My quilt buddy, Phyl, and I met up in Houston again this year, along with a few more of her Phoenix friends. As always, it was a fantastic time! The only downside was the very wet weather, which saw Phyl and me almost swimming to the convention center one day when the rain was pouring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[299,309],"tags":[211,49,209,212],"class_list":{"0":"post-2411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-quilting","8":"category-travel","9":"tag-houston-show","10":"tag-notions","11":"tag-quilt-show","12":"tag-ruler","13":"czr-hentry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/IMG_0940.jpg?fit=3031%2C3024&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5yzuO-CT","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1270,"url":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/2014\/11\/03\/back-from-houston\/","url_meta":{"origin":2411,"position":0},"title":"Back from Houston","author":"Sandy","date":"November 3, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Gosh! It's been a month since I've written a post \u2014 time really does fly sometimes. I returned home last night from a wonderful trip to the Houston Quilt Festival, which was celebrating its 40th anniversary. I know there are photos all over the web of the glorious quilts; I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quilting"","block_context":{"text":"Quilting","link":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/category\/quilting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/IMG_0184.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3631,"url":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/2018\/11\/13\/houston-quilt-festival-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":2411,"position":1},"title":"Houston Quilt Festival","author":"Sandy","date":"November 13, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I absolutely love going to the Houston Quilt Festival, and I'm very lucky to be able to do so. I left home last Wednesday and returned home on Sunday, and it was so much fun to meet up with old friends and see the gorgeous quilts and the amazing vendors!\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","block_context":{"text":"Travel","link":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/category\/travel\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/IMG_0807.jpg?fit=1200%2C974&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/IMG_0807.jpg?fit=1200%2C974&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/IMG_0807.jpg?fit=1200%2C974&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/IMG_0807.jpg?fit=1200%2C974&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/IMG_0807.jpg?fit=1200%2C974&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1373,"url":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/2012\/11\/11\/back-from-houston-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":2411,"position":2},"title":"Back from Houston","author":"Sandy","date":"November 11, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been home for almost a week from the \"really big show\" in Houston, and I think I'm finally almost caught up. ;) It was wonderful, as always! I love everything about it: the gorgeous quilts, the amazing vendors, spending uninterrupted time with friends \u2014 some of whom I only\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quilting"","block_context":{"text":"Quilting","link":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/category\/quilting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/IMG_0023.jpg?fit=612%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/IMG_0023.jpg?fit=612%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/IMG_0023.jpg?fit=612%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2315,"url":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/2015\/08\/21\/a-plethora-of-featherweights\/","url_meta":{"origin":2411,"position":3},"title":"A plethora of “featherweights”","author":"Sandy","date":"August 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Many of you may have heard that this summer there was a row-by-row challenge across the US. The idea was to visit as many quilt shops as possible, pick up the row pattern they had available, and make the rows into a quilt. 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A couple of days after that one, though, I went to Phoenix for Quilting in the Desert, staying with a dear friend and her three dogs for almost a week. You may remember that I have a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Family"","block_context":{"text":"Family","link":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/IMG_0122.jpg?fit=640%2C605&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/IMG_0122.jpg?fit=640%2C605&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/IMG_0122.jpg?fit=640%2C605&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1488,"url":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/2010\/11\/19\/pistachio-muffins\/","url_meta":{"origin":2411,"position":5},"title":"Pistachio muffins","author":"Sandy","date":"November 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"While my friends and I were in Houston recently, we \"discovered\" pistachio muffins. Oh my! They were so good! Unfortunately, Phyl and I were only able to get one each, and we've been drooling over the memory ever since. Phyl decided to do a Google search for recipes, and here\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the kitchen"","block_context":{"text":"In the kitchen","link":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/category\/kitchen\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Pistachio-muffins.jpg?fit=640%2C597&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Pistachio-muffins.jpg?fit=640%2C597&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Pistachio-muffins.jpg?fit=640%2C597&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2411"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2417,"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2411\/revisions\/2417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"IMG_0941\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sandymike.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/IMG_0941.jpg\")
<\/a>All of that looking, though, didn’t mean that I didn’t have some things of my own to look for. \ud83d\ude09 Over the course of the next few days, I managed to purchase everything I’d been looking for, as well as one or two “surprises”. \ud83d\ude09 I found some Wonderfil Invisafil and Deco-bob threads, which I like for embroidery and may try in\u00a0some quilting, too. Martelli had an interesting tool (Get-A-Grip) for keeping the sewing machine pedal in place, so I’ll give that a try. Something I ran across accidentally and picked up was the Hearts and More rulers for making various shapes for appliqu\u00e9: hearts, flowers, circles, ovals, teardrops, and leaves. Oh, and I found some Quilters Select batting, which is two-sided water-soluble batting; I think it should make machine quilting rather nice, since the quilt won’t have all of the pins to weigh it down.<\/p>\n<\/a>On Thursday morning I had a class from Lisa Calle <\/a>called Divide and Design. We learned her technique for coming up with a plan for quilting without using what she calls the “Stand and Stare” method. That’s the one I’ve used most often, and it really doesn’t make life easy. \ud83d\ude09 I took advantage of being in her class to buy some of her rulers, which I’d wanted\/planned to do. All except the one in the very front of this photo are from her line. That front one is a double-S curve from Ronda’s Rulers, and I’ve been looking for it for some time. The booklet you see in the back is part of the kit for Lisa’s\u00a0class; the kit also included some sample photos and tracing paper, as well as pencils and the loan of some rulers and templates. By the time the class was over, my hands were positively covered in pencil from rubbing against the drawings we were doing!<\/p>\n<\/a>As always, our group\u00a0spent quite a while admiring the quilts on display. They were gorgeous, of course, and there are lots of photos posted online, so I won’t post any here. However, while three of us\u00a0were admiring one particular quilt in a special\u00a0challenge exhibit, the artist who’d made the quilt came up behind us. We’d been speculating on one aspect of the quilt, and she very kindly explained it to us, after which she told us the very interesting story of how she came to be a quilter. Her name is Lisa-Marie Sanders<\/a>, and she gave us a little book to tell more of her story. I’m reading this very funny story\u00a0now\u00a0and will get it off in the mail very soon so that Phyl and Monica\u00a0will be able to enjoy\u00a0it, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"