Ahhh, Houston. How I love thee, let me count the mosquitos… upon arrival, I was instantly happy to be on familiar grounds, very eager to fill my belly with foods that would give me indigestion just from the scent.

Although I grew up in the Houston area, this was my very first time to attend the International Quilt Festival. How I completely missed this amazing event the ENTIRE time I lived there, is beyond me… I unfortunately registered for the event too late to sign up for any classes. After gazing longingly at the list boasting more than 450 class, I vowed to be sure and sign up early next year. I ended up making the rounds on the floor for the weekend, meeting folks from the Quilting industry and getting to try out new product from several companies (including some feet for the machine that I’m VERY excited about trying at home. Yay freebies!!).

I was fortunate enough to be part of the press, so I was able to attend the show that was closed to the public, which was apparently a good thing I remember horror stories from my mom and her friends barely being able to make it to the booths to see what they were interested in (***update!!! 53,546 people attended the public show this year!!) The place wasn’t too crowded, the people were extremely helpful, AND I got to quilt my name using a free-arm machine, which was awesome. The quilt show and all its majesty:

You can sorta see my sunburn here….

Despite the fact that I’m completely afraid to ride a bike in the city because I will most definitely be hit by a bus, I’ve been slightly obsessed with bikes as of late. It was no surprise to me when this quilt by Jean Evans was the one I wanted to take home (sorry for the bad pic, I wasn’t supposed to be taking a picture of it…)

Now back to the sunburn…I had to hitch a ride to the show with my mom since I don’t have a car anymore. As we were driving down the highway into Houston, I noticed a long train of school buses and realized they were from my old high school. Turns out it was my old marching band. I convinced my mom to pull over to see what they were doing and I actually got to see my old marching band perform. So, not only was I a total dork and watched a marching band competition that evening, I managed to get my pale self sunburned on the right side of my body as the sun was setting. Nice. The Mighty Buc Band prevailed and went on to state competition. If you’ve never been to a marching band competition, apparently they use exercise balls, large pendullums, stages, and all sorts of crazy props now…Quite weird. Thanks for sticking to the basics as much as you could Buccaneers!

This pic makes the band look so small….there are hundreds of them…HUNDREDS!