First Timers Guide to IQF – International Quilt Festival in Houston

Posted on November 26, 2019 by Wendy Ward

When I first decided I would go to IQF in Houston I googled to see if there were any hints etc for me going as a first timer from the other side of the world – I didn’t find much – so I resolved that after my visit to Houston, I would do a blog post to write about the hints and ideas that I would have found helpful.

View of the pool from my room (Marriott Marquis)

Okay – if you can stay at either the Hilton or the Marriott Marquis – they are both attached to the Convention centre where IQF is held. This saves the need to have transportation and you can always go back to your room during lunch breaks. Also if the weather is bad you are undercover getting to and from the Convention Centre. I noticed that about two weeks after Festival the IQF organisers put a post on their Facebook page that accommodation was open for next years event. So if you really want to stay nearby book your accommodation early. I have heard that some people book from year to year.

View of the Convention Centre from our hotel

It is worth noting that our hotel (the Marriott) charged my credit card, upon check in the equivalent of four nights accommodation and then proceeded to charge each nights accommodation as the days went on (this meant that a considerable amount of money was ‘tied’ up by the hotel during my stay). On the second last day, they wiped all the charges and then charged the correct amount. So I would recommend taking two credit cards – one for accommodation and one for spending.

Coffee pod machine in hotel – also useful for making tea

For those of us who don’t drink coffee there is no electric kettle in the hotel rooms – but there is a small pod-type coffee machine, so you can just run the hot water through the machine to heat it and run it directly into your cup (with a tea bag in it) They do provide plain tea, but of course I like herbal so took my own.

Interestingly, I advised my credit card companies that I would be away at an Expo and that vendors from around the globe would be there so that they wouldn’t decline any transactions. At one point my bank did phone me to ask whether it was me using my card, lol must’ve got concerned at the rate I was making purchases.

Okay now we have made the hotel choice. When the class options come out, make your choices – and because they now have online enrolment it makes it easy for us international ones to get into the classes they want.

When registering for your classes, functions and lectures be aware that the lunchtime is two hours – so it is definitely worthwhile taking in a lunchtime lecture or going back to your hotel as Festival does not open until Thursday night (classes etc run from Monday to Sunday).

On a side note – Festival is different to Market – Quilt Market is for designers, shop owners, importers/ exporters/ wholesalers to peruse and make purchases – you are not allowed into Market unless you have the required (pre-authorised) credentials. So Market runs for about a week prior to Festival. I think it finishes at the end of a Monday. So most vendors leave on the Tuesday after Market and a lot of new ones spend 3 days setting up ready for Festival (Which opens on Thursday night).

Anyway – back to Festival if you are going to classes it is advisable to register at the Convention centre on the Sunday afternoon – you get a bag with all the details on where your classes are etc and you can walk around and find your rooms etc.

WEAR COMFY SHOES. That was the advice I was given and it was absolutely true – nothing prepares one for the sheer size of IQF. The convention centre runs for about 12 blocks. When you enter one end (from your hotel) you literally cannot see the other end its that far. Apart from class days you spend a lot of time on your feet, so be kind to them. Even the distance of walking to and from classes is considerable. For those who are less mobile there are facilities onsite to hire electric motor scooters (they look quite fun)

The quilt show and exhibitors (vendors) are on the lower level. Level 2 is all the admin, registration etc. Third level is ballrooms (where functions are held), classrooms etc. There are huge porthole windows on level 2 so you can view the exhibitors and get exited about opening night.

The classrooms are air conditioned and I would recommend layering of clothing – it was very rare that I took my cardigan off in the classrooms, but on the Festival show floor I never wore my cardigan – It was air conditioned but not cold – the classrooms were definitely cooler.

View of Quilt show from second floor porthole window

Okay – eating. Near to the convention centre (a few blocks away) is a store called Phoenicia – it has relatively healthy food, ready made salads, meals etc as well as a grocery type layout – they also have an attached restaurant and an area where you can sit and eat what you have purchased in the store. We bought snacks and foods to keep in our fridge in the hotel room. And after a hotel breakfast on the first day, we went back to Phoenicia and purchased food for breakfast and kept that in our room and just had that each morning instead of in the hotel restaurant. (This allowed us more money to spend in the vendor stalls instead of on our hotel bill) and saved time waiting for hotel breaky.

