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I’m still on a high from winning the Master Award for Innovative Artistry at the Houston International Quilt Festival. It continues to amaze and humble me. The staggeringly beautiful and diverse work on the show left me speechless and extremely honored to win the award that I did. I do know that judging is incredibly subjective. What does well in one show doesn’t even get accepted into another.

Here are some photos of personal highlights:

The show was often extremely crowded. In this instance, I was talking to a group of school children, hopefully inspiring the artist within them.

Reporters from the CBS Morning Show went around interviewing various people from the show. My hope was that I put together a coherent sentence.

I was one of several people who had a professional photo shoot for Texas Monthly magazine. Jane Hall’s son, Michael Hall, wrote a very lengthy piece featuring his talented mom and his adventures with her throughout the show.

At the Silver Jubliee Banquet, I made my short speech. Michael James was being honored. I took a class from Michael on two dimensional design in 1990. it was that class that put together all of the disjointed pieces for the various color and design classes that I took prior. It was after his class that things sort of snapped into place for me and made sense. My highlight was being able to personally thank him for the instruction he gave me. Without that instruction, I am sure I wouldn’t have been standing on that stage.

I am very grateful to Steen Hougs for sending me some of the pictures he took during the speeches.

You can read the little speech I have by visiting the IQA Journal page of the IQA site and downloading a PDF of the winter 2008 issue. The issue includes the photos and speeches of all seven winners. The winners included Hollis Chatelain, who won the Best of Show, Mariya Waters, who won the Founders Award, Ted Storm, Caryl Fallert (who I had the pleasure of being next to during the show), Phillippa Naylor, and Rita Steffenson.

If you’re not a memeber of IQA, consider it. It’s a great organization that is dedicated to the preservation of the art of quilting. I’ve been proud to be a member of since the early 1990s, back when it was the AIQA. Visit their site for information on becoming a member.