.
As I had a registered show pass I could walk by all the
people waiting in line, which is a huge advantage.
I was told it would be immense, 4 halls, 3 filled with shops
and one full of quilts. Immense it definitely was! At this time it was not crowded at all, because the “streets” between the
exhibits are really wide.
I decided to take a quick look around and visit my 4 quilts in the show first.
I met Luana Rubin at the Love your mother exhibit.
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| My quilt Mother Earth is losing her Marbles. |
This is my quilt Mother earth is losing her marbles. I
depicted the 7 continents with their endangered wildlife.
As you can see Mother Earth is barely holding on She needs
our help.
The second exhibit I visited was the International Miniature
Quilt Exhibit where I met Ricky Tims. He was really interested in
everybody’s quilts and where we were from. My partner was Barbara Jensen. Each International quilter was paired up with a quilter from the USA. The American quilts are on the bottom. We were encouraged to send emails to get to know each other, but could not share any pictures of the quilt we were making. These quilts will travel some more and in the end we will get each others quilt.
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| detail of Mum's Garden |
Thursday November 8th was the first day of Houston Quilt
Festival. I started out of my hotel early to pick up my official show guide and
pin. I saw the large queues outside the Hall entrances and decided to wait a
little before trying to enter the show. But again it turned out I could pass by
the queue and wave my show pass to the guard, no scanning needed. Brilliant!
First up was a gallery talk by Luana Rubin at the Love your
mother exhibit. I met Elizabeth Budd, the grand
prize winner of this challenge.
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We are all one by Elizabeth Budd
Each artist had to use a version of the fabric panel above,
either the Americas, Australia or Africa. Bummer that they didn’t have one of
Europe. Luana told me Nasa can’t get a cloudless picture of Europe, that’s why.
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We met up with a couple of artists and each of us explained about our inspiration and making our
pieces.
This is Mirvia Aranda – Aunque se nos fue la mano (Even if
it got out of our hands) , second prize winner. My absolute favourite! It was a pity Mirvia couldn't attend.
At
the teachers’ luncheon the artists sat at a table in the front and were
introduced to the attendees and the
prizes were awarded by Luana Rubin, followed by a lecture by Pam
Holland. We had a great time together.
Later
in the day there were some groups of school children who asked questions about
our exhibit and about my quilt.
In the afternoon I also had a date at the OURstory exhibit. Unfortunately this was a No Photographs
exhibit. The local newspaper did publish an article with a photo though.
This exhibit is about Human Rights. The call for “OURstory” quilts asked artists to consider
several questions: What right is most important to them? With which group that
struggles to get those rights do they most identify? Which leader of a human
rights movement is their hero? What is their story, struggle, or victory? The resulting collection of 60+ art quilts—created by artists from six
different countries—tells the stories of disenfranchised people and their
fights for equal rights, and celebrates the heroes who fought for rights long denied
to various groups of people and drew the attention of news media and the public
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| Susanne Miller Jones and Todd Jones |
On Friday I had a Headshot Photo session scheduled with
Bonnie McCaffery.
Wow, she took hundreds of photos! Sitting, standing,
smiling, being serious, I was really tired after an hour. The hardest part was
to choose the pictures. There were so many great ones. Here are the results, I
am extremely happy with these.
In the evening I went to the SAQA reception. I met quite a
few people I knew by name from the world-wide-web and made a lot of new
friends.
Saturday I did some shopping. I bought lovely stencils with
an Eastern theme. A roll of Steam-a-seam 2, which I had never used before.
Turns out it’s Great Stuff! Should have bought more as it is hard to get around here.
At
noon we had a book signing at the Cherrywood fabric booth. There were at least
18 artists there. Karla had provided a name badge for each of us with a picture
of the quilt we have in the exhibition. So thoughtful! We signed each other’s
books and of course customers’ books as well.
I had noticed people walking around with small ribbons stuck
to their entry passes. So I asked if they were for sale somewhere. I was taken
to the organizers’ table where they had them. I just had to say I have 4 pieces
in Special Exhibits, et voila, I received 4 of those ribbons. Of course I stuck
them to my pass as well.
On Sunday I went to some short sessions at the Open Studios. Then at the Juki stand I had my portrait stitched by Mingi Jung a great artist from Korea. I especially
love the way he drew my jacket.
In the evening I went to dinner with my friend Els from
Saba. This was a great way to finish my visit to Houston Quilt
Festival 2018.
