My Quilt family

With the International Quilt Festival and Quilt Market coming to Houston each fall, I look forward to my reunions with friends who travel from across the United States (and other nations) to attend. I especially enjoy my annual catch-up visits with my quilting sisters and good friends: Mary Beth Hayes and Wanda Hayes Eichler. I keep trying to adopt myself into their family, but with 7 siblings already, I haven't gotten farther than being their "Texas cousin, sort of." We met many years ago, when Mary and I were in an online quilt round robin. She lived in Maryland and Thangles were not yet available for sale anywhere. Wanda, her sister, lived in Michigan where she owned a quilt shop, The Pigeon River Mercantile. I had just moved to Houston and worked for Quilts, Inc. setting up the show and hanging quilts. Mary & Wanda, do you remember that first lunch with my friend Margaret G.?

These days I work in both their booths: Thangles and Graywood Designs and I love it!

Here we are this year, at the end of a long Market day, in the Thangles booth.

Here's a great photo of Wanda and Ed Eichler together in her Graywood Designs booth.

While I practically live at the George R. Brown Convention Center during the weeks of Quilt Market and Festival, my family come at least one time to see what has pulled me away from them for so many days. I've caught Mary and Pat in this photo with my family taken as we depart Saturday evening.

This year my boys enjoyed the Political quilts, a special exhibit in honor of the Presidential Election that had not happened yet. Two voting booths were set up in this exhibit, enabling everyone interested (regardless of age or nationality) to cast their vote for their presidential choice.


While the race was tight among the quilt voters .... the result was the same as the national election held two days after Festival closed. Barack Obama was the victor among the voters at the Quilt Festival and Market as well as among voters across our nation.