For the past few days, I and 60,000 of my closest quilting friends have been attending the International Quilt Festival in Houston. This is also the home of the Houston quilt market – known to the industry as “going to market.”
What an amazing show this is. If you quilt and have never been there, I urge you to go – just to experience it! The show floor is the largest I’ve ever seen. Half of it is vendors and booths. The other half is an amazing exhibition.
The booths are crowded and many of them sell the same stuff: lots of old fashioned dark brown and brick red fabric and patterns. But, there are a few gems hiding in the aisles.
My (new) favorite fabric designer has a booth there. Her name is Marcia Derse. Click here for a link to her website. I met Marcia last year. While my friend Deb and I were browsing her booth, her husband came up to us and said, “Please buy some fabric. I don’t want to have to schlep all of this stuff back to Ohio in my Prius.” Well, that was enough to get me looking!
And boy does Marcia make some gorgeous fabrics. Her grei goods (the actual fabric on which the patterns are printed) are of the highest quality. Her designs are inspiring. And her colors are what really trips my trigger. Take a look at her website and see what you think.
Another booth I enjoyed was the Bohin booth. Bohin is a French company and they make really nice needles. They also sell thimbles in a multitude of sizes. I bought one – but it is so small that I can’t find it in my hotel room at the moment.
I went a little crazy at the Aurifil booth. I purchase a set of brightly colored threads. They were on sale, but still cost me $100. I bought a beautiful pair of shears at the Kai Scissor booth, too. All in all, I bought everything except a new sewing machine!
The exhibition was amazing. Here is one of my favorite quilts from the show.
Isn’t it unbelievable?? I vacillated between being terrifically inspired and so dejected that I wanted to break all of my fingers.
This was my second year at the show and I will definitely be back next year!
