This year the International Quilt Festival – Houston introduced a new exhibition, “Rising Stars.” It is to be held annually, so people can submit to be considered. If you don’t think you are quite in the “rising star” category, encourage someone you know to submit for next year. This year two artists were selected and given a special showcase. Sarah Ann Smith, doesn’t consider herself a natural born artist. However, looking at her quilts it is hard for me to agree with that statement. Granted it may have taken years to learn the tools of the trade, but she is definitely an artist. Her artistic legacy is reflected in a couple of different ways. First showing and appreciating the beauty of nature. Second, a fun and quirky sense of humor in her story telling quilts. All...

  This is Thanksgiving Week, a time to give thanks for family, friends, and the many blessings in life.  So, as we continue to write about the Houston Quilt Festival Special Exhibitions, it seemed appropriate to write about Sue Garman, a “matriarch” in the quilting family.  Through her patterns and teaching, she was a blessing to many quilters! Although I never had the honor of meeting her, multiple readers, writers, and quilt aficionados, spoke of generous spirit, wonderful designs, and artistic legacy.  In classes, she shared lots of tips to go with those pattern sheets. She left many patterns and designs to add to our UFO lists and perhaps even finish. Sue Garman made over 300 quilts in her 40 years as a quilter, the majority of the quilts being original designs. The exhibition featured 100...

The Houston Quilt Festival Exhibition Hall is filled with a wide variety of special exhibitions. Although it is easy to be enticed to stay in the vendor portion of the quilt festival, the exhibit hall is the perfect place to see: different techniques, superb skill, and award winning quilts. The exhibition that caught my eye across the exhibit hall was entitled “Freehand Patchwork by Danny Amazona” and it was amazing. Besides appreciating his unique style of art quilts, this was a new technique to be observed. Danny does unorthodox freehand patchwork that is quite different from the traditional techniques. He uses no intricate sewing, but focuses on creating artwork with fabric. Danny states “since I’m using fabric to create my artwork, I want to maintain the original beauty of the textile designs on each piece of...

Last week, I was asked this question at the Houston Quilt Festival. I pointed the woman toward the exhibition "Quilts 1650-1850: From Broderie to Broderie Perse exhibit from the Collection of Jane Lury." The woman asking the question might not have known the term, but she knew an exhibition that shouldn’t be missed...smart woman!   Broderie Perse, French for Persian embroidery, is a technique of applying fabric cut-outs to background fabric. The decoration could create a new image, or the cutouts could be random like a scrapbook. The technique was most popular from the 17th century until the early 19th century. The term has fallen out of favor, instead we typically use “cutout chintz”, since it is most frequently done with chintz. The quilts in Jane Lury’s exhibition offered an amazing glimpse at the technique by...

Each year before the witching hour is upon us, the annual Quilt Market takes place.  It is the show for professionals in the field and requires credentials to get into the exhibition space and to the vendor area.  Attendees receive a sneak peak of new releases in fabric, tools, and books.  Kay and I were very pleased to have our book “Pioneer Quilts: Prairie Settlers Life in Fabric – 30 Quilts from the Poos Collection” included in the new releases.  It meant demos, book signings, and schoolhouses…Oh My! Also, a few of the antique quilts from the book Pioneer Quilts are in a Special Exhibition at both Quilt Market and Quilt Festival.   This means you have the opportunity to see 25 of the quilts from the book in person.  The exhibition also includes 5 contemporary quilts...