I've just left the International Quilt Festival in Houston and there were thousands of enthusiastic and creative people who attended the show.

At the BERNINA booth we had ten BERNINA 830's set up to give as many people as possible a taste of the 830. We gave 30-minutes classes from the time the show started until the show ended each day and it was so much fun to see the reaction of our guests. Many people had seen the machine at their dealers' stores but many had not.

The most impressive and obvious feature was the size of the machine and all agreed it would be a huge benefilt not only for quilting but also for sewing and embroidery.

In 30 minutes we were able to customize the screen with the built-in wallpapers, use the BERNINA Dual Feed to stitch through ribbon, paper, fabric and stabilizer, experience on screen drag-and-drop using beautiful new stitches in a stitch combination - a BERNINA exclusive - and embroider our BERNINA 8.

We began early one morning so that a group of quilters from Japan could experience the BERNINA 830. They loved the machine.

The comments that we heard the most were: "unbelievable," "fantastic," "it has everything we ever wanted in a machine."

Many people were also impressed with the BERNINA quilt frame which will accommodate the BERNINA 830 in addition to all other BERNINA machines.

Our staff was all smiles on preview night - please notice that the owner of BERNINA, Hanspeter Ueltschi, was with us in Houston. Many people approached Mr. Ueltschi to thank him for the quality of the BERNINA product throughout the years. BERNINA has changed many creative lives for the better.

One of the highlights of my visit in Houston was to attend the Silver Star dinner - a tribute to Alex Anderson. Please visit the Quilt Show blog to share this special night with Alex: http://www.thequiltshow.com/os/blog/php. Alex has inspired thousands of people and she is so deserving of this special recognition.

So, Houston was lots of fun - more next week!