I survived Houston

I am back online after a fun, but exhausting trip to Houston for the quilt show.  I got out of here almost on time Friday and drove the 3 hours to the convention center, parked, got my badge and went inside.  I stopped by Treasures of the Gypsy first to say hello to Gypsy Pamela and Ken, then made my way to a table at the back and went through the catalog looking for vendors.  I marked all the ones I wanted to visit (less than 10 definites with 4 more possibles) and started off. 

First stop was a tool vendor, where I found the hemostats I’ve been trying to find.  Next was Beyond Beadery, where I got loads of black and white beads and some others I couldn’t resist.  Last for the shopping excursion was the Quilting Arts booth, where I got a few DVD’s, including Layer by Layer by Beryl Taylor (oh boy!!!) and the QATV Series 400, and a couple of books. 

Last but  not least, I stopped by the Doll exhibit.  Believe it or not, but I didn’t really look at many quilts.  I saw the ones between the dolls and Pamela’s booth and that’s pretty much it.  The rest of the time I spent working with Ken and Pamela, or running upstairs for coffee.  I was just not too motivated this year.  The doll exhibit was pretty fabulous, my favorite doll being Neva Waldt’s “The Thief of Hearts”.  Neva just puts so much character into her dolls and they are so gorgeously executed.  I did take pictures, but since the exhibit is going to end up in a couple of magazines, I won’t post more than a cursory picture here.

I went to dinner with Pamela, Ken, Becca and Tom Krahula, Rice and the EGE, and Chris Malone and Bill whose last name I can’t remember.  I, of course, knew Rice and Earl, and had heard of Becca, but Chris and Bill?  I knew Chris’ dolls, having loved them for years from seeing them in the Celebration exhibit, but didn’t know who he was or much about him before seeing him in Rice’s latest book.  Rice had interviewed him for the book, but hadn’t met him, so we all had a fabulous time.  Chris, Rice and I talked cats and politics where everyone else at the table joined in.  We had so much fun that we stayed there for 3 hours.  Becca and Pamela and I talked about art and online communities and blogging and just general stuff and shared food.  It was fun.  I will post more about the show later in the week.

I made it home Saturday evening, completely wiped out, and pretty much went straight to bed.  I spent yesterday cleaning, putting away beads (which required cleaning out and rearranging the bead drawer) and doing laundry and errands.  This evening, after working all day at the day job, I wasn’t as wiped out and I came home and worked on La Caterina.  She’s acquired a few tattoo’s.  I just started doodling with a Pitt pen, then switched to black fluid acrylic with an 18/0 spotter brush.