I went to Houston this year for both Quilt Market and Quilt Festival, my first time. Overwhelming doesn't begin to describe the experience! At Market I saw more amazing fabrics, patterns, tools, embellishments, etc. than I could ever imagine existed - stuff that I know I would never see in Richmond. And the quilt exhibits were just incredible. Every single quilt on display was awesome (that doesn't mean I liked them all, but there was something there for everyone). I always get overwhelmed by the big shows (although I'd never seen any this big before), and while I get very inspired, I usually come home and stagger around my studio for a while before I can find my focus again. That, or I just hand sew nine patches for a few days to recover. :-)

In anticipation of that, I bought a quilt pattern. This isn't the first pattern I ever bought, but it was certainly the first that I ever intended to make from a pattern (the only other time I bought a pattern, it was paper pieced, and I redesigned it to do it with conventional piecing). The pattern is "Tropical Paradise" by Lorraine Torrence Designs. I made it with mostly my hand dyed fabrics - including silk and cotton lame - and machine quilted it. Other than the binding (I have *always* had trouble with bindings), I'm very happy with it.