This is the 40th anniversary of Houston’s International Quilt Festival. Who is counting but I’ve probably attended for at least the last 35 years. People from all over the world come to view what a lot of imagination and skill can produce with fabric and thread. I attended this year’s show with my quilt bee buddies. And yes … we even have a name for our little band of buddies … Bloom Where You Are Planted.

Our first mission was to seek out the Karen Nyberg’s Astronaut Quilt. We attended last night at Preview Night. The show runs until Sunday so there is still lots of time to visit. So I wrote about making a star-themed block in a previous post. My bee buddies and I participated and searched amongst the 28 panel quilts for their block. I think we found them all. The project announced last year at the quilt festival netted out with about 2,260 blocks from all over the world. What a lovely project and very humbling to be a participant.

Next we headed to the purchasing part of our reason to attend festival. Fat Quarter Queen is one of our favorite stops. I showed great restraint this year and only purchased a dozen fat quarters. Some of my favorite booths were Missouri Quilt Company. I even got my picture made with Jenny Doan who has some great quilt tutorials. She is as charming in person as she is in her tutorials. I loved Laundry Basket Quilts, Moda Bake Shop (everyone gets a free mini-charm pack for stopping by), The Teacher’s Pet (darling baby quilts) and B&T Studios (fiber artist … just had to have her stunning bluebonnet pattern).

There are also booths that have nothing to do with quilting. I loved The Bell Collection and purchased a “grandmother’s bell.” They also make lovely bell charms.

It is a wonderful event and one of the top-attended conventions in Houston with about 60,000 attendees. I’m already thinking about next year!