These days are very interesting for us. It is the seventh time we’re visiting the Quilt Festival in Houston.

The excitement of seeing the various exhibitions is as intense as we remember from previous years, and it seems that every day brings new surprises with it – being it in the framework of the exhibitions per se or venues we visit while being in town.

It is such a pleasure to meet friends in the hallways, the market and exhibition areas, at receptions or in the hotel after hours. Often such encounters lead to new acquaintances as well, so it seems we’re be part of something that will continue forever in a place where the distance to laughter and good discussions is not far.

And then there are the many cases where people we do not know yet – quilters and/or visitors to the exhibitions – spontaneously approach us because they have just seen one of our works in one of the exhibitions or want to talk about some of our works they have read about or seen at previous occasions.

Yes, we are having a great time here. It is great to be amongst quilters and those who love to see what they create.

Quilt Market and Festival in Houston are now only a couple of weeks away, so it is appropriate to do what we are doing these days, namely preparing for the luncheon lecture that we will be giving on Monday, October 27.

It may sound as a tedious activity, but it isn’t – not at all. Actually it is very nice in that it provides an opportunity to meeting many of our quilts again – those with people in the motif – that is – since the subject of our lecture is “About Us and People In Our Quilts”.

Some of the quilts have links to people we know or have known, other are based on pure fantasy, so a walk-though of the presentation brings back a panoply of memories of situations that motivated us to make the quilts and/or our  deliberations on compositions and ways to implement them.

But, in the course of the lecture we are not only going to talk about quilts with people in the motifs, we are also lifting the curtain a little bit on who we are – in other words talk a little about ourselves, the two of us. It was when reviewing the section about us that I – once more – realised how fast time flies.

In one’s life there are certain “markers” or milestones that spontaneously and uninvited, nevertheless regularly remind us about how fast time is passing. Quilt Festival in Houston is for us one of the more pleasant of such markers. Funny thing you know, it presents itself in a very modest way on the first morning after arrival. After having ordered my fried eggs – easy over – I’m spontaneously motivated to say to Inge: “Now we’re sitting here again – it feels as if it were only a couple of weeks ago since we were here last time”.

And that happens every time we go there.

When traversing the north-western region of France on our trips to England there are two distinct silhouettes we have always noticed in the distance, but never investigated further.

Think about it, one of the silhouettes is that of the tallest complete cathedral in France, the Cathedral of Amiens – a World Heritage thing! And the other is that of the Cathedral of Beauvais which albeit never fully completed features incredible achievements in gothic architecture and the highest vault in Europe.

This weekend we decided to make up for lost time and visiting these two cathedrals. Our initiative was rewarded with the most splendid weather that early autumn can provide – you know, sunny all day long with this light haze, which works so well with the changing colours of foliage, grasses and herbs. La France was indeed belle and douce.

When approaching the towns of Beauvais and Amiens their respective cathedrals appeared as soft silhouettes and when up close they were bathed in light diffuse enough to present the limestone structured at their best and harsh enough to render all the details in their constructions.

These ambitious constructions were started in the 13^th century and must in complexity and boldness have been comparable to that of undertaking the construction of a complex space infra-structure in outer space today. The cathedrals were not only very elaborate in their architecture – also in their interior. My attention was in particular drawn to the three dimensionally biblical scenes in the cathedral of Amiens, sculpted in limestone and coloured according to medieval fashion.

Interleaved between the visits to the cathedrals we had the more contemporary experience of visiting the tapestry museum of Beauvais. This visit was also a first for us, which is remarkable in a way, since we have been interested in textile art and crafts for several years now, and the city of Beauvais is only about an hour’s drive away. We should actually go there twice a year, since this is the frequency with which the museum changes its exhibitions.

For us they had on display tapestries and entire sets of upholstered furniture featuring motifs of well known expressionists and modern artists. It was a delight for the eyes. You know – the large scale designs and deep colours of tapestries, their surfaces totally free of reflections and that inviting “something” which is only found in textile art and craft.

So, at the end of the day our initiative had not only been rewarded with a splendid autumnal weather – the last of that calibre this year, I believe – but also by an encounter with visions, ambitions, ingenuity and their implementation by skilled craftspersons and artists.