International Quilt Festival, Houston 2016 part 2, the people and places

I left home at 5am for the short drive up to Edinburgh, earlier than necessary so my DH could travel down to England and be on time. After a short flight to Heathrow, I took the 91/2 hour flight into George Bush Airport, entertaining myself with music and messages. Maryna had already been waiting for me for three hours. We found a couple of confused travellers from The Netherlands and were able to help them by sharing our cab and paying the fare, they did come find us next day when they had some $$$.

That's how quilting friendships are made that last forever

Jeltje van Essen, Kety de Kwaasteniet, Kim Caskey and myself

Here we are all going off to a lecture with Maddie Kertay on using social media as a business tool....

Maddie Kertay and myself after her lecture

We did Quilt Market for 2 days, this is a wholesale event for business associates of the quilting world, being a 'longarmer' that included me along with my paperwork.

Quilt Market takes place in the same George Brown Convention centre as Quilt Festival
This is largely a wholesale event of buying or ordering large quantities of goods but there are some opportunities to buy single items too.

Maryna and I met lots of friends and made many new ones

Maryna and I with my very Special Friend Jackie Kunkel of Canton Village Quilt Works

At last I met Vicki Anderson Publisher of Machine Quilting Unlimited and Modern Quilts 

I was finding it hard to smile although Jamie professional as ever put on a brave face after the theft of his trailer and all class  and booth merchandise. The major loss of course being the 40 or so quilts, hopefully they will still be found.

While looking through the porthole window over the show floor I got chatting to these ladies who had been over to Scotland in September and were excited to know they had taken photos of my quilts in the Edinburgh show....

Maryna and I with good friends Donna James and Lisa Newman having dinner at Guatalajara, very good food and service.....

Another night out at Andalucia with Margaret Gunn, Mary Landon, Andrea Brokenshire, Pat Mills Romohr and friends

Another night out at Andalucia with Margaret Gunn, Mary Landon, Andrea Brokenshire, Pat Mills Romohr, and friends (different angle)

Lunch at Papassitos with Debbi Cagney, Phillipa Naylor and Patience Griffin 

We took a bus tour to the Texas Quilt Museum in La Grange, La Grange being famous as the location for the filming of 'The Biggest Little Whore House in Texas with Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds' along with a bunch of lovely quilters, they entertained us and we entertained them. Unfortunately there were no cameras allowed in the quilt museum, we had a couple of stops at quilt shops for more shopping had a lovely lunch in La Grange then a tour of a prairie style house nearby overlooking the Colarado river

Found another quilt...

The Painted Pony quilt shop

The Painted Pony quilt shop

with Joan Flamand on the Wonderfil stand 

My collegues, The Girls on the APQS Longarm booth , Brenda Shreve, Joan Flamand, Susan Rubino, Chris Macaluso and me 

Maryna and I with Lisa Calle of  Quilters Groove Rulers

Maryna taking a minute after shopping at The Quilted Pony

Taking a minute after shopping at The Quilted Pony

We found Maryna's friend Judy

We had lots of fun with Melanie and Brian from Urban Elementz, they were staying at the same hotel so we had dinner and breakfast with them....

BBQ steak, spare ribs, refried beans with apple and coleslaw with jalapeno bread, delicious!

On our last night in Houston our hostess Maria and her daughter Daniella took us to a Texas BBQ at The Good Company, followed by desert at The Chocolate Bar, it was delicious....

At the end of the day it was really good to lie on the bed with my feet up....

We also visited the Space Education Centre, Museum of Fine Arts and took lots more photos, but too little time now to do anymore....