Okay, lets finish this! It's taken me five days to finish telling you about a 3 day event. We were completely spent after coming back because even though it only lasts 3 days it's 3 very very intense days and we dropped into our hotel bed exhausted every night. I'm sure the folks who had booths are still recovering because they put so much work into everything. The booths have to be built in a way that can be broken down into small pieces and shipped to market. Many of them rent trailers and drive cross country to get there (then they have to break it all down and drive back home). That doesn't take into account all of the samples that need to be sewn, pictures taken, furniture upholstered, brochures printed and much more! Oh, and then after all that, the designers need to look fresh and perky because they are having their pictures taken all the time!
So here's a big "Thank You!!" from me for bringing us gorgeous things like this...
Amy Butler had a stunning booth this time! I really love the bright colors in her Love collection. It reminds me of her Temple Flowers and Gypsy Caravan lines (which were responsible for starting my addiction to the "good stuff").
It makes me happy just looking at it.
And fresh flowers too!
Anna Maria Horner outdid herself this time too. Her booth was a cornucopia of colors and textures. I'm so thrilled about her new fabrics because she has a gorgeous line of voile prints and I ordered a bunch of them. One of my goals for the store was to starting carrying Liberty of London prints because they are simply exquisite (but crazy expensive). Well I got one look at Anna's voile and knew this was what I was looking for! It's just as nice as Liberty of London (I'm dead serious!) and is a fraction of the cost. I almost get emotional thinking about it because my mind is already full of ways I can sew with this fabric that I can't sew with the regular quilting fabrics. I'm sunk!
Another fabric she's releasing is what she calls Dobby cotton and it's very similar to a dotted swiss but has the little "eyelash" dots on it too. The voile and Dobby are both perfect for smocking and I can't wait to give it a go! The colors are brilliant too (my favorite is the orange). I think I ordered all of those (it's all a blur I'm telling you).
I'm so happy Anna is giving us something out of the ordinary and if you love wonderful fabric you will go crazy for this.
The Melly and Me gals came all the way from Australia and they had a darling booth. Joey and I got to chat with their husbands and they were really nice guys.
I bought a bunch of patterns from them and ordered their book "Kaleidoscope" which should be here soon. It's loaded with darling projects for boys and girls. Seriously cute stuff.
And the Windham booths were really fun this time. They had a vintage schoolhouse theme and won second place in their category. Here are Bari J. Ackerman and Jessica Levitt holding down the fort. Jessica's fabric should be here in January but we have to wait until Spring for Bari's new Art Journal collection (waaa).
This quilt pattern will be available too!
Here is Jessica showing off her Timber collection (in a very cute jacket!).
More Timber. I love this!
Art Journal and Timber together!
Okay, I bet you haven't seen a quilted elephant before. Well, now you have (check that off your bucket list then)!
I LOVE this quilt! It's "Sweets" by Kayoko Ohzono of Japan.
Delicious!
The winner of the massive blue fat quarter stack is Robyn Kirk (from New Zealand!). Yay Robyn!!
Okay, I've been saving this one all week because it's very impressive. I've lost track of how many times I've had to tell my girls "No, we're not keeping it". This awesome book is called One Yard Wonders and it's got 303 pages of really fun and useful projects that only take 1 yard of fabric. Messenger bag, plushies, growth chart....dozens of projects (101 to be exact)! The first chapter is fabric facts (grainline, selvage, bias, etc) and sewing techniques and terminology. Really a great resource.
It's written by Rebecca Yaker and Patricia Hoskins. It comes with the pattern pieces in a pretty envelope and they signed it just for you! These girls were a real hoot and I'm amazed at the amount of work they put into this book. It's a real treasure. Just leave a comment!
Alright! I'm rested up and need to get my store cleaned up and some costumes sewn. I hope you've enjoyed my market report. It was lots of fun to do but now it's time to start making plans for Quilt Market Spring 2010 in Minneapolis! Onward and upward, always!
