Welcome to Houston

Here we are, first photos at the Preview tonight. Doesn't look like a lot of people...that's because they all made a mad rush to the Souvenir stands to pick up programs, pins, t-shirts, coffee mugs, mouse pads, battery operated fans....We made a beeline to the nether regions...the farthest away booths and worked our way  to the beginning booths---path of least resistance.

Every thread manufacturer you've ever heard of, and some you haven't, has a booth at the show. I love the thread displays. So visual, so colorful, so organized. This is a job for me...arranging hundreds of spools of colord thread on tables. Almost makes me want to contact YLI, Sulky, etc. and offer to be their thread roadie.

This is where you'll find me tomorrow, if you're looking for me..the Hobbs batting booth. You can buy 18x18 pieces of all of the different battings they sell for 50 cents each.  This way you can try before you buy. Gotta love it!

Overwhelming? Yes. My goal was to just walk the vendor floor. That took 3 hours tonight. I only stopped to buy a few things...a couple spendy Bernina accessories (one of which was the 18x24 plexiglass table for my new machine,) and only because they were 20% off.

I got to sit down and machine quilt a bit using the silicone slider mat and the weighted circle frame---will most likely buy both of those tomorrow. Did not see anything Australian, But did see some authentic French fabrics I most likely have to have. Saw a great line of Mexican Day of the Dead prints, but they were outrageous. I think I saw them at another vendor's booth for way less. Will be checking that out.

Right now I need to to go to bed. I couldn't get a Ricky Tims photo tonight...not that I didn't have the opportunity--his booth was pretty quiet at the end, I just was all hot and sweaty. I did scope out his booth where he was selling his books, his CDs, his hand-dyed fabric (sadly, nothing to write home about compared to the other hand dyed fabrics available here at the show). He should have decorated his booth with convergence quilts...that would have sold him a ton of books. But who knows, maybe he did that last year.

Promise to take better photos tomorrow. I'm going to split my day between viewing quilts in the show and revisiting the vendors I thought I might want to shop at, but didn't tonight.

Have a great Thursday everyone!