East Texas Thimble Trail Quilt Show 2018

Part of my amazing summer vacay was being able to sneak off and see two quilt shows.  They were not huge and only took a couple hours to see at the most.  That’s a good thing for this busy momma with a one year old and a five year old tagging along.

The first show was in Huntsville, Texas and it was called the East Texas Thimble Trail.  The show was held at the fairgrounds in one of the buildings.  I’ve been to this one before and actually enjoyed it then…so I WAS VERY EXCITED to go this year.

http://www.easttexasthimbletrail.com/

Last year, my MIL worked with a local quilt shop (https://www.countrylivingquilt.com/) and helped Terri with sales and such.  My mom, Hubby, and both girls came and we enjoyed the quilt show.  Hubby-not so much.  I think he got tired of chasing the five year old.  I pushed the stroller with Bailey inside and enjoyed being able to walk around in a safe environment loving the views of all the quilts and quilting goodies around me.  (PSA: I never recommend taking your husband who doesn’t sew or quilt at all to a quilt show.)

This year, my MIL did not work and I picked her up and we drove to the quilt show together, with B in tow.  We ate lunch there and strolled our way through all of the aisles and enjoyed speaking to the vendors.  It was this year that I got to meet in person – TANA MUELLER!  Have you met her?  Have you seen her work?  Here’s her Facebook page: Tana Mueller Facebook  Here’s the shop link where I have been able to find her fabric lines: A Cowgirl Quilt Shop

Tana Mueller with Bailey

Tana Mueller is not only a former police officer and police dispatcher, but now she creates fabric lines and designs applique patterns that are simply to die for!  You have to check her out.  She has a facebook page (see above) where she posts all of her sales and latest info for upcoming designs.  I have never wanted to try applique until I saw her patterns.  Now, I have 3 waiting for the latest quilts to be finished so I can tackle them. 

Tana Mueller created the fabric line for the Thin Blue Line.  She also has the Thin Red Line (firefighters) and MORE!  She supports first responders because she was one.  I used her Thin Blue Line recently for a quilt I made for an officer I personally know – who was literally hit by a car who refused to stop in an intersection as he was directing traffic for a funeral procession.

This year I also enjoyed taking so many photographs of the quilts and the scenery around the quilt show.  I’ll show you those pictures.  This year was also the first time (out of all the quilt shows I’ve ever been to) where a vendor actually told me to not take a picture of her quilts due to copyright laws.  I was clueless.  I had never been told that when signs were not posted at quilt shows.  I understand not taking pictures of the books or patterns because that tells you how to make it, but a picture of a quilt that’s already done and on display?  How do you expect to show people and share with people what amazing things you can make with a quilt?  I kept the picture-the quilt was too amazing not to share.  You have to see this quilt!

Amazing quilt in person!

If you know the name of this quilt and who designed it, please let me know.  I’d love to check the designer out.  I wanted to take a picture of the book (yes, a book was the pattern) but that’s when the vendor said not to take any pictures.  I take pictures of everything because I can’t remember much.  I just look at the pictures instead of finding pen and paper to write stuff down.

Here’s some other cute quilts I thought were too precious…these vendors encouraged pictures.

See the long arm in the bottom of the picture?  It was available for people to try out!!!  So you know I jumped on this right?

Most of the scribble is mine…I think I need one…It was really relaxing to do it…even though I wasn’t good at it.  The evidence for that is presented above.

My absolute favorite quilt of this show was made with Riley Blake fabric…and a gorgeous Riley Blake panel….