Quilter's cruise!

Three things to be happy about:
(1) pure vanilla
(2) sales receipts
(3) dinner and a movie

Lovely, lovely time on the quilter's cruise last week!

We sailed from Galveston, Texas on Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas - you always knew the day of the week because they changed this piece of carpet in the elevator daily.

I loved exploring the ship; this is a view looking down part of the Grand Promenade on deck 5.  It was just like being inside a large mall!

Look up... and up... and up!  Elevator lobbies on decks 7 through 11 - impressive!



On Monday and Tuesday we had our classes while the ship sailed through partly stormy seas.  Fortunately the foul weather they were predicting before we left, didn't affect us too too much!

Rough sea on Tuesday though - ask my tummy how I know!
Monday and Tuesday we had four half-day classes - Pam Holland showed us how she gets dimension in appliqued pieces to make them more interesting...

Pam Holland

 Kim Diehl taught a wool project...

Kim Diehl

It was a lovely piece and she does beautiful work, but I don't think wool is my thing right now.  The other classes were an embroidery class by Catherine Redford and a quilt by Bonnie Hunter (no pics!), with quick projects and lectures in the evenings.

First day in port - Roatan, Honduras!  The ship was welcomed by this group of dancers...

musicians at the port 

The locals are always glad to see cruise ships come in because they depend so much on our money. 

We opted for a tour of the island by one of the tour guides on the pier; he took us around the city, up in the mountains to the highest point of the island...

I thought I'd try a fresh coconut milk...

It was good!  I just now noticed the dribble from the shell, LOL.  He ran out of straws.

Our guide told us there is no welfare in Honduras; basically if you don't work, you don't eat unless someone brings you food.  If you get sick and can't afford the hospital, you can literally die from an illness that in the US can easily be treated with our readily available medicines.

What's in a word?

In Roatan we were looking for a "drug store" (can you say "CVS"?) and were directed to a farmacia.  Well, surprise - they only had pharmaceuticals!  No shower caps or mouth wash.

I got some great quilt seeds, though...

After our two hour tour, we scuttled back onboard the Navigator for lunch at our favorite lunch spot, the buffet at the Windjammer!

Then we lounged around the pool til dinner...

ahhhh, a cruise.....

That's all for now, I'll try to compress the remainder of the cruise into one more post!  Sew forth and sew on til later!

More quilt show goodness!

Three things to be happy about:
(1) bottled water
(2) finishing a good novel
(3) blowing bubbles

If you haven't seen yesterday afternoon's post be sure to check it out, I showed lots of red and white quilts displayed in honor of the festival's ruby jubilee!


I believe this quilt may have been the most photographed one at the festival - everybody wanted to document their presence at this hallmark show!

*Disclaimer - The quilt is actually longer than it appears here; I Photoshop'd it to shorten it a bit  ;o)*

Renea and I arrived in Houston on the afternoon of October 30; our first day at the show was the 31st (Halloween) where we saw lots of vendors and show-goers dressed in their Halloween finery - why did I not get pictures???

However, as Eleanor Burns demonstrated a ruler at her booth, I did get a shot of her fun t-shirt  - "Witch and Famous"

I don't think I've ever been to a quilt show that didn't have at least a couple Baltimore album-type quilts - and they're always gorgeous!

Here are some fun quilts... I don't know what the display was actually named, but I think these are imaginative!

Everything is made with fabric, including the utensils!  There were more than 12 food-related quilts displayed on this table - clever!

From the Life After 40 exhibit - this one is named "Men Don't Make Passes..."




These two caught my eye because they're so realistic - check out the reflection on those shoes!

This one won the Superior Threads Master award:

love it!!

You know I love houses - in any form!

Scenery...

Sweet elephants!

Modern! 

We didn't see every quilt displayed at the festival, nor did I take pictures of every quilt I saw, nor have I posted every picture I took.  After awhile, after you've seen so many, they start to look alike for some reason, you know what I mean?  Beautiful show though - I hope I gave you a good representation of what was there!

My pal Renea - we walked 8 miles that first day - whew!

There were dozens of vendors, from fabric to quilting machines to garments to shoes and books and notions and jewelry - you name it! We definitely have to do it again, there's nothing like the Houston festival and we had a blast!

Stay tuned for cruise tidbits tomorrow - sew forth and sew on til then!

International quilt festival

Three things to be happy about:
(1) going on vacation
(2) being waited on 24/7
(3) coming home to your own bed

Hello everybody, I'm baaaack!  Thanks for visiting and being patient!  This posting is later than I meant it to be, both clock-wise and the day of the week - I intended to post something on Monday about the Houston quilt show.

Anniversary t-shirt and tote bag!

The show was just grand!

What were you doing in 1974??  Founder Karey Bresenhan was having a light-bulb moment which became the Houston International Quilt Festival - 40 years strong!

Since this was the ruby jubilee version, a lot of focus was on red and white quilts, and that's what I'll share with you this afternoon...

If anyone saw the exhibit of Mrs. Rose's red and white quilts in New York a couple years ago, you'll remember how impressive the circular display was.  They followed the same format for most of the quilts in this display:

The placement of lights interfered a bit, so there were a lot of the red and white quilts I couldn't photograph, but I wanted to share these two:

Two members of my guild submitted quilts for this very impressive red and white display!

Looking good!  This shot was taken through a window on the second level...

There were lots and LOTS of quilts displayed that we were asked not to photograph, either because of copyright issues or they were antiques.  But I got a few of the others that I want to share with you - tomorrow!

Stay tuned, more good stuff to come - sew forth and sew on til then!