Best Thing About Houston...

…the people!

Please forgive this huge stack of pictures of me me me! Usually when I return from a quilt show, I realize I have tons of pictures of quilts I like and none of the people I met. Not this time.

Here is my friend Tonya from right here in the Dallas area. Her 5x5 “green” quilt from the Quilting Arts Challenge is on the top row above us with the orange border. (Our friend Sherrie Tootle’s quilt is right next to Tonya’s.)

I met Tracie Lyn Huskamp by complete coincidence. We struck up a conversation in the SAQA exhibit and she said, “I’m a mixed media artist.” Then I looked at her name tag and I said “I know who YOU are!” We had big fun chatting about art stuff and the friends we have in common. (She even got me to sign up for Alma’s zine swap!)

Here are my roomies! They are all friends from the Dallas Area Fiber Artists: Jo, Michelle and Connie.

Oh goodness. You can read about this silliness here or here or even here.

Here is Mary Ann Littlejohn. She and I have been reading each other’s blogs since the early days of the Artful Quilters Webring.

The lovely Natalya Aikens went out of her way to find me and let me know that she enjoys my blog. So delightful.

Look it’s Terri Stegmiller! She is one of the Twelves. We had a fun time chatting and exchanging ATCs. It really is such a pleasure to meet in *real life* after sharing art online for so long. (We first met last year at Houston, so it was great to see her again.)

Here is Connie again and the fabulous Lu Peters.

Melly Testa and I were unexpected twins! Here we are with Pokey Bolton who was dressed as a Laugh In hostess. So funny! Pokey shares an amazing amount of inspirational energy in the mixed media area of the vendor area at Houston. So much fabulous stuff coming from the QA and CPS people. More on that soon.

I didn’t even realize that Allison Ray was going to be in Houston, let alone working at Open Studios. She is also a member of DAFA.

This is Tricia Waddell, editor of the FANTASTIC new magazine Stitch.

Rice Freeman Zachary and I got the orange going on from her head to my toes! (Scroll back up to the picture of me with Pokey and you can see my orange shoes.) Rice and I perused some of the quilts in the special political exhibit. Fascinating.

Here is Jenny Doh of Stampington Publications. We have emailed a bit and it was an absolute delight to make a creative connection in person. We are in the Where Women Create booth, another amazing new publication!

The amazing Judy Perez. I was so lucky to take Judy’s ornament class and I’ve already started making more!

Long time blog readers will recognize Sarah Smith. She is one of the Frayed Edges. It is always so wonderful to see her. Another true **connection.** I’m very lucky to have such amazing friends.

Seriously, these smiles say it all.