The annual International Quilt Festival held in Houston, TX is mecca for quilters and cloth enthusiasts. It has long been my dream to attend, and this year I am here with The Engineer and many others I’ll tell you about as the week goes on, to give voice to The 70273 Project Special Exhibit of quilts. Such an honor to be selected.

 

When it was time to pack up the quilts after the First Major European Exhibit in Lacaze, France last June, Katell Renon gave us this purple suitcase that is now part of The 70273 Project Fleet. Were I to decorate it with bumper stickers from all the places it’s been since arriving on US soil, you wouldn’t be able to see the purple, so thank you again, Katell!

We flew into Houston yesterday, dropped our bags, and trekked right on over to the convention center where we had the delightful pleasure of meeting Terri Winsauer, and Deann Shamuyarira live and in person.  These two and Becky Navarro are My Dream Team. I know they must be frazzled and exhausted, and yet I have never seen them in anything other than a smile, and oh the patience!

 

 

 

The Festival Special Exhibits Dream Team did an amazing, astonishing, outstanding job designing and hanging our exhibit. And it’s so big! There are 4 long walls, one short wall, and two end walls where two long walls come together.

Frances Alford happened by, and what fun it was to meet her live and in person. She’s every bit as effervescent in person as she is on Facebook. Frances has a beautiful quilt on display at Festival, a self portrait. Click on the link to see it as her profile photo. For some reason, the hotel’s internet won’t let me transfer the photo from my phone to the computer, and my blogging software won’t accept the saved image from her fb profile, so yeah. Just click over and have a look.

I got to meet the amazingly productive and fun Desiree Habicht, her husband Randy, their daughter Jen, and Jen’s service dog, Chloe. What fun! If you’re reading this and will be at Festival, be sure to find Desiree in her vendor’s booth and maybe treat yourself to a few things.

And tonight Peggy Thomas, The 70273 Project Chief of Nectar, arrived!

I’ll leave you with some bird’s eye view photos The Engineer took of The 70273 Project Special Exhibit and a promise to post every night about the day’s happenings and profile quilts in the exhibit, so y’all come back now, ya’ hear?

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Other places to gather around The 70273 Project water cooler:

Shop with Amazon Smile and support The 70273 Project.

Subscribe to the blog (where all information is shared).

Join the English-speaking Facebook group – our e-campfire – where you can talk to other members of The 70273 Project Tribe.

Join the French-speaking Facebook group – our other e-campfire – where you can chat with other members of The 70273 Project Tribe.

Like the Facebook page where you can check in for frequent updates.

Get folks to help celebrate your birthday by making blocks and/or donating bucks.

Follow the pinterest board for visual information.

Post using #the70273project on Instagram. (Please tag me, too, @whollyjeanne, so I don’t miss anything.)

Tell your friends what you want for your birthday.

And if you haven’t yet made some blocks, perhaps you’d like to put some cloth in your hands and join us.

Or maybe you’d like to gather friends and family, colleagues or students, club or guild members, etc. together and make a group quilt.