Sew Fun 2 Quilt: Back From Houston!

I dropped my computer off the day before I left for Houston, in hopes they would fix it while I was gone, but when I checked after returning home, they were still waiting for parts :( I sure hope to get it back soon so I can post more fun pictures from the Houston International Quilt Festival! Michelle and I had a blast and I feel more inspired than ever to create!

Michelle and I met Vicki Bohnhoff four years ago at the festival in Houston. We just began talking with her, and ended up going to dinner with her and getting to know her better. She is from Arizona, and as nice a person as you will ever meet. Two years ago when we went to the Houston festival, we just bumped into her again! Neither of us knew the other would be there. We ended up going to dinner together again, and now I hear from her via email every now and then. I wrote her a few weeks ago to congratulate her on a quilt of hers I saw in a magazine and she wrote back that she was going to Houston, and not only had a quilt in the show, but she had been notified that she had won one an award! We had tickets to the Winner's Circle celebration on Tuesday night so we got to be amongst the first to congratulate her on winning FIRST place in the Traditional Pieced category for her quilt "Roo Garden"!!

Here is what she says about her quilt: In 2009 on a quilting cruise to Australia, a friend from Tasmania introduced me to Australian Aboriginal fabrics. Their story telling art motifs married well with a free package of Paper Pieces' 3/4" hexagons. Inspired by the designs, I cut up the ship's daily newsletter and over the next year made 5000 papers and covered them in Aboriginal fabrics. To create a kangaroo at dawn racing into the bush, 4,125 hexagons were glued onto a 10'x6' paper grid. This crazy good puzzle entertained me for five weeks designing, nine months hand stitching, many hours machine quilting eucalyptus leaves in the border and 50 plus flower designs. Thank you for your enthusiasm for Roo."