This was a blue-ribbon winner at the Houston International Quilt Festival this past weekend.  The photographs never do justice to the beautiful work and detail that is put into these works of art.  Look at all of the winning quilts at this gallery — http://www.quilts.org/winners.html

This is only my third time to attend this show, and it still takes my breath away to see such beautiful exhibits.  Quilts are brought in from many other countries, and some of their techniques are so inspiring!  My friend, Betty, and I were there from 11:30 until 5:00 and left worn out!  Lots of walking, looking, and picture taking!  We also get to shop at hundreds of booths — 20 rows of vendors.  Rows that go on, and on, and on!  I would say the entire show is equivalent (area-wise) to at least four Home Depots! 

There were so many fabrics, embellishments, tools, machines — it was hard to pass up so much, but I only came home with 4 items and a small dent in the wallet. 

A nice surprise — one of my former students from Austin HS recognized me and we visited for a good while!   1982 was a long time ago, but I remember Debbie very well and was very pleased to see her again and to catch up a bit!

   Hard to believe that it’s been almost 4 years since I started this challenging quilt!  Dear Jane has a center area made up of 169 square blocks that finish at 4.5″.  I have 131 of these blocks finished — here are 39 of them (each row has 13 blocks).   Soon, I’ll have six more rows put together, but it will be a while before the last 4 rows appear here (maybe next summer).  The borders around the center squares are made up of 52 pieced triangles and 52 one-piece triangles and 4 kite corners.    I’ve learned a lot doing this project — mostly to measure, measure, measure — and try, try, try to sew straight!  Sometimes I wonder if maybe machine stitching is more difficult than hand stitching . . . but I’m not willing to give that premise a try just now!