International Quilt Festival and Market occupies 630,000 square feet of exhibit space at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas, for two weeks in the fall annually.  The trade show and quilt show include vendors, classes, lectures, museum exhibits, and contest exhibits.

The owner, Quilts, Inc., now runs four additional shows in Cincinnati, Long Beach, Chicago, and Portland (2014) each year.  The success of these shows has served as a model to develop other large shows around the country including the Vermont Quilt Festival (opened 1977) and the American Quilter’s Society’s Quiltweek in Paducah, Kentucky (opened 1985). Image used under Creative Commons license