Tag Archives: Houston Quilt Show

Breaking Quilt Exhibit News…

September 18, 2012 By in International Quilt Festival, Pet Projects Tags: , 4 Comments

Breaking news from our Special Exhibits Department!

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By now hopefully everyone knows about our Pet Postcard Project to benefit Houston-based animal shelters (and you are busy making lots of fabric postcards), but what you may not know is that surrounding this wall of pet postcards on the exhibit floor, will be an invitational exhibit of quilted pet portraits. And there will be two more years of pet quilt exhibits that will debut in Houston, then travel to a number of our away shows. In 2013, we will host a juried exhibit of quilted pet portraits, and in 2014, we will host a judged contest. More information on both of these opportunities will be forthcoming, but we wanted to share sooner rather than later that we will be hosting these animal exhibits (in case you wanted to break out your camera now and start taking lots of shots of your iguana, Petunia, or Scruff, your pet porcupine).

Fabric Winner

Congratulations to Jerri Stroud! You have won the Malka Dubrawsky fabrics, and I will follow up in an email shortly to get your mailing address.

Pet Lovers Unite! Big Animal-loving Announcement for International Quilt Festival/Houston!

September 10, 2012 By in Houston Quilt Festival, International Quilt Festival, Pet Projects, Quilt Studio Pets Tags: , , , 32 Comments

If you’ve been following my blog, you know not only do I love quilts, but animals, too. All of us at Quilts Inc. do, and most of us have rescues as pets. After my most recent rescue, Sweetie, whom I fostered and thankfully adopted out, I thought it would be a great idea to do some kind of outreach quilt exhibit/fundraiser for Houston-based shelters. With the economy the way it has been, and the fact that a lot of strays are wandering the streets in search of food and a place to rest, the shelters in Houston are more than at capacity with animals in desperate need of good, loving, forever homes. These places could really use our help in terms of funding.

So the good news: We talked about the idea at Quilts, Inc., and we are doing a fundraiser at International Quilt Festival this fall to help these shelters, and we want YOU to participate!

Introducing the Pet Postcard Project!
Want to make postcard-sized quilts to be featured at International Quilt Festival/Houston and to raise money for animals in dire need? Make what we are currently dubbing…Critter Cards!

Here are the preliminary details:

1. Make as many 4″ x 6″ fabric postcards (that are no more than 1/8″ in thickness) as you would like to be featured and sold at International Quilt Festival this upcoming fall.

2. We want you to get pet-ty! For these fabric postcards, keep them animal-themed or related to animals in some fashion. On the back side of the fabric postcard, please sign your name and title your postcard. (Contact information is optional.)

3. We will sell the postcards for $20 each at Festival, and all of the proceeds will go to Houston-based animal shelters.

4. These postcards are due at the Quilts, Inc. office no later than Tuesday, October 23rd. Please note: this is a receive-by date!

5. You can mail as many fabric postcards as you would like, but please place them in a padded envelope. This way they will stay in pristine condition to be displayed at Festival.

Please mail them to:
Pet Postcards
Attn: Pokey Bolton
7660 Woodway
Suite 550
Houston, TX 77063

Louie helping me prep my fabric painting table to make the doggie bone fabric for my Critter Cards.

Send as many fabric postcards as you can create, and send them early! I will be displaying many of your postcards on my blog before Festival to build up momentum for the fall show. In the next blog post I will give more specifics and requirements for this special opportunity, along with a tutorial for making fabric postcards with tips and techniques. I am committing to making (minimally) 50 fabric postcards!

Clarence salivating over the dog bone fabric as it sun prints. (And too bad for Clarence, I threw those bones out as I didn’t want him to digest fabric paint!)

Please help me spread the word about this opportunity to help animals in need!

WANTED: Artists for Open Studios at International Quilt Festival/Houston!

August 14, 2012 By in International Quilt Festival Tags: , 1 Comment

Thanks to all of you who answered my question yesterday about what quilt demonstrations, processes, and techniques you would love to observe. (And congrats to Kit Lang as you are yesterday’s book winner! Please email me your shipping address to pokeyb@quilts.com and I will ship this book to you faster than you can free-motion a feather motif.)

The reason I posed this question yesterday was because we are looking to expand Open Studios this fall in Houston! I was hoping to get…oh…about 60 sessions of artist demonstrations right on the show floor over the four days. (Maybe that is an aggressive amount, but, hey, I like to think big!)

Jane Davila demonstrating Gyotaku (fish printing) in Open Studios in 2008.

Just imagine being able to observe some of your favorite quilt artists demonstrating their craft, sharing tips, techniques, and secrets, and demystifying processes that are mysterious and confusing. We are hoping to offer a wide range of hands-on demonstrations: everything from art quilting and mixed media to modern quilting and free-motion stitching.

Are you a quilt artist who has expertise in a certain area? We are looking for artist applicants who would be willing to volunteer two hours (or more) of their time during show hours to share their expertise with quilt fans. (Sounds like a hard gig, doesn’t it?!)
If you are coming to Houston and are interested, here’s what we are looking for:

• Artists who are considered experts in their fields. (It helps if you have written articles for magazines, have authored books, teach on the show circuit, have an active blog, etc.)

• Artists who have lots of colorful quilts and fabrics that we can use to decorate the Open Studios area.

How to apply:

• Please email me (pokeyb@quilts.com) with the technique you would like to demonstrate. Remember that each session will be two hours. If you have multiple ideas for multiple sessions, please list them.

• Please attach in your email a clear, low-resolution (72 DPI) jpeg of your work for each session. Please limit it to one image per Open Studios session.

• Let me know when you ARE and when you are NOT available during show hours to facilitate an Open Studios session during International Quilt Festival.

• Point out whether you will need a sewing machine for your demonstration.

• In the subject line of your email, please write (in caps) OPEN STUDIOS/HOUSTON.

*** We are are also looking for artists who work wet, so all of you painters, dyers, and surface design artists, we want you!

I hope to have the schedule fairly finalized by the beginning of October, and I really hope you will apply. Please help me spread the word…we are planning for this to be a very lively and fun area with diverse offerings!

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