In early October, I left to Alaska for a 2-week business trip. I had the weekend off, but was headed for Santa Barbara, CA the following Monday. Therefore, since I would be missing out on Halloween this year, Diane and I decided to carve some pumpkins before I left. Sadly, they only last about 4 days before the humidity got to them.

Diane’s pumpkin

Fernando’s pumpkin

I have been so excited for this year’s quilt festival, so I could stock up on fabric, since good fabric stores are hard to come by in Houston. For some reason I was thinking last years festival was in February. Anyway, with Fernando gone, I decided to head out to Jo-Ann’s and bumped into my visiting teachee. I found some okay fabric to start a Halloween banner with, and stood in line for a least 30 minutes since the lady two people in front of me literally bought 60 yards of fabric. (I counted, then asked the clerk to verify). Ridiculous right? Then the store manager screams into the intercom, “I need two people on the cash registers up front…NOW!” Just as I was thinking about how I love shopping at Jo-Anns, I see a customer with a bag advertising that this year’s quilt festival is today! I jumped in my car and made a mad dash downtown, completely cutting off a really old grandma who gave me one heck of an evil eye. I’m proud to say I parallel parked our new car for the first time (I only had to start over once) right in front of the convention center. I dashed through all of the beautiful way-too-complicated award winning quilts to the red carpet, where everything was for sale.

A handful of cherries quilt

red carpet land where everything is for sale

a quilt that I am inspired to make

The best discovery of all was this booth called Sheree’s Alchemy. I fell in love with every piece of fabric she sold. Most of it was Moda but she also had some beautiful Japanese fabric which is so rare! She takes custom orders of what ever you want: layer cakes, charm packs, jelly rolls, etc. If you contact her through her online store. And shipping is free if you live in Texas, because guess what? She’s a local. She live in Katy and is opening up a shop in Houston (in the loop)! And she has a pretty cool blog too.

The end result: 4 new quilts to start. Sorry hun, they sold Moda.

Look dad, you can advertise at quilt expo’s too!

Forget you High Fashion Fabrics, your fabric in your booth was at least $3.25 higher than any other booth. I’ll only shop with you if I have to.

Um…how come nobody told us what a ridiculously neat store High Fashion is? Its on the corner of Travis and Elgin, like a mile from our house. It is four floors filled with home decor, furniture, canvas wall art, fabrics, accessories for the office, home, or bathroom. They have the most unique decor I’ve seen, which makes me want a bigger house just so I can have more rooms to decorate. They also have fun little nick-nacks which reminded Ferd and I of a store called Archie McPhee in Washington but with more class. All of their canvas wall art is 50% off right now too. Here are some fun things we found while we explored the store for an hour:

You can customize anything in this store, with bolts and bolts of fabric of any kind, ranging from pillows, to bedspreads, to curtains, and sofas. Even huge bolts of Amy Butler and baby cuddle velour. Directly across the street is High Fashion Fabrics, with a whole room just for quilting and designer fabrics! If you come to Houston and are into sewing, I would say this store is a must see! (disclaimer: the prices however are slightly above average for the fabric).