I survived Houston, but my feet are still angry.

I'm sorry. I suppose that it's going to sound like bragging, and I don't mean for it to. I also don't want to seem ungrateful. That would be horrible because I had such fun. And I didn't want my time together with two of my sisters to end. (But we are sisters, so it had to end eventually.)

All of this chatter is about going to Houston for the international quilt show. The quilts were amazing! Of course, my favorites all have a quarter-million stitches and took well over a year to complete. Oh and let's not even discuss how perfectly symmetrical they were: top to bottom, left to right, up one side and down the other. It doesn't matter how you phrase it, they are perfect. And unrealistic. Impossible even. Except that I saw them, so they must exist, which means creating such works of art is possible. Just not by me. I could never stay with one quilt for that long.


As for the sisters, three of us were together for most of four days. Unfortunately my sister Lee, who is a math teacher, went home to find out that a student committed suicide. Her Friday was a wreck but she somehow managed and we had dinner together so we could spend a few more hours with her family. On Saturday we drove home stopping for quick shopping at a flea market or two. I don't like shopping or flea markets, but I just couldn't resist Angie and Pam's enthusiasm for a bargain.

I had purchased a couple of Christmas gifts at the show, both of them meant for guild parties. I surprised myself by sitting in a couple of classes. One was about using fusible web. Sounds interesting, right? In all honesty, I just needed to sit. I learned much more than I expected since I started out with a negative attitude. Precisely the type of student no one wants, but cranky feet cause bad attitudes. If you ever need info on fusible web, I'm the resident expert. It's a little like reading Whitman, no one wants to but eventually there will be a quiz. I majored in English.


The other class was about how to make those clothesline bowls and vases. I'd thought about it some some time ago but just never got around to even buying the materials. There's the surprise....usually I buy stuff before I abandon a project. Anyway, I may have to invest because I like the different take that the presenter had. She certainly made it look easy, anyway.

And there you go. An four days of sisters, quilts, classes, and lots of TexMex food. If you're interested in seeing some of the photos I took of the quilts jump on over to my blog. I'll never get all