Home from Houston

I'm baaack! I've been to Houston, seen the show, done my shopping and arrived home safely. No strange or scary travel stories, all went smoothly. I met a LOT of wonderful friendly quilters in Houston. Everyone seemed to be there for the quilt show and it was natural to strike up a conversation with anyone you met whether it was on the shuttle bus, in the elevator or in line for breakfast. I was even lucky enough to have breakfast with 4 fun ladies from Colorado one day!

The show was awesome and bigger than ever. There's no way I could do it every year, it's too exhausting! I'm not sure exactly how many vendors, but as far as booth space goes (and of course some vendors have more than one space) it went to row 2000! I ran through quickly grabbing business cards and booth numbers on Wednesday night during the preview, then spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday going through more slowly, making purchases. I shipped them home so I don't have anything to play with yet (boohoo!), but I have plenty to do to prep for class this week.

The Bernina Fashion Show was wonderful. Christina and I peeked at them online on Thursday morning, but there's nothing like seeing them on the runway moving and glittering under the lights. We had seats at the end of the runway, but confidentially the seats are much better at the luncheon at Long Beach. It's so sad that they won't be doing it any more. Here is a picture lifted off of the show website of my ensemble. If you want to see the rest of the show click on http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001In7_2if_TZs-PxPNYtCxdS19umLYJbdTIcJ0Fva2OjXsmDyA8VVb_qyD-vxdzNyyrt_a3fwCF39JGjXRfXAbjD5l3hMCPLrqpTOoJnvEpGpKf3OKi1WhqtsXvXgcipTcVJ9AQ9b2iRI==

Friday night Christina and I went to the art quilt list party in the Hyatt. Fabulous food, lots of famous people and, of course, our hostess Karey Bresenhan. We arrived during the presentation of the tiaras for the infamous tiara parade and were lucky enough to be sititng at the table with one of the winners! After that we went back to our hotel room and played with some cool new dyes Christina discovered. Too much fun!

I brought 3 pairs of shoes with me and rotated them, but still, by Saturday night I was a walking zombie with aching feet as the only sign of life, LOL. It was definitely time to go home.

If I had to do it again here are a few things I'd do differently:

• Stay at the Hilton if I could get in (nearly an impossibility) or try the Doubletree. My room at the Hyatt was not so great
• arrive on Tuesday and take one class on Wednesday, prior to the show opening
• sign up for at least one luncheon. The foodcourts were not too crowded, but prices were sky high and the food only so-so
• make a tiara for the tiara parade!

Even though I was traveling alone some of the time it was never a problem. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming. I received many compliments on my jackets and that made it easy to strike up a conversation with other quilters. My 3-D jacket was even admired by 2 sweet Japanese women on the elevator who had almost no English. We do have one word in common: origami!

All in all I highly recommend going to Houston at some point in your life. It's an experience I'll never forget! But yes, it's good to be home again.