Houston IQF, Part 2

Hi all -

Well, I had written a long post with a bunch of pictures, and then it wouldn't publish and I had to start over again. Grrrr!!  But we always do better the second time, don't we? And I think I know what happened so I can hopefully avoid the problem in the future. So, here we go again...

It's time to share some of the Houston quilts with you. Everything was so incredible, where do I start? One of the most fun parts of Houston for me is meeting up with friends, so in this post I'll share the quilts of some of my friends.

Who better to start with than my new, good friend Peggy. I think I mentioned before that we met in one of my classes and really hit it off. We ended up being in three classes together and hung out together after class on Sunday until Peggy had to head to the airport. She is a longarm quilter and had two incredible quilts in the show. The first is a wholecloth called Odyssey:

Odyssey by Peggy Kragnes

Detail of Odyssey by Peggy Kragnes

Isn't it incredible? I hope you can see all of the wonderful details in the photos. Her other quilt was pieced:

Green Miles by Peggy Kragnes

Detail of Green Miles by Peggy Kragnes

Detail of Green Miles by Peggy Kragnes

Again, the quilting just blows me away! And, although you really can't see it in the pictures, the greens are all different fabrics giving it that wonderful sparkle that you get in a scrap quilt. I LOVE scrap quilts!

The next quilt was made by a group of quilters who are members of TQS (TheQuiltShow.com). Their names are Dana Lynch, Mary Holman, Mary Kay Runyan, Cindy Neville, Wanda Myers, Bridget Lilja and Karen Fitzpatrick and they are known as "The Amazing Eight". They met at Houston 5 years ago and decided to make a quilt together. (Sorry if I got any of the numbers wrong!) Well, they had so much fun that this is now their third group quilt and it won a blue ribbon in the group quilt category in Houston. I met Wanda in a class in Houston a couple of years ago and was lucky enough to meet up with her in another class last year. Here she is showing me their quilt:

Amazing Aztec-nicolor Dream Quilt by The Amazing Eight

This quilt is really incredible! The detail is amazing and everything is so coherent that it's impossible to tell that it was made by a group. Congratulations to all of you!!

Another TQS friend who had quilts at Houston is Betty Jo Tatum. She retired a year or two ago and has been concentrating on her art quilting. I was lucky enough to meet her in person at the show this year. Here is the quilt that she had in the contest:

Sky Horse by Betty Jo Tatum

 She also had a quilt in the architecture exhibit:

Perspective in Threads by Betty Jo Tatum

A TQS friend who I don't know as well, but who always has quilts in the big shows is Pat Durbin. Here are her two quilts from Houston:

Wild Rhodies by Pat Durbin

Detail of Wild Rhodies by Pat Durbin

Begonia Cluster by Pat Durbin

I'm pushing the definition of "friend" with this next artist, Lea McComas. I have taken her fusible applique protraits course in the TQS classroom hope to use her technique to make a quilt someday when I have time. And I've talked to her through their forum. But she really wouldn't know who I am. She hails from Superior, CO, which is very close to where I live. In fact, I used to live on the outskirts of Superior. So, we really could be friends, don't you think? She makes really incredible portrait quilts with thread work that is just out of this world. Here is her quilt that won a blue ribbon in Houston:

Panning for Gold by Lea McComis

And her quilt that won the thread mastery award:

Bike Boys by Lea McComis

All I can say is "WOW!".

That's it for the quilts by TQS friends. I also have some friends from the other Web site that I follow, Machine Quilter's Resource (mqresource.com) who had quilts in the show. First up is Donna James. She makes some gorgeous, intricate wholecloth quilts. Here's the one she had in the show, along with its ribbon:

Spring Meditation by Donna James

Detail of Spring Meditation by Donna James

Doesn't that just blow you away? I was lucky enough to be able to meet Donna at the show and she is as nice in person as she is online.

Next up in Bethanne Nemesh, also from MQR. Bethanne is an artist and quilter. She makes pieced quilts and incorporates her drawings into the quilting. Isn't it incredible???

Gilding the Arbor by Bethanne Nemesh

Detail of Gilding the Arbor by Bethanne Nemesh

She has another quilt that incorporates drawings of her children at the beach in the quilting that I would love to see in person!

Another quilter from MQR is Margaret Solomon Gunn. She's not on there often so I don't know her well, but I did get to meet her at the show. She had two quilts in the contest:

Autumn's Surrender by Margaret Solomon Gunn

Springtime in the Geisha's Garden by Margaret Solomon Gunn

They are just gorgeous!

Well, that's all of the quilts by people that I know. The other fun part of Houston for me is meeting up with friends. This year my friend Cindy was able to go to the show. We've been friends for over 20 years and get together once a month for sew day. Her daughter moved to Houston last year, so hopefully Cindy will be able to join me regularly at the show. We had fun getting together and discussing the different classes we were taking. I also got to see a lot of my TQS friends Shirley and Dawn. They were staying in the same hotel as me, so we ran into each other often in the executive lounge. And Dawn and I kept running into each other in the show so we got to enjoy a lot of the quilts together. Finally, I ran into my other TQS friend, Robin, but we were both heading to classes in different directions so we didn't get to talk much. But we'll definitely get together for lunch or something next year if we both get to the show!

That's about it for my friends at Houston. I hope you enjoyed their quilts! I'll share some of the other quilts from the show in another post. But that's a good taste of the show for now.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Nancy