There is limited food at the convention centre for lunches (but it is sufficient) the only thing is you have to queue for it. They have a choice of usual fast food type meals and also there was a salad option. Bear in mind that you do have two hours for lunch so there is plenty of time to go out.

For those who have registered for classes you get an early preview of the Quilt Show and Vendor stalls on the Thursday night for two hours prior to it being open to the public. At no time did I feel crowded or hassled by people – there were over 1000 vendor stalls there and the isles are wide, I think there were 25 isles with about 55-57 vendors in each isle. Coming from NZ this was just an Aladdin’s cave of treasure – there was a huge variety of vendors with something for everyone, and not too many double-ups in terms of products. A lot of the vendors were selling their own products and it was nice to talk to the maker. There is also a ‘bag check’ outside the hall doors so when your purchases are too cumbersome or heavy to carry you can check them in to be held for you (at the time we went it was a $2 fee for each bag) We were given very large bags by some vendors so we could load them up and have them checked. (No wheelie bags were allowed on the show floor)

The show floor opens at 10am each day from Friday till Sunday and closes around 7pm Friday-Saturday and 4pm Sunday. The preview night is from 5-9pm. On another note the shopping malls in Houston also open at 10am.

In the city, the pedestrian crossings don’t make a noise (signal to cross) so you have to watch the lights to signal when to cross – its the little things, lol. We used Uber and it was fantastic. There are not a lot of pedestrians in the city and we later found out that there are kilometres of underground tunnels that all the office workers use to get about – as it is too hot outside – they even go to their doctors, hairdressers, etc underground in these tunnels.

We stayed in the Marriott Hotel and we ate (several times) at their Mexican restaurant Xochi – it was sensational food and the selection of Margaritas were also worth trying, yum

We were at IQF from Sunday to Sunday – we needed all that time as we filled the first four days with tours, classes and events and then visited the quilt show and exhibitors over the Friday, Saturday and Sunday and we needed all those days to see everything. I did one of the Quilt Museum tours which took us out of the city and gave me an insight into the surrounding area – we went to a couple of quilt shops and a little town called Le Grande which is where the Museum was. If I went back I would go on the tour to Galveston as that looked interesting too.

Sign outside the Show entrance – interestingly several restaurants had smaller versions of this in their windows

I would recommend registering for one of the ‘Sampler’ options this was really interesting (you were free to walk around the ballroom where up to 24 artists, makers, inventors were giving mini lectures, demonstrations etc of their technique, product etc it was a really worthwhile time. While you are queued up waiting to go in you are given sheets of A4 paper, one from each demonstrator detailing what they will be demonstrating or teaching and you can make your choices on where you will go once you are in the room. You can then roam around for up to 2 hours watching and learning.

We also went to the Awards evening which was very professionally ran and the way the winning quilts were displayed was so respectful and honouring to the makers.

We went to Quiltapalooza which was a fun night sitting around tables with 500 other ladies who all love the same things. Their were door prizes, table prizes, raffles and lots of laughs with a boxed dinner provided. Our table even won second place in the ‘make a monster’ competition with the materials provided on the table. It was Halloween which really added a fun touch to the night and prizes were given to those brave enough to venture onto the stage to show off their costumes.

Quilt Diva waiting in the queue for Quiltapalooza

Prizes from Quiltapalooza- necessitating the need for a second suitcase!

All the events I have talked about above we had pre-registered online for when enrolments opened a couple of months prior to the show. We had an absolute ball, was worth the travel to this bucket list event and I would go back (after I have saved some money).

I hope this might give some insight for those who have not been to Houston Quilt Festival before and help you with your preparations.

Farewell Guacamole and Margaritas and Hugos, Houston Airport

I will make further posts on all the quilts at the show.

Goodbye Vietnam

Posted on June 17, 2018 by Wendy Ward

Tonight we went to a culture show at the Saigon Opera House. The Opera House was very small. It was a great show in the Cirque du Soleil style.

This morning we are on our way home, its been a great time. Hoi An definitely a highlight with both small city and lovely beach, best of both worlds.

The Vietnamese are lovely people, very kind, helpful and caring, they don’t ever seem to get flustered.

Cu Chi Tunnels

Posted on June 17, 2018 by Wendy Ward

Today we were up early and away to the Cu Chi tunnels, we went by speed boat as it was slightly quicker than the bus and we got to look around well before all the tour buses arrived. Our guide was very knowledgeable but quite intense, he really stared at you when he was talking – quite unnerving.

