Dear Friends@Festival,

This year’s International Quilt Festival in Houston is coming up soon (and at earlier dates than usual, October 9-12!). And we’re all busily preparing for the 51st edition of the largest quilt festival in the world!

We’ll have nearly 550+ booths to shop from, more than 1,100 quilts on display, and 250+ classes, lectures, and events at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston.

Here, we’ve got our biggest Friends@Festival issue ever for you to enjoy! First, we’ll meet 17-year-old quilter Ellie Stuckey who has already won some very cool awards, had her quilts on display at Festival and the Texas Quilt Museum, and has a very bright quilting future ahead of her.

And we’ve got a number of features directly related to this year’s International Quilt Festival here in Houston.

Our Exhibitor Spotlight focuses on Lucy Holtzclaw and Suzette Sawyer (aka “The Louisiana Girls”) from Fat Tuesday Fabrics and Gifts and how they hope to bring the “fun” to their booth. Our Teacher Spotlight digs into the creative quilting and business career of Laura Heine and her Fiberworks store in Montana (along with the collage quilting classes she’s teaching this year). And in our Special Exhibits Spotlight we talk with Luana Rubin and An Marshall, curators of “Soul Stories.” The exhibit features works by visionary art quilters who intertwine the narratives of human existence with a meaningful blend of myths, legends, archetypes, stories, spiritual influences, and science.

Finally, in our Bonus Feature, we talk to knitter/weaver Gabi van Tassel (aka “Texas Gabi”) who will be spearheading a new Festival area, The Stitch Lounge, where Festivalgoers can drop in, learn about some of the sewing arts related to quilting, and even try their hand at a project. Just in time for October 11, which is “I Love Yarn Day” during the show!

We hope that you enjoy this issue, and it gets your excitement growing about International Quilt Festival in Houston this fall! Find out more about the show and all it entails by clicking HERE.

And, as always, comments, suggestions, and cool music links are welcome by writing us at friendsatfestival@quilts.com

We’ll see many of you in Houston!!