Houston International Quilt Festival 2012

At long last the day arrived for my class and lecture by Angela Walters, and it took place at the International Quilt Festival in downtown Houston! The exhibits and booths were setting up and not available to the general public, so all I could do was snap a photo and wish I was a vendor.

Angela is not only the author of a popular blog, Quilting is My Therapy, but also two books on free motion quilting (FMQ) - Free-Motion Quilting with Angela Walters and In the Studio With Angela Walters. Her classes on machine quilting and quilting negative space are sold out at every quilt event.

Angela's class, Modern Machine Quilting, was so much fun and just zoomed by. She is an instructor that teaches by demonstration and encouragement, and her sense of humor just makes it fun. She is poised in front of a crowd, and is generous and gracious with compliments and individual attention. She is not above fixing your bobbin for you!

Some of her free motion designs are swirls, feathers, flowers, and squares. She sketched each shape and then passed around examples of each design (pictured above - pardon the iPhone photos!) As we attempted our own free motion quilting, she offered praise and assistance to each participant in her class. We sewed on Juki sewing machines provided by Quilt 'n Sew, which just happens to be the quilt shop I frequent right here in Katy!

Angela has a line of fabric, available on Spoonflower as well as her own collection of thread by Superior Threads "So Fine! #50" Of course I had to have both of her books (which she autographed) as well as the thread! Again, apologies for the poor quality photos. The thread colors are soft and beautiful, much more subtle than pictured.

I also attended Angela's lecture on Machine Quilting for the Modern Quilt, and as I was leaving, I found some goodies in a cute display by Pinwheels and Posies and had to buy some charm packs and packaged scraps (I can never resist).

While I was ogling everything, I was privileged to speak with a lovely lady who was raised in South Africa, living in Dubai, and visiting the quilt festival following a 17 hour flight! She said she was in her 70s and had "trained" for two months, working out and walking so she would be in shape for her flight and all the walking she would be doing at the convention center. She was delightful, and visiting with her really brought home to me the "international" flavor of this event.

None of my posts would be complete without mention of food, so enjoy the photo of my $8.00 lunch.