A man of many talents!!

Colin makes fabulous lunches when we have classes at The Cloth Shop. At a recent class this is one of the fruit platter plates he brought down to the shop at lunch time - kiwi fuit, pineapple embellished with rosemary and pansies from the garden. But wait.....he has other talents.......

On Friday he got a Hole in One!! The ball on the green belongs to his golfing partner - the ball is taking from the hole is his!!!

Pumpkins everywhere!

This morning in Houston we went to a garden centre to buy pumpkin seeds!

It was a gorgeous sunny morning and these pumpkins looked so beautiful I just had to take a photo. It is almost Halloween here so there are lots of pumpkins and decorations in the shops and houses. We are staying in the West University area and our hotel is surrounded by very beautiful homes in a very lush and leafy suburb. We are also very close to the Houston Cancer Hospital - it is famous throughtout the world for cancer treatments and every morning we share the share the shuttle bus that takes us to the George Brown Convention centre with people who are going to the hospital for the day. Everything in Texas is BIG and the hospital is no exception -it has covers an enormous area-nearly every morning we go to a different part of the hospital and if our driver goes to the wrong entrance it takes ages to drive around the various roads so find the right one. To night we walked around the streets and took photos of some of the houses that are decorated for Halloween.

I thought this look pretty.

Pumpkins feature a lot in the decorations - the lawns around these houses are immaculate - there is not a blade of grass out of place.

Justine with the horse and carts which is being driven by a skeleton. There is a huge pumpkin in the back of the cart.

This is the only photo I have posted of this houses, it was large and these spiders and cobwebs are over many parts of the house. Little ghosts are all through the garden and of course pumpkins are up the front steps and porchway.

The monsters!! It is hot inside those masks!! This is our last night in Houston - We didn't go to the Festival today but we will go again in the morning.

Beauties and a Beast!!

It was a hot, humid day in Houston today.There is a beautiful park opposite George Brown Convention Centre where the Quilt Festival is being held and it was great to see Alison (who is living in Charlotte, North Carolina now) and her friend Alison (who is visting from Hawkes Bay)

We chose to have lunch outside when we went to the Dining room and saw this crowd!!

I loved these patterns. The original paintings are from Debi Hubbs and this is Traci Marvel - who does marketing for her. She is thrilled her patterns will be coming to New Zealand.

This Best of Show at Houston for 2009. This quilt has been designed and made by Carol Bryer Fallert and is called Adelpho. It is a self portrait - can you see the large white bird quilted over her body

This quilt wasn't one of the prize winners but we thought it was so cute

This quilt is wholly made from metallic thread!! It is amazing. The winning quilts are hung in the front of the quilt exhibition in a very prominent position. Each quilt has it's own bay - there is a large rosette hung beside it and a massive floral arrangement to one side. The rosettes and flowers are done in colours that compliment the quilt. Made by Sue McCarty and is called Tribute to Tolkein - inspired by Lord of the Rings

This quilt is made for a little grand daughgter's bed. It is hand appliqued and embellished.
Santa Claus has come to Kirara's Home town - made by Ayako Kawakami from Japan

This quilt is made by Karen Stone and is made in large clam shells. The prize winning quilt win $5000 each and the Best of Show wins $10000 - it is called Clam Shell Session

Justine with Ellen Lumpin Brown who designed and made all the dolls in the photo, and wrote the book she is holding.

We went to Kruger's supermarket to buy Peanut Butter and Justine couldn't resist buying the Halloween mask!

Hi from Houston!!

It was pouring with rain outside, so we decided to have a cup of Starbucks coffee before we went outside - we were joined by Jay and Michelle from Nutex wholesalers.

The Quilt Show is amazing!! This quilt, made by Camilla Watson from New Zealand won The Cloth Shop prize at Symposium earlier in the year. Looks wonderful, Camilla! The quilt show hasn't been judged yet so wouldn't it be great to see a ribbon on it later in the week,

We just loved this one!! It is an Advent Calender - amazing detail all over the quilt. There were 25 little doors that opened up to the 25th of December, but we couldn't get close enough to open them!!

This quilt looks like a painting - I think it will be winning a prize at judging time

Michael Miller Fabric booth - Camp Michael Miller - their theme was gnomes! You can see the gnome quilt on the back wall.

This is Jill's favourite booth and quilt designed by Blackbird. We are now calling this the BirdBrain quilt because I sent Jill a text saying "where are u "and she replied "Moda Isle at Bird Brain!"

This is the Moda Booth. All the chairs are covered in a new fabric range that will be coming out soon called French General - it's gorgeous!

Hello from America!!!

Ngaire- from Apple Basket, me, Jill - from Cottage Flair with Amy Butler at her booth on the first day at the market

Kaffe Fassett and me at his School House

Luella Doss and me at her School House - she was so funny -and yes she made the hat!!

Heather Bailey at her Booth with Clara the pig!! A lot of designers have a toy that goes with their new range of fabrics and they all have gorgeous Sofa's covered in one of their latest range.

Today they announced the winners of the Best B ooth Competition. Jo Bailey was first and Amy Butler was second

Another view of Jo Bailey's booth

Anna Marie Horner at her booth. The baby is her son, Rueben - he is at the show too.

Part of her booth - great Sofa

We took this photo at the Moda stand. The handsome young man in the cowboy hat is Andrew Dunlop - our Moda Distributor in NewZealand.

Ngaire, Jill and me with McKenna Ryan - we were at her booth talking about her visit to New Zealand next month.

Hello from America!! I wanted to update this page every day whilke we are in Houston at the Quilt Market but I had to wait until today for the internet connection box for our room. We have one day of School House - a day of lots of small lectures from different designers and two days of market at the moment we are in our apartment surrounded by lots and lots of pamphlets - everyone hands you their information - and now we are trying to make sense of it all!!

I'll bring the bubbles ...................

Last year Shona was at Erehwon Station when she fell over a tussock and smashed her ankle -

it took most of the year for it to heal and for her to walk again. While she was in hospital she gave her friends some fabric and told them to embroider something on it for her. Most of them have come back and now she has combined them with some of her favourite fabrics and made a memory quilt she loves. "I'll bring the bubbles".......when you are better!!