Houston Quilt Market - Hurricane Damage

From the George Brown convention center where the fall version of international quilt market is held in Houston each year, you can still see many signs blown over and the telling scene downtown where the skyscrapers are still missing many windows, a month and a half after Hurricane Ike swept through town after destroying much of the gulf coast.


The weather was nice and clear while we were in town - high 70's and sunny! Much nicer weather than in Portland, Oregon where we live. In Portland, the rainy season begins in October/November and goes on through the spring time - yuk!Off to buy more fabric...









We spoke with Robyn Pandolph who lives in Galveston which was devastated by the Hurricane. Luckily for Robyn, her condo is several stories up, so she was not impacted severely like so many others in the area. I've seen some of the pictures where the beach front has been swept completely clean, and you can see sand and house foundations only. Very sad!

Robyn has a new line of fabric for RJR which debuts in February 2009 - Sumptuous Living. We'll be blogging about this fabric line at a future date -we can't wait to get it in! Here's a sneak preview of a few of the fabrics:

Quilt Market Houston Day 1

Well, here we are in Houston, for the International Quilt Market. This is our second market to attend (the first was this May in Portland, Oregon), and it is pretty amazing to see over 500 vendors selling patterns, fabric, notions and anything else that can be attributed to quilting! We had fun today talking with "Me and My Sister" designers Barbara Groves and Mary Jacobson. We love their four new patterns! The fabric used to make the quilts in these patterns is from their Oh Cherry Oh collection for Moda. We ordered some of this fabric and expect to get it in February 2009. It is so bright and cheerful - we can't wait to get it in!

Click on the patterns below to see the fabric requirements for each quilt.

1. Center of Attention - This 76" X 76" quilt uses a layer cake and a Sweet Roll, which is the new 1 1/2" strip precut fabric from Moda (it is basically a miniature Jelly Roll).

2. Cherry Turnover - This pattern makes a 54" X 54" quilt and is made from a charm pack and two Turnovers. The Turnover is brand new from Moda too - it has 6" squares cut into half square triangles which can be used with charm packs. This new product was the brainchild of everybody at the Moda U retreat.

3. Simply Sweet - This quilt is 60" X 70" and uses a Sweet Roll and Jelly Roll. Very cute!



4. Spin Cycle - This quilt is adorable! It is 72" X 78" and uses a Sweet Roll and other yardage. We will be selling kits for these patterns soon at our website.

Time to get some sleep and see some great new fabrics tomorrow!