5.00 am and all is dark, there is a gentle movement beneath my feet and despite the fact that I have the curtains pulled back its still completely dark outside and inside.

Along with 100 other folk we are on the Endeavor of the Seas Cruise liner steaming our way through turquoise water to our first stop in the Caribbean.

It means I get to teach 100 ladies for 3 hours in blocks of 25.

 My project is part of a quilt  I designed last year inspired by the scenes I saw in Haiti and Belize.

It's going to be a fun project.

The Houston Quilt Festival and Market is over.

 I wait with anticipation for the these two weeks to come around each year. It really is the ‘pivot place’ for my year. 

 Everything is either, ‘before Houston or after Houston.’

 Houston is the ‘place’ 

 Its where we Tutors meet up and exchange ideas with our peers. 

We meet at various venues throughout the year, we visit online, but that’s not the same as personally chatting face to face over the dining table in the Tutors room.

 It’s where we encounter new ideas, new tools and new fabric. 

Its where we learn the ropes and make new acquaintances in the industry and it’s where we become aware of the power of the pen and the sewing machine.

 I personally learn so much from viewing and photographing the quilts and  I sometimes  disagree with the BOS quilt and spend a lot of time saying well done or wondering  why?

 Its where we get the time to interact with hundreds of students and the general public over the 10 days or so of the event and I fall into bed absolutely exhausted with a feeling of a job well done. Those little yellow sheets given to us by students mean so much and I thank everyone for being so generous with their words.

I have some interesting people for you to meet over the next few days of writing, but in the mean time… I  sigh in reflection and think well, we did it again.