Once again the photos are all out of order, here is Trev climbing into one of the tunnels, we only got to try them for size at this point, later on we had the opportunity to go in one.

A booby trap pit

We also had the opportunity to shot guns – Oh boy, they were so loud, but you could here them all the way through the bush, so it gave quite an authentic experience. Trev shot an AK47 which is what the Viet cong used and I shot a M16 which is what the Americans used. We were asked if we wanted to shot off a whole magazine of a automatic machine gun mounted on the back of a Jeep, but that was around $250USD, so we declined!

A guide showing how they got into the tunnels

These are rice paper drying on bamboo racks, all through Vietnam these are made every day, you can tell the hand made ones by the pattern on them. The ones we get in NZ are all machine made and very hard and brittle, they keep theirs wrapped in big leaves like banana leaves to keep them supple and ready to use.

There was even a sewing machine for making the viet cong uniforms. Some of the tunnels had big rooms in them for making weapons, cooking and dining, the rooves had been taken off so we could see inside.

The Vietcong sandals made from car tyres

We then had the opportunity to go into a part of the tunnels (there are over 250kms of tunnels), I went to go in, but decided it was not for me. There was another group right up behind me and I felt very uncomfortable, they had widened it slightly for westerners, but even still I backed out.

Here is Trev coming out the other end, he doesn’t look happy, he said it wasn’t a nice experience and that I had made the right decision not to go. We had the choice of doing 20, 40 or 60 metres, one lady did 60 and wanted to go further! She was Irish and not a small lady either.

Good Morning Saigon

Posted on June 17, 2018 by Wendy Ward

This morning we took a ‘back of the bike’ tour of Ho Chi Minh city. It was exhilarating and fun, some of these photos are out of order.

Trev making Vietnamese coffee, they used condensed milk and a filter, it was very chocolatey

There were lots of these small 3-wheel delivery vehicles. I asked my guide if they buy a large item how do they get it home, she said everything can be delivered by scooter, even washing machines!! There are 13 million people in Ho Chi Minh and there are 8.5 million scooters.

We went to a market, I have no idea what these eggs are.

View from our hotel pool

Later we had a tropical storm, it was spectacular and didn’t last long

View from our room

Back to the scooter tour, our guides were skilful drivers and we didn’t feel unsafe.

Going down some very narrow alleys amongst peoples homes.

They took us to the cathedral, post office and temple.

The buses here have indicators that sound like sirens, when you are in your room you can hear them all the time, I thought they were police at first until we were out on the bikes and heard them. The buses and larger vehicles have extremely loud horns they are so loud you jump when they toot them. They toot them all the time!

This afternoon we decided to get a massage, oh my goodness, seriously nothing relaxing about a Vietnamese massage, Trev talked me into going to a place near the hotel, it was dodgy, dingy, down a back alley, I was certain that I would be bruised and sore the next day. The girls asked for a tip before we left the room and when we handed over 20,000 dong note each, they said no – obviously that wasn’t enough. So we said we would pay at reception. We gave them 100,000 dong (about NZD$6) to share – they still looked peeved. No way was I paying them more it was the most severe massage I have ever had.

We went to dinner up the tallest tower in Saigon, apologies for the quality of photos, the phone doesn’t take good night shots. They had a band at the bar that sung popular American songs, hilarious with their accents, the woman was good but the two men weren’t great, they looked the part though with their long hair and sunnies on!

Hoi An scooter tour

Posted on June 14, 2018 by Wendy Ward

Today we went on an electric scooter tour of Hoi An. We started out and went to a private home where the lady was making rice crackers, these were delicious and she makes them for restaurants, about 200 a day. They are used to eat with salad, you break the cracker into pieces, pop a bit of salad on top and eat it that way.

We went and had a look at the boats and were meant to visit a ship repair place, but it had moved. This is Trevor testing a ‘monkey’ bridge. Apparently, according to our guide, they use iron wood in making their boats and they smear buffalo poo between the joins to make it water tight and strong.

This seasame and peanuts – they grow them together, inside the pods were seasame seeds. The white seeds we mainly use are young, and the black ones are when they are mature.

We then went to a shoe making place, it was just someone’s house, and it was chaos. Both Trevor and I had been measure for and had shoes made so was interesting to see where some of the shoes are made.

