Houston Quilt Festival 2014 pt.1

Yes, I went to Houston. We arrived on Wednesday and left on Monday.

The bad part was that I didn’t get enough steps and ate too much.

The good was so much. I can’t even begin to tell you how many fantastically gorgeous and amazing quilts were there. Even if you go once, you must go to this show. YOU MUST! Not only were there a gazillion fabulous quilts, but there were so many vendors I couldn’t take all of them in. The whole thing was amazing.

I really liked the vendors, but ultimately there was a lot of fabric, a lot of thread and a lot of people.

Janome 8900
Janome 8900

I took the time to look at the Janome MC 8900 in person. It is the machine that seems to be the right price for the right amount of features. None of the shops I have visited near my house have it, so the giant Janome booth was the place. I saw that it is a real machine and not as scary as it looks in pictures.

The guy was really nice and did the demo on a regular, if not slightly thinner, piece of quilter’s cotton. All the demos I have seen are done on felt, which, of course, makes the stitches look fantastic. The machine has a lot of decorative stitches and a knee lift. I do have to find a place where I can try the machine out myself.

Sewing Cabinet
Sewing Cabinet

Another thing I did was take the opportunity to look at the array of sewing cabinets.

My absolute favorite cabinet of the models I saw was this one from a company in Ontario called EddyCrest. It is solid wood (birch) and would be shipped to me for only $100. I also really liked the guy. He was not a smarmy sales guy and I got the impression that he actually works on the cabinets. He was really humble and nice. I don’t know the cost of this particular model (top left) because this is too large for my room and I probably wouldn’t buy it. I love it, though, especially the thread drawer.

Smaller Sewing Cabinet
Smaller Sewing Cabinet

If I buy a new cabinet, and, if I buy it from this company, I would probably buy the smaller version. This is a little different configuration than my current cabinet, but a little better, because it has drawers on the right, which my current cabinet doesn’t have. It also has a wider space to the right and I keep a lot of stuff over there for easy access.

This size cabinet isn’t as large as the other one, but I am pretty sure the back is larger than mine. I’ll have to go to the website and look at the sizes.

I also asked about the flip up back, which is fabulous for quilting. He said that he could add one on this size cabinet, which is great. Not that I quilt that much, but I wouldn’t want to give up that feature.

As I said, there were tons of other vendors, mostly fabric, but other stuff as well. I bought fabric for the music quilt, which will have a couple of other prints, such as a keyboard and some fabric that says BLAH BLAH BLAH as a small ode to being a high schooler and a teenager.

We brought mom’s cousin on the second day and, I think (fingers crossed), turned her into a quiltmaker. She has a long way to go, but bought fabric, a rotary cutter and a Creative Grids ruler. I am kind of excited, but we will see.

Hallowe'en 2014
Hallowe’en 2014

The most fun thing ever was Hallowe’en. I wore a black skirt, leggings and a black shirt. I wanted a black tutu, but settled for the skirt. I wear glasses so it is hard to wear a mask on the front of your head. I bought a mask and mom made eyes to put in the eye holes and I wore it clipped to the back of my head.  Friend Julie wore her green witch outfit sans green makeup. People saw us, especially at the beginning of the day, and wanted pictures with her or both of us. It was really fun.

There were sooooo many quilts that we barely made a dent.