“I’m here with my sister, who quilts, but I knit!” exclaimed a smiling lady. She had wandered into my TextileFusion exhibit at the International Quilt Festival in Houston last week. All thirteen pieces in the exhibit were knitted and quilted, then embellished with crochet, embroidery, buttons, and beads.
Thanks to the exhibit’s sponsor, Lion Brand Yarns, knitters and crocheters felt they had found a home at the Festival.
I was able to be with my exhibit and talk to people all through the show (with a couple of breaks for shopping). As we talked, I worked on a new wall hanging, which was a great example to illustrate my spiel about knitted quilts. It was undoubtedly the only quilt in the enormous exhibit hall that people were allowed to touch.
To help me visualize the flower arrangement on the new wall hanging, I photographed it with my phone. The only way to get an adequate photo was to put the quilt on the floor.
A quilter walked by, and I’m afraid she may have suffered heart palpitations when she saw me place a quilt on the floor. Clueless at first, I just told her what I was doing, explaining that I can get a much better perspective on the wall hanging from a photo than I can by looking at it straight-on with my own eyeballs.
When she realized it was my own quilt, the relief on her face was obvious. Oh, I get it! I’m sorry, dear concerned lady.
In another exciting development at the Festival, I sold a wall hanging! Mama Lion will be going home with a family that is active in the effort of conserving our world heritage of lions and other wild animals. I am extremely happy about the situation.
Here’s a detail of Mama Lion. See the whole wall hanging at TextileFusion Works. Scroll down to 2015.
It’s great to be finally on the map! Literally.