Monday, October 19, 2009

Home from IQF (Houston)...with a cold

Well, I'm home from a wonderful week in Houston at the International Quilt Festival. I participated in classes all week and brought home great ideas from each class. I am in the midst of working on two quilts and the classes I participated in gave me great ideas for them. I had a great time meeting up with my quilting friends, instructors from past workshops and meeting new quilting friends and instructors. The quilts were awesome!
I bought new dyes and new books for research and entertainment. Oh, what books you ask? Well, "Art + Quilt" by Lyric Kinard. Great book and the class I had with her was great too. We basically went through the book and did the exercises. It really took me back to the basics of what I learned about design in high school. She gave us 10 minutes to do an exercise. The lessons of learning, texture, line, color, shape and value, well gosh, I just create, I forgot to think specifically about those things in my quilts! So, on my drive home Saturday, I was looking at buildings differently, clouds with a new perspective and fields of animals and vegetation with different texture ideas.
The other research/instruction books I bought are "Bold and Beautiful" by Judi Dains and "The Painted Quilt ~ Paint and Print Techniques for Colour on Quilts" by Linda and Laura Kemshall. I can't wait to dive into these books and get started on more dying and embellishing on fabrics. When I was in the Quilting Arts booth looking for these books I had the opportunity to meet Pokey Bolton! She is a wonderful lady! Wish I had had my camera with me so I could post a picture!
Fiction books about quilters are a entertainment passion of mine. I have a list of authors and books I like and want to read. One of the authors I have had on my list for a while is Sandra Dallas. To my surprise she was at IQF signing her books. I was so honored to meet her and talk to her about her books. Her newest book is "Prayers for Sale", so I bought it and will probably start reading it later today.
Well, I think that is it for today. I'm going to go tend to my whining dog and my cold.
Have a great day and because I plan on making my better than it started off!

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