The Quilts are Here!

The Houston Internatonal Quilt Festival is officially open for this year. Right now is the period for Market when wholesalers and retailers engage in this dance where the wholesalers try to sell their latest offerings to all of our quilt stores to entice us to spend our hard earned money in the coming months.

I have only been to Market once and it was a heady experience seeing all the new patterns, designers and gadgets in one place before they reached the stores. The other part that was terrific is that those that attend Market get an early chance to see all the quilts. The big winners are not annouced or displayed until Wednesday afternoon but you get to have some quality time with the quilts. The retailers are really to busy making important business decisions so their hangers-on (like me last year) are the lucky ones who get to see the quilts.

Although my traditional company from up North will not be joining me this year, I will still be going to the Festival part that is open to the public. Classes start tomorrow, Monday, the Vendor area and complete Quilt Show and winners will open at 5:00 PM on Wednesday evening. From then on until late Sunday afternoon, its days and nights of classes, shopping and quilt viewing until even the most un-sophisticated quilter is full to bursting with quilts.

I was downtown today to pick up my class information ( it wasn't ready yet) and got a couple of shots of the sales floor and the quilts displayed.

This thing is huge. If you ever get a chance to come to Houston, try to make it during the Quilt Fetsival. You will not be dissappointed.