We then went to a lantern making house where a husband and wife made the traditional Hoi An lanterns, but I forgot to take any photos there. Again, they soak the bamboo for making the lanterns in buffalo poo and water, this makes the bamboo very strong and last longer. One of the ladies at the cooking school told us they bury the bamboo for making houses in mud and water to strengthen it.

Then we went off to visit a local organic community garden where they grow all their vegetables for themselves and to sell at the market.

There are small pools all around the garden from which the water is taken for hand watering, although they also use sprinkler systems as this particular garden gets a government subsidy. In the pools are fish to eat the mosquitoes, and when the fish are big enough the Gardeners eat the fish. The mint they have here is lovely, with very small leaves and it is tender and tasty. They spread a mix of buffalo poo and seaweed on the beds, leave it for three days and then plant it out. So buffalo poo is very useful it seems over here!

It was so fun riding the scooters around all the little alleyways and off the beaten track from what you would normally see on a tour as well as in amongst the chaotic traffic. Our guide was young but fun and full of knowledge.

Half way around the tour, we stopped at a Vietnamese cafe and had a drink, Trev’s bike was swapped for one with a bit more power left in the battery. The owner of the cafe was a older man who collected antiques, he took us into his home to show us, they were beautifully displayed and he was very proud of them.

My scooter started losing power so I swapped with the guide and the support guy pushed him along with his foot while we were driving, hilarious we only just made it back to the depot.

It was, once again, so hot and so when we got back to the resort, a cocktail by the pool was in order.

Something to do with the moon, there was a lantern night in town that we went in to see, was really pretty with the lights and boats floating on the water.

Hoi An

Posted on June 12, 2018 by Wendy Ward

We arrived at our lovely beachside resort in Hoi An, and were delighted with our room. We mistakenly thought it would be cooler by the coast, um no, its no different here, but lovely to cool off in either the pool or the sea.

Hoi An is famous of its lanterns, cobblers and tailors

The food is beautiful, fresh and very delicious.

This lady was having her eyebrows threaded whilst waiting on her lunch!! Anything goes around here.

Fascinated by the construction methods here, the slowness of the work and how they do it, very very different here, I am guessing no compliance or health and safety paperwork to contend with.

This morning we went to a Cooking class with the Red Bridge Cooking School. We started at a local cafe for a drink and then they took us into the market and explained about the Vietnamese cuisine and how and what they use.

This lady was making rice noodles – we learnt how to do that at the class

The market is divided up into different sections, our guide told us that they come to the market at 5am to get their food and earlier in the day was better than later – there is no refrigeration so the meat etc slowly gets less ‘fresh’ as the day goes on. She said she wouldn’t come to the market later in the day as it was very smelly.

We then boarded a boat and travelled down the river to the school.

We were showed the art of food presentation, this was the chef’s one

And this was my one, lol I guess I have a bit of practicing to do.

We ate all our creations for lunch and are now relaxing by the pool

Ha Long Bay

Posted on June 10, 2018 by Wendy Ward

We left our hotel early yesterday morning bound for Ha Long Bay. We didn’t realise at the time that it would take 4 hours to travel by shuttle to get there.

On the way we stopped at a large tourist place where they had all kinds of artisan products. They employ local disabled people to do some of the work, here are the embroiderers stitching away they make small to large silk paintings with amazingly neat stitches, you can see some of their work hanging on the wall in the background and in the foreground, all hand embroidered with silk.

Of course, I had to buy a piece, and of course I really liked the black and white pieces -there weren’t many of them, but the shading detail in them was exquisite, there are only two of the embroiderers that can stitch the black and white as they are single strand paintings and some can take two-three months to do. Here I am with my piece and the stitcher, she was mute, but very beautiful and was a joy to see her work.

I have never bought a ‘nude’ before and now we have purchased two in two days eekkk!

The weather in Ha Long Bay was no cooler, despite being beside the sea. Seriously 47!!!

We boarded our boat and were assigned this lovely cabin with ensuite and balcony.

We were then served a 5 course lunch!

While we were eating lunch we were cruising along. We then visited a dry, limestone cave, one of many in the area, but some are not accessible, either because they are protected or you have to scuba dive to get there, or they are under water at high tide. We then pulled into a bay and swam and kayaked they water was very warm, we were probably in the water for over an hour, for those of you that know me well, know that that is extremely rare lol. Then a sumptuous buffet was provided for dinner.

