Houston International Quilt Show

This past weekend I missed out on seeing Laura and Ash at the Watsons, but already had plans to take a bus trip down to Houston with my mom to spend the day at one of the largest quilt shows in the world. 

I went over to mom's on Friday evening and took Leo with me for a couple of reasons... 1) I wanted to see how he would do on a trip to grandma's and 2) I didn't want to deal with him freaking out over the trick-or-treaters on the street and I knew that in my mom's complex we wouldn't have that issue. He did really well at her place. She has hardwood floors, so that was a little challenging to him especially on the stairs up to our room, but he got the hang of it...he just needs to slow down a bit, but maybe he'll learn. Admittedly, I didn't sleep well on Friday night as Leo wouldn't really settle and I thought he needed to go outside more than usual...which meant I had to get up, put his collar and leash on, and take him outside (I'm used to just opening the back door and waiting for him to come back in). 

Saturday morning we all got up, my brother-in-law and nephew came over to dig some stuff out of my mom's patio space and later my sister and niece came over and the six of us went through some of dad's stuff that has been in the garage since we cleared out his shop from the old house. Leo spent the morning out in the yard with us, tethered to a table leg, but happy that he could be in the sun and watch all his people at one time. After lunch, my sister and her family left and mom and I headed up to her "wet" studio where we played with some fabric painting techniques, of which I will have examples to show at the end of the month. 

Sunday morning mom and I got up way before dawn so that we could meet our bus and head down to Houston. We left the house a little before 5 am, after a not so steady night because to be honest, we weren't certain which clocks were automatically falling forward and which weren't and for some reason both of our iPhones were acting weird saying they were on Eastern time zone....but it all worked out in the end and we made it with time to spare (and time to nap on the bus). My sister, Marti, came over around 8 am and rescued poor Leo from his crate and took him to spend the day at her house....as far as I know he was a perfect gentleman and only minimally traumatized their dog, Sadie. 

Mom and I made it through the show and most of the market at lightning speed and saw everything....I think. It was a great day...oh, and on the way home, we stopped at a place called Woody's Bar-B-Que where we had smoked, bacon wrapped quail breasts....YUM! 

We retuned home about 10 pm, about an hour after Marti brought Leo back and returned him to his crate but needless to say, he was thrilled to have us back home (yeah, he is very much a momma's boy). 

Here are a couple of pictures of quilts from the show....I have to say I was so amazed at some of the work that I saw there, these artists amaze me! Sadly, I didn't think to get the names of the quilts nor the artists and that is bad on me. 

This is the only one that I know the artist because she belongs to the Art Quilts Around the World group. This one is by Shruti Dandekar and it is titled "The White Rainbow". She has quilted the Braille spelling of the colors of the rainbow.

She then included the color in the actual color of the thread used in some of the quilting. 

Well done, Shruti...this is great!

And here are a few more that just gobsmacked me...

Of course this one makes me want to do a portrait of my own little beastie...