Houston 2019 - Day 1 - Happy Halloween

A VERY night has occurred but, by golly, I am on the road towards the Houston International Quilt Festival and watching the sun come up once again.  It's so reassuring each time that it does indeed rise, right?  Check out the way I caught the power lines in this driveby-try to take a picture-moment.  Pretty cool.

The required stop at Buc-ee's nets me two passengers.  Hallelujah.  I've had about as much solitude as I can stand this morning and seeing these smiling faces is going to keep me going the last couple of hours.  Welcome aboard Sherri and Gwen.  (Psst Sherri, you know that head rest goes back, right?)

Much laughter and sharing ensues, keeping us all awake and ready for fun.  Lowe's in Spring is our first stop.  "Why," you ask?  Well, let me tell you.  Bonnie Hunter has released colors and yardages for her annual Reader Appreciation Mystery and I think I need a bit of stash enhancement to play along.  The cards will help.  Besides, I don't really have anything on my list for the festival vendors this year and this will provide a bit of fun.

Hello Houston --- where is the arrival pic?  I think my car mates let me down.  At any rate, we are here - although the GPS routed me a VERY strange way - and have already been issued one room where we promptly deposited our belongings and into the Festival we go.  We met up during check-in with several others in our group (Jennifer, Jennifer, Rocky) and split up to go find our own little treasures.  Sherri and I are going to hang together and just see what's up - although being good is the number one plan.  As we pass one booth, I spot this quilt and think of my Red Hat ladies in Dallas.

Moving along, this Thanksgiving table runner really takes my eye and a pattern purchase follows.  It's just one pattern, really I'm being sooooo good.  This won't happen this year, but perhaps next . . .

As we are walking down another aisle, I hear, "Are you Deb Hayter?"  Well, yes, yes I am.  Yay!!!  A face to face meet with Shirley and Ellen.  They are both coming to retreat with us in February and I'm super excited to get to know them better.

A text from Shirley let's us know she is sitting at the end of a row.  We've decided to get an early lunch so head that direction.  This lonely soul is what we find and she's crazy shopped out already with one very heavy bag and a second one starting to fill.  Wow.

Since McAllister's (a favorite lunch spot) seems to have vanished, we do a rapid search for an alternative spot and find one out on the green in front of the center.  Well, this is new as for the past several years, I don't think we've gone outside more than to cross the street to the hotel.  Well, except for that one year that Sherri went to the Astros Parade when they won the World Series.  Lookie, lookie.  There's the center.

And as we try to get out of the dang cold wind, Sherri and Shirley are making a beeline for the door.

It's a cute place and has NO ONE here yet.  How refreshing not to have to wait in a long line for lunch.  Score one for us.  We send out messages to everyone in the group that it's a great spot and please come join us.

Our little group of 3 are enjoying each other and receiving nutrition in the form of a Grilled Chicken Salad --- yep we all ordered the exact same thing.  Separately.

And then we became a group of 5 as Stephanie and Sharron join in.  We have such fun talking and sharing --- perhaps too much fun as some very strange looks from a neighboring table were received, but that topic is for another time and place.

It's time to return and perhaps you are wondering just what we are returning too.  What is this thing called Festival?  Well, here are some bird's eye views of just the vendor section.  Pssst -- it's huge.

Another booth provides a smile to us --- Eveline, this is for you!  Do you remember why?

Upstairs, there are all sorts of classes still available for this weekend.  I don't recall seeing this board in previous years but am thinking that if I come back in 5 years for the Golden Anniversary, I may stay longer and take a few classes.  It's a thought.

We have finished going through the vendors.  I think that is a record and I have to admit that there have been some changes this year that I am not a fan of.  So many of the booths didn't have anything to do with quilting at all --- clothing, household supplies, health needs, etc.  That was fully half of the vendors and it did change the feel of the whole thing.

Another new item ---- in the main lobby they are growing all the herbs used in the restaurant.  THIS is way cool and makes me want to work harder at it in my own home.

We are meeting at Pappadeaux's for dinner and sharing stories from the day along with some great food.  Just look at my salmon/shrimp dish.  I will say that Stphanie's sandwich was huge.

Jennifer and Jennifer join us to visit and spend some time together as well.  What a great group of women to be with.  Love it.

As we return to the room, exhausted, the sun is setting and we are too.  It's been a great day and I'm ready to truly explore some eye candy tomorrow.  I was sooooo good today, didn't even peek into the showroom.  Tomorrow will be a pure delight.  It's also our blue dress day.  Fun times ahead.  See you in the next post.