Day 6 at THE GREATEST QUILT SHOW ON EARTH

Day 6
Today was our 6th and FINAL day of seeing the 2015 Houston Quilt Market & Festival.  The theme for today's post is appropriate, I think.  If you can't tell by the name of my website "Design On A Whim",  there is nothing...and I mean NOTHING  I appreciate more than whimsical!  Today's quilt photos focus entirely on my favorite WHIMSICAL QUILTS!

But first, I'll share a few other fun photos with you.  My Travel Companion this week has been Jan Sittler.  Not only is she my sister...She's also my Best Friend.  We are two peas in a pod and we have our mom to thank.  It was our mom who instilled a love of the textile arts and we've been enjoying our hobby ever since!  We had a ball together as we oohed and aaughed over the magnificent quilts and great classes we were exposed to.  We egged each other on to buy great stuff in the Merchant Mall.  We stayed up late talking, found great restaurants to dine at, and shared our excitement and enthusiasm we experienced along the way.  What wonderful "Sister-Time" this was!

Today was Halloween so there were some GREAT costumes.  Here are a few.

And now, I'll share some of my FAVORITE WHIMSICAL QUILTS!!!  One of my favorite special exhibits was called "Wild Fabrications", celebrating animals...both real, and fantasy.

There were quilts that made me laugh.

There were charming quilts.

There was a Face Quilt I loved!

There were City Quilts.

There was a 3-D Food in Fiber Challenge.  This one is by the Heidi Lund who does some pretty amazing work!

There were dolls. 

So you can see, ALL of these are whimsical.  I think WHIMSY appeals to the KID in me.  I may have wrinkles but I'm really just a KID on the inside.

And I'll end with several pictures of one of my favorite quilts.  It's a story quilt by Sandra Branjord.  It's a collaged quilt of her fantasy house.  It's odd, it's humorous, it's almost a little steam punkish and I absolutely LOVE it!!!

We arrived back in Nebraska this afternoon because ALL GOOD THINGS MUST COME TO AN END.  What a great week.  My mind is overflowing with creative ideas.  And after I finish my extra long workout in the morning (yes, I ate a lot last week), I'll be in my sewing room creating again.  Such happy memories of an absolutely unforgettable journey to Houston!!!

DAY 5...AMAZING ALPHABET CLASS

First of all, I MUST start out today's blog with these 3 crazy women who appear to have traveled to Houston with ONLY costumes in their suitcases!  So, I fondly remember Dr. Seuss and his magnificent rhyming lyrical books...but for whatever reason,  I don't recall reading "1 DRUNK,  2 DRUNKS, 3 DRUNKS".  When I visited with this outrageous trio, they commented, "You haven't seen anything.  Just wait until TOMORROW'S costumes!  I can't wait, Ladies.  I can't  wait!!!

And then, there was the reunion with my 3 SULKY SISTERS.  I spend many days a year with each of these women and we become much like "family" as we travel around the country together.  Every single National Educator for Sulky absolutely LOVES their job and we all consider it a true privilege that we have the opportunity to represent Sulky at shows across the country.  You can't fake these smiles.  From left to right, (Diane, Nancy, Lee and Suzy).  By the way, their vests are some of their Round Robin challenges that the three of them participate in every year.  As I said, we have a WHOLE LOT OF FUN together!!!

The highlight of my day...beyond the above forementioned pictures, was my all day class with Pam Holland from Australia.  I have admired her children's book illustrations and this was the one class I was most excited about taking.  And it was EVERYTHING I hoped it to be and then some!  Her "Amazing Alphabet" class taught us how to work with a variety of pens, markers and pencils and then use our sewing machine for the "ink work".  Every single student in class walked out with a good looking project and I can't wait to get home and make more of these.  FUN!  FUN!  FUN!!!
Here's her sample of the letter "A" with "ATTITUDE".

And then I had 2 hours left to hit the convention sales floor...RUNNING...to snap up those hard to find items that you ONLY find at shows like this.  Just about everything you can imagine that pertains to sewing and quilting is available for sale here.  Vendors come from all parts of the world to sell their wares and it's a whole lot of fun to shop the aisles.  The vendor floor space is the size of 8 football fields.  You'll find the latest and greatest sewing and quilting machines, fabrics, threads, irons, yarns, storage systems, rulers, supplies, paints, stencils, patterns, dressforms, embroidery cards, and so much more.  Get the picture?  You name, it...it's probably in one of the 26 aisles. 

My sister and I met back in our room at 7pm and then drug our sorry, tired feet to a nearby restaurant before crawling back to our hotel room, removing our shoes and getting ready for a good night's rest so we can do it all over again tomorrow!

Quilts Are COLORFUL!!! DAY 4

The theme for today's post is COLOR.  Quilts are COLORFUL.  And for a gal like me that LOVES COLOR, this quilt show is a rainbow of AMAZING COLOR.  So, today's pictures all have one thing in common.  Welcome to a feast of COLOR!!!

First of all, there are some VERY COLORFUL WOMEN at this show!

And some very COLORFUL FABRICS!

And a SULKY Challenge with LOTS OF COLOR!

Sue Bleiweiss' Tutti Fruitti Alleyway.  Sue knows what COLOR means!

And a quilt of COLORFUL JELLO!!!

And a very COLORFUL JOURNAL by Susan Edmonson.

And some extremely COLORFUL QUILTS!

I'm off to bed to dream in COLOR!!!