Four in the morning is awfully Early

View from George R Brown convention Center

Four is an early time for the alarm especially when crawling into bed the night before but how could I miss Festival?

 

It was still dark when I pulled into the parking lot but buses were already pulling up. It didn’t take long before lines were forming in front of the coffee kiosks and registration. I had to hustle to my class with Ann Johnston.

 

The class was full with twenty-five eager students; many from overseas. My tablemate was an expat living in Mexico. We worked all morning; nearly everyone else must have inhaled a package of cheese and crackers for lunch because when I returned from lunch—there were lots of practice blocks up on their design walls. I rather struggled with the machine assigned to the class and so managed to get through just one of the three exercises.

 

first exercise

Second part of first exercise

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hadn’t intended to buy much but somehow several things hopped into my bag.

—Aunt Philly’s toothbrush needle.  My good friend and I had both dreamed about these for years thinking they were beyond our budget—she bought it for me today! And herself!

—two bags of weaving samples in wool and silk/cotton that I think will be fun to felt

—a packet of Japanese sewing needles

–a single felting needle holder that looks a lot like a seam reaper

–Ann Johnston’s new book on Design

 

Wondering through the aisles I saw lots of friends; Jamie Fingal was demo’ing free motion quilting, Lyric Kinard was describing a DVD with surface design techniques, and Jane Davila was maintaining order in Make-It-University.

 

My feet were tired.

 

We had dinner with Sherri’s son—a tuna steak sandwich for me and meatloaf plate for them. The restaurant’s ceiling was painted with angel wing dog-bones and dogs.

Tags: Ann Johnston, Festival, Houston, IQF