This morning we awoke to a beautiful calm, hot day. We were taken to a nearby floating fishing village, it was sooooo hot but very enjoyable.

We also had cooking demonstrations, tea ceremony, the staff were so lovely, the Vietnamese people are so friendly and helpful, you never see them flustered or grumpy.

We got back to our hotel in Hanoi and went for a wander around before a lovely dinner.

Cafe, Vietnam style

Pop up restaurant!

Hello Hanoi

Posted on June 7, 2018 by Wendy Ward

After getting an earlier flight out of Queenstown to avoid the blizzard that was on its way, we were delayed out of Auckland and missed our connecting flight from Hong Kong to Hanoi, a boring 10 hours in HK airport was endured and we got to Hanoi at 8pm, but had a lovely surprise when we arrived at our hotel that we had been upgraded to a premium room, yay.

The heat/humidity is incredible, even the locals are fanning themselves.

We went out exploring today. This post is very image heavy.

The above photo is typical of the pavements here, they are rugged, but I haven’t seen anyone fall over yet

We went on a 60 minute tour of the old part of Hanoi in one of these electric buses

Pavers anyone?

Piles of silk yum

Local Habadashery, the place to go if you need a zip or three. The streets here a lined with trees, its lovely, and helps keep it a bit cooler, ha what a joke, its soo hot.

View for lunch, they even had a sewing machine in the restaurant – definitely my kind of place.

We bought a piece of art, here they are rolling it into a tube for us.

Construction sites are hilarious, not Health and Safety here!

This is a guy who hand carves intricate stamps for you.

Stationery Shop. And Food market

These turtles were waiting to be bought and eaten – they were still alive!! Trevor was quite traumatised by that!

When you need a toilet delivered, give this guy a call

Need a teapot, or cup?Local butcher

Last day in Tokyo and some more Quilt Show

Posted on January 29, 2018 by Wendy Ward

Today we had free time until 2pm, so after wrestling with my bags and jumping on them to close them, I decided to head back to the Quilt Festival, after all that’s why I came to Tokyo. So off I went on my own for a couple of hours.

If you need a taxi in Tokyo, just go to a hotel and the porter outside will hail one for you, and its as easy as that. The doors on the taxis open and close on their own (I assume the driver pushes a button.

You are not allowed to smoke outside, but they permit smoking in the restaurants!

I thought that being a Monday the quilt show might be a bit quieter, um nooo I was wrong.

The (mainly) women queue outside entertained by a big screen playing an old black and white movie!

Once they are inside they go straight to the seating area and put their coats, bags etc onto seats to book them for later when they sit down. Several also take pieces of string and rope off an area big enough for their group to sit.

This was my lunch today, you purchase a bento box and a drink, I was asked whether I wanted hot or cold, I chose hot – this was how it came – in a bottle like this, and it stayed hot for ages.

Some of the stands have hilarious names but most of them are only in Japanese.

Even some sake tasting!

I finished my lunch and headed for the exit, I threw the bag with the empty bento box into the bin and walked towards the exit. I looked down at the bag I was carrying and realised that I had thrown my shopping bag into the rubbish instead of the bento box, I ran back to the bin, which was one of those big bins that had a sloping top then a sort of roof on it, with a gap of about 30cms, I couldn’t see into the bin and I wasn’t game to put my hand in there. There was a young guy working at one of the food stalls nearby so I tried to communicate with him that I had put the wrong bag into the bin, he thought I was asking him if I could put my rubbish in the bin!!! Dear oh dear, anyway, I got my phone out and went to my translation app and typed in what I was saying, it translated it beautifully into Japanese and he said ‘ahh’ and opened the bin for me, phew there it was on top, yay, got my shopping back and popped my bento rubbish in.

I got into the taxi to head back to the hotel to catch the transfer to the airport. I checked my emails while in the taxi and yahoo Air New Zealand had upgraded me to premium economy, fantastic – looking forward to the bubbles and a good sleep.

Goodbye Japan, its been amazing, such lovely, fun people, a clean and unique country.

The hip area of Tokyo and the textile area

Posted on January 29, 2018 by Wendy Ward

This morning we went to the Yazawaya Department store at Kamata, this is a Mecca for quilters, sewers, jewellery makers, stationery fiends and more. If you are into any type of craft, this is the place to visit in Tokyo.