Houston Day three – lots of hexagons

I haven’t had much time to see quilts or cool new items here at Houston, but I’m hoping that will change tomorrow. There were a couple of wonderful things today though.  

I’ve been following the blog of a Romanian quilter, Geta Grama, who has designed a hexagon quilt that looks like a 3-D globe lifting off the surface of the quilt.  I heard one of her large quilts was going to be here at Houston, and I looked for it.  I was not disappointed!

This is a totally flat quilt.

She sells this pattern through her website. I think I want to make one!

There’s another 3-D quilt at a vendor’s stall, which I hope I can photograph tomorrow.  It’s also amazing in a similar way.

Also in the show was this wonderful Aussie kangaroo, made entirely with hexagons!  Love this fellah.

Rose Garden by Vicki Bonhoff

I did another hour-long stint at the Alzheimer’s booth, and sang a LOT more songs for people than I did yesterday (remember, I only write the song for people who buy a quilt). There was even a group of red-clad teenage girls who walked by and were game enough to sing along with one of the songs!  We had a great time.  There was lots of laughter this time (sometimes I write songs that make people weep…. there’s always lots of laughter and weeping at their display).  The last quilt that was purchased while I wore the tiara wasn’t anything special. In fact, the woman who bought it said “Oh, you wouldn’t want to write a song about this one – it’s just a little quilt, nothing special.”  I told here that I ESPECIALLY wanted to write about that one, and talked her into it.  I sang her a song that was about a little quilt, nothing special, just something thrown together, not important at all. But when it joined together with all those other “little quilts” all of a sudden, it was worth a million dollars, and it changed lives.  Just a little quilt, but really important, all the same.  I’m so glad that I could finish my session by singing to Ami and everyone about essence of the whole project, through the tale of this one little quilt. I’m fairly certain that some of these videos will be uploaded on the Alzheimers Art Quilts website when Ami gets a minute.

Back at the booth: I was very happy that fellow Canadian and Houston prize-winner Kathy Wylie was there this year. She stopped by to say hello.

Kathy Wylie

Last year I blogged about visiting the Mid-Atlantic quilt festival and standing in front of the 3rd prize winner, wondering “What do you have to do to win a first in this festival?” It was the most magnificent hexie quilt I had ever seen – bright, modern, 1/2″ hexagons with large numbers of small circles (in complimentary colours) appliqued on top. There were lots of fun other fussy-cut hexes in there too (including a lip-rosette – all six petals were fussy cut with lip fabric!). It was a master work, and I was gobsmacked, as were all the other hexaholics there.

Although the quilt didn’t win at the Mid-Atlantic quilt festival, it DID win at Paducah, and is now in the Quilt Museum there. I was so relieved that she finally won with this extremely deserving quilt.

I’ve been wanting to meet Cheryl See ever since. I met her today! A woman walked up and told me she had seen my episode on The Quilt Show from last year and promptly made TWO Notans. She loved the process and has more in her future.  She saw that I was working on my 3/8″ hexies (which has led to more interesting conversations today!) and said that her daughter had just released a book about small hexie projects.  Just as I was about to ask her name, she said “My daughter is Cheryl See”. I couldn’t believe it! 

Jackie had organized to meet Cheryl at our booth, as Cheryl was also excited to meet me! She brought her newest quilt – it will be a smaller version of her prize-winner, and it’s so spectacular already. We had a hex-in. So lovely to meet someone I admire so much!

That’s all for day three.  Whew! Now, to bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Houston day two

It’s all going really well this time at Houston.  We’re seeing lots and lots of people who have the CDs already and listen to them often. Some people walking by and just saying “Hi Cathy” (as if I know who they are!!!!), and lots of others who are stopping by to chat.  There are lots of hugs going around!

I met another Cathie Miller – she won a 2nd place ribbon in hand quilting. I told her “I don’t hand quilt” she said “I don’t sing”. There! We’re even!

My good friend from Victoria BC Daphne Greig is here teaching.

Janie Lawless and Cindy Stachelski dropped by from Virginia. It’s because of Cindy that I wrote “Buzzing at the Bee”.

 

And from Australia, the fabulous Judy Hall of “Punch with Judy” fame! Right beside the Aussie flag!

 

I did a bit of singing (by request) at the booth – it always tends to draw a crowd.

Okay – enough about the booth. At 1pm I wandered over to the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative booth to volunteer as a “Vanna” for an hour.  I’ve done this many times before; when someone buys a small quilt in aid of Alzheimer’s research, I compose a song on the spot for them and sing the quilt off into the world.  Some of these songs are okay, some are better than okay, and sometimes people weep.  This is the last year that Ami Simms will be doing this auction/sale and she has LOTS of quilts!  When I got there, there were lots of people milling around, and a tangible sense of excitement.

It was an extra special moment because at the beginning of the day they only had just over $1,000 to go before they reached ONE MILLION DOLLARS raised for Alzheimers!!!  They reached that figure about a half hour before I arrived, and they were PUMPED! Ami Simms, her assistant Debbie and many, many volunteers made this possible. It is an amazing achievement – driven by Ami’s love and drive and enthusiasm and compassion.  I’m so happy I have been able to contribute in a small way in this.

Debbie, Ami and Kathy are celebrating!

On my way back to the booth, I passed a group of people listening to a guided tour of one of  the exhibits.  I was very surprised to see the Most Famous Kaffe Fassett with a microphone in his hand!  This picture is for my friend Wenche, who is a huge fan – Wenche, do you want me to pick up some more of his fabric for you here?  I’ve found a couple of vendors who have lots of it!

Kaffe Fassett is here, giving tours of his exhibit.

Going to bed, tired but happy.

 

Ami and Scooter

We have stopped for the night to see the world-famous Ami Simms, who, among other things, heads up the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative (http://www.alzquilts.org/).  They have just celebrated receiving their 10,000th quilt. Way to go, Ami!

We will be sleeping with 1000 of the little quilts tonight.  Here they are.

This is what 1000 Alzheimers Art Quilts look like!

Ami has been working hard on this amazing endeavour for a long time, and has raised a great deal of money that has helped fund research into finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Check out her website and help if you can.

Ami asked me to help fill an order for quilts that she received today.  It’s all very well organized, and I found the three quilts right away.

Found it!

We’ve spent a lovely evening with her and her dog Scooter. Scooter is a lovely (clean and soft) Golden Retriever who has his own Facebook page and he even takes over Ami’s blog on occasion. Scooter loves to have his ears scratched and he LOVES to play ball!

Scooter and Ami in the backyard.

He has a very entertaining party trick: he thinks he’s a lap god – er, dog!

It doesn't seem to matter what size of chair Ami sits in, Scooter thinks he can fit!

We have been playing ball all evening, and are all tuckered out now.  Tomorrow, we head for Indianapolis – our first time ever singing in Indiana!