Oh, my! Talk about humbling! Sewing is my passion, and I am pretty good at some things, but, man, I have seen some quilts the past couple of days that have really put any of my efforts to shame. I am at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas and have spent the past couple of days walking, shopping, looking and marveling!

Quilters

International Quilt Festival Winners

I cannot possibly show all of the quilts that caught my eye at the show, but here are the winners of the festival's top prizes:

Handi Quilter Best of Show Award: "Eternal Beauty" by Sherry Reynolds of Laramie, Wyo.,  ($12,500); sponsored by Handi Quilter. Eternal Beauty has over 15,000 pieces and took over 5,000 hours to complete.



Founders Award: "Over The Waves" by Setsuko Matsushima of Otsu-shi, Shiga, Japan, ($7,500); sponsored by the International Quilt Festival.



World of Beauty Award: "An Old Woman With Joyous Face" by Marina Landi (with Natasha de Souza Bugarin) of Sao Paulo, Brazil,  ($7,500); sponsored by Baby Lock.



Robert S. Cohan Master Award for Traditional Artistry: "Reminiscence" by Mariko Takeda of Nagoya-shi, Aichi-ken, Japan, ($5,000); sponsored by RJR Fabrics. This quilt is entirely hand sewn.



Gammill Master Award for Contemporary Artistry: "Velvet Flowers" by Linda Anderson of La Mesa, Calif., ($5,000); sponsored by Gammill.



Pfaff Master Award for Machine Artistry: "Hope" by Ximo Navarro Sirera of Canals, Valencia, Spain, ($5,000), sponsored by Pfaff Sewing Machines.



Look at the detailed embroidery in this quilt.



Koala Studios Master Award for Innovative Artistry: "Silent Canary" by Patricia Kennedy-Zafred of Murrysville, Penn., ($5,000); sponsored by Koala Studios.



Superior Threads Master Award for Thread Artistry: "Blue Anemone" by Andrea Brokenshire of Round Rock, Texas, ($5,000); sponsored by Superior Threads.

Other Quilts

Here are a few pictures of some of the other quilts that caught my eye. I just can't believe the artistry and skill in all of the quilts I saw.

   

  







There truly are way too many beautiful works of art to show in this blog.

Educators

With a faculty of  120+ instructors, there were over 500 classes offered at the festival. In addition to the formal classes, there were Open Studios, where artists worked in real time on the Quilt Festival show floor. During show hours, four artists worked simultaneously demonstrating how to  Embellish/ Paint, Stitch, Quilt or Create. It was easy to get inspired just listening to them.

Vendors

There are more than 1000 vendor booths on the floor of the George R Brown convention center for the International Quilt Festival in downtown Houston.  It is big. (I got my 10,000 steps in one day, no problem!) Since there were over 55,000 attendees, I'm glad there was some room to spread out.

It was great seeing booths from Anita Goodesign, Brother, Pfaff, Handi Quilter, etc. The Floriani booth featured some of the embellish products, and I got a preview of some of the neat stuff we'll see next week at the three-day Embellish event at the Aurora store.



Talk about everything being big in Texas! Check out this B880 sewing/embroidery machine at the Bernina booth! (See the guy behind it on the left for an idea of it's size!)



I am lucky to have a husband that is willing to drive from Bailey, Colorado, to Houston, Texas, so I can attend the International Quilt Festival . My pocketbook is a little lighter, but my brain is full of ideas. Now I am looking forward to getting home and creating something.