Still wearing that paper bag over my head...

Oh dear.  The Dallas Cowboys...what can you say?  Happily Texas A&M and Texas Tech both won their games and t.u. got beat.  It was mostly a good football weekend unless you were watching the NFL.

I got up at o'dark-thirty on Saturday and went to the Houston International Quilt Show, reportedly the largest quilt show in the world.  My day started out with me standing in the ticket line waiting to buy a ticket to get into the show when a lady walked up to me and gave me an extra ticket she had!  How cool is that!

The show itself was a lot of fun.  I was with Georgia and Terri who are are real, live quilters.  It was fun seeing all the vendors and watching some live demonstrations.  One device that wowed me was the AccuQuilt GO!  It cuts fabric for you very easily and precisely.  It has a lot of different dies that cut different shapes and sizes for piecing and applique.  If I ever have the urge to quilt, I'd definitely get one of these.

Georgia and Terri both have long-arm quilting machines.  There are several manufacturers - think Chevy to Porsche - and it was interesting to see all the different long-arm machines available.  Georgia bought hers used and wants to upgrade to a machine with more features.  She talked to the dealer at the show.  Apparently, you can buy, sell, and trade long-arms just like a car as used ones have a trade-in value.  

The new thing this year was fabric paints, glitter, and foil effects.  We watched a couple of demonstrations on this and I found it pretty interesting.  I was amazed that sprinkle-on glitter stayed exactly where you put it on the fabric with none sneaking off.  

Another demonstration had me backing away from the table muttering frantically, "I don't need another hobby!  I don't need another hobby!"  There were several vendors selling hot-fix Swarovski crystals that you could iron on in patterns on fabric or clothing.  It looked really cool and I was tempted to take it up as a hobby.  But then I calculated how much I would have to spend to get started and after figuring how much cross stitch stash that would buy, I managed to restrain myself.

Today I plan to get a bit more fall cleaning done and then put away "Liberty Lane" while I get my nephews' Christmas ornaments stitched.  DN1 is getting an F-18 airplane this year instead of a car.   DN2 is getting a reindeer with ornaments hanging off his antlers unless his parents request something else.

LoneStar