Shopping the Vendor Mall!

Does this look overwhelming or what? There were somewhere between 1100 and 1200 vendor booths at the Houston Quilt Festval this year! Wednesday night is the "Preview Night" from 5:00 - 10:00 PM. You can shop the vendors or look at quilts. We've found that it is absolutely the best time to shop the vendor mall, because it is so much less crowded than Thursday through Sunday, after the show opens to the general public. Wednesday night is just for those who've signed up for classes and/or are IQA members.

See the relatively empty isles above, compared to Thursday morning, below!

I stopped by The Quilt Show booth because Michelle told me I had to see their new block of the month for 2014, created by Janet Stone, who incidentally won two big awards for two of her other quilts in the judged show this year! As a member of TQS I can download the patterns for this quilt. I'm thinking of making it a bit smaller and using some wool for some of the appliqué. It is an awesome quilt.

Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims were in the booth! I have been a member of The Quilt Show since the very first episode. I love it and learn a LOT from their shows, the Daily Blog etc. John Anderson, Alex's husband offered to take my picture with her. Then he took me over and introduced me to Ricky and the president of Bernina USA! I felt very special :)

Saw this sign in a booth and couldn't resist sending a picture to my hubby via text. He texted back and said "anything you want"! He's so sweet and supportive of my fun hobby. Michelle and I were both quite careful and conservative on our shopping spree this year though, mostly because we both have a lot of UFO's (Un Finished Objects) or WIP's (Works In Progress). In fact, several of the things I bought are Christmas gifts, so I got a little Christmas shopping in as well!

I also had to send my husband a picture of me golfing, trying to win a spool of thread. These vendors know how to make shopping fun!

This golf course was set up at the Aurafil booth and this lovely lady is from Italy. I did not get a hole in one, but she invited me back to try again the next day :)

This floral arrangement was in the lobby of our hotel and I just thought it was pretty. Our hotel was great! The organizers of the show also organize a wonderful bus shuttle service between the hotels and the convention center. The drivers are so kind and we hardly ever had to wait long at all. We usually try to walk in the daytime when we can, but this year it rained both days we were there.