Sisterhood of the Traveling Quilt Goes to the Rodeo!

Happy Birthday Texas! The 175th birthday of the Republic of Texas' founding coincides with the annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. With 27,013 livestock competitions and horse show entries in 2010, the Houston Livestock Show is the largest in the world. The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is a charity which benefits the youth of Texas. Since the Show's beginning in 1932, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo has contributed more than $265 million to scholarships, research, endowments, calf scramble participants, junior show exhibitors, the Rodeo Institute for Teacher Excellence, School Art participants, and other educational and youth programs. Currently, 1,934 students are on Show scholarships. Enrolled students are attending 88 different Texas colleges and universities. The value of these scholarships is nearly $24.8 million.

Nothing brings to mind the Old West like a modern-day trail ride. Pioneers created trails as they moved west in search of a dream and cowboys created trails to take cattle to major market centers. While these routes are no longer a necessity in daily life, more than 3,000 riders saddle up each February to relive the Old West as part of 13 trail rides leading to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

In January of 1952, several men formed the very first trail ride as a way to increase awareness of the Show. Though only four men made the first journey from Brenham, Texas, the attention they raised attracted more publicity than ever expected, as more than 80 men signed up the next year. The trail rides are a signature tradition of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo today.

Today’s riders hit the trail in an attempt to recreate the Old West, and in doing so, find a common ground that links us all to the Show. A sense of history and pride resides in each rider; igniting envy and intrigue in each child as they watch the trail riders and hope to one day join them. It's so fun to drive down a highway this time of year and come across a Trail Ride making its way to Houston for the big meetup before the big Rodeo Parade through downtown Houston. The Trail Rides and Parade signal the start of Houston's 3 week Rodeo season.

What better place for a Houston block of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Quilt? I bundled up my nearly 2-yr old grandson (for his first ever Rodeo Parade) and we had a great day watching the bands and trail riders ride through downtown Houston.

Then we visited the nearby campus of the University of Houston. Here Tris is pointing to my quilt block at the Statue of the Four Lies.

In front of the administration building is the U of H mascot, the Cougar.

Block Tejas-3 is pictured above with my honeysuckle hedge, which is in full bloom now, as you can see. The azaleas are also starting to pop. I just wanted to show all my fellow quilting Sisters who live farther north in colder climes that Spring really is on its way!

Which is an AWESOME segue into the Tejas Row's next stop -- Spring, Texas! Stay tuned, y'all!