Houston International Quilt Festival

HIQF is in town (Houston) again. I went yesterday for the first day. For varuous reasons I went by myself this year.

I got there before 9:30am. I got to park really close, and was 7th in line to the door (at the door I was at). I bought my ticket on-line this year ahead of time. It was really easy and convenient. They pre-scanned the first dozen of us at the door before 10am and then exactly at 10am the doors opened and we just walked right in.

It was better than I remember it in years past. Some amazing quilts. I took more pictures than I have in years past (163). And I'm not done yet. I think for some reason the quilts just have more color this year. Not as many darker quilts as in years past, or at least not as many as last year. I made great time getting through the quilts even though I took more pictures and I know I read more about the quilts I was looking at.


I ran into two women from my Guild, one of whom is in my Bee, and had lunch with them. That was a real treat (no really, it was). Then we went our seperate ways again, and I struck out shopping after lunch. WOW! I spent less than I thought and got a lot of things I wanted.

I've really been wanting to upgrade my thread purchases, to better quality thread. I got some great threads and am going to be trying out some new threads from the Superior Threads booth, spent a long time there browsing and asking questions.

Another booth I spent a good deal of time at was the NewJoy booth. They make quilting frames. I'm hoping to get one of those within the next year, the Magic. I'll be able to use my Janome 6600 on it now and then at a later date upgrade my machine to a short arm or maybe a mid arm machine and still use the same frame. It's extremely customizable. I was really excited about getting to see it in person and getting to ask a ton of questions about it.

I got a few patterns I've been wanting, and a little bit of fabric, some stencils as I'm going to be working on my freemotion quilting (in anticipation of the quilt frame in the next year), that got interruped by Ike. I was practicing every day and then Ike hit, so I need to get back to it.

I'm going back to the HIQF tomorrow (Saturday), going to finish up viewing the quilts and then the shopping and if I get out of there at a resonable hour will have supper with my cousin in Baytown on the way back.

Robby is leaving in the wee hours of the morning for deer camp as tomorrow is the opening of deer season. Sunday, I think I'll just sleep all day. ;-)