Month: November 2011

It’s time for my last market report (do I hear a heavy sigh of relief?)  I don’t usually get to ogle much over the new fabric at market, but I did note a few fun new things coming up.  First and foremost, one of my very favorite lines will have a new run — it’s third!  First there was the little hammer girl, then the knitting ladies, and now (are you guessing?)……{gasp!}……a PREGNANT Ghastlie!!! Yes, oh yes, there will be more Ghastlies! Can you see the little mother-to-be and her baby carriage???

Do you think it would be too creepy to give an expectant mother a diaper bag or something made from the Ghastlies LOL??? I LOVE them. (And speaking of the Ghastlies, if you’re a Ghastlie lover and you missed the Ghastlie blog hop, you should go check out all the cool things made with Ghastlie fabrics.)  This new Ghastlie fabric won’t be out until May 2012, but I couldn’t stand it and I ordered some of this new print on.the.spot!

Moving right along, I thought you might like to see The Cat in the Hat who made an appearance at market this year.  He was hanging out in the Shannon Fabrics booth — they make plushy-cuddly-minkie-like fabrics — and tons of them.  They had a huge booth this year — that plushy stuff is getting sophisticated.  Anyway, the Cat in the Hat prints are coming in cuddly fabrics in the spring.

Now for the goodies that I bought at market.  I behaved myself this year.  My number one favorite is Reunion.  I LOVE it.  My all-time favorite Sweetwater line was Make Life, but Reunion is giving it a run for it’s money.  I’m planning on mixing it with some Circa 1934 to make some pillows, etc. for our family room.

I also grabbed some Flower Sugar.  They’ve added gray to the line this year.  I’ve always been more of a tan sort of person, but it’s growing on me.

And the last pack I bought was Anna Griffin’s Isabelle Christmas line.  I loved it when we saw it in Houston last year, so when they were across from us at Sample Spree this year I had to grab a bundle.

Not too much damage — which is good, I have way too much fabric as it is.  There was one other minor little indiscretion.  On the last morning of market, Kathy found a fun thimble booth just around the corner from us.  We abandoned Kellie  for a few minutes and went to check them out.  They had a bunch of these thimbles without the top of the finger.  I never really thought I’d like them, but they are SOOO comfortable, I couldn’t help myself.  As you know, I love my thimbles.  And I can’t sew without one.  When I saw one with a bee, it was hopeless to resist.

Here it is from the side view.  Kathy bought a similar thimble  — we decided it’s like buying friendship rings.  Friendship thimbles.  We’re bonded now!

So, that’s it for market reports for this year. It whizzes by and I’m always left standing there thinking … What the *(&* happened??? I sure wish I knew how to slow time down!

XOXO,
Anna

Quilt Market was crazy this year!  There were so many people and booths — I didn’t manage to see them all (ok, I never do).  It’s impossible to get a picture of the whole market, but this view from the second floor gives you a teeny idea of all the booths.  We were on row 900 of rows numbered from 100 to 2000, which put us just a little bit off from the center point.

The fun part of market is seeing all of the people.  The not-fun part of market is that I don’t have time to get my camera out when I see them.  I only managed to snap pictures of two people — both while I was on a food run for the Gulls and both with my cell phone camera. I managed to meet lots of people — either running into them in the aisles, or they would stop by the booth.  I was thrilled to finally meet Karin in real life — she’s just as cute and sweet as I knew she would be.  Other first time meetings were Ms. Alidiza (another fellow Ghastlie lover – she has some FAB shots of her Ghastlie quilt in a cemetery — to include at Thoreau’s gravesite!), Nicole, and Maura.  And then there were my usual suspects, Sharon and her NancyNoBlog sidekick, Karen aka Ms. Farmhouse, Anne and Anne, Pat Sloan, Jackie and probably a bunch of other people that I’ve forgotten in my sleep deprived stupor.   Anyway, here’s Holly Holderman and PamKittyMorning — so fun to chat for a second with them!

And I ran into the super cute Vanessa several times.  She told me that she was going to be doing a demo for her new book and I was sad that I would miss it.  But, lucky me, I tripped across the booth on another food run while she was doing her demo!  Sorry for the blur in this cell phone picture — she doesn’t sit still!

As for the rest of the pictures, I just snapped a few quick shots here and there.  Kathy and I managed to get about 45 minutes on the last day of the show, before it opened and we visited a few booths.  I only blitzed by two sides of the big Moda square and caught a bit of Basic Gray’s booth,

and Sweetwater, who always do fab stuff!

Very near the Moda booth was their United Notions booth.  I usually love to go in and oggle all the notions, but there just wasn’t time this year.  Imagine my surprise though, when the corner of my eye spied this laundry basket with a liner made from my laundry basket liner pattern!  (There I am on the little hang tag!)

I always seek out Anna Griffin’s booth because it’s always so beautiful.  I love her sweet, sophisticated fabrics.

And something new to me — Anna Griffin is adding designers to her team — they’re calling it blend.  Among them are Charlotte Lyons and Jone Hallmark — they both stopped by Kellie’s booth and it was fun to visit with them for a minute — I only wish I’d known they were part of Anna Griffin so I could have congratulated them!

Amy Butler, always beautiful.

And Mr. Amy Butler (ha!), David.  I’m thinking these fabrics might be really cool for my boys.

Anna Maria Horner (note the new ribbon line on the right, coming soon).

I loved this quilt in Sue Daley’s booth — she had a lot of gorgeous quilts in her booth.

The Quilted Fish at Riley Blake.  (Trash cans are evidence that we were there before show hours — they’re put out each evening for the janitors.)

Jennifer Sampou — this booth received a first place award.

Dear Stella.  I have no idea who this is — I need to check into it — I just thought the booth was so pretty.

Love the car in Michael Miller’s booth — I think it was for sale.

And that’s it!  My meager booth shots for this year.  One last people shot though.  On Halloween, Brandon Mably stopped by with his new sidekick.  Ewwwww.

Kathy hysterically pointed out that from across the room, Brandon looked like a guy with a shaved head except for a few spaces reserved for dreadlocks!

Next time — the fabric!!!
XOXO,
Anna

Whew!  Another fall market done and dusted and I’m worn out.  Dead.  D.E.D. (that’s not a typo — that’s how you spell dead when you have droopy eyes and aching muscles!)  As always, market was tons of fun, but I’m worn out.  I think I say that after every market.

First up, the gulls.  As I mentioned before, Kellie had a new helper, Kathy, and she’s just adorable.  SOOOO sweet and fun to work with.  We were in the shy/reserved phase for the first day or two, but after that, we were off and running. We had lots of fun and, as ladies-in-waiting do, we bonded.  (If only we could have been with Jan, the original lady-in-waiting — we missed you Jan!!!)  Booth set-up is always a lot of work — we went from this:

to this: (Where’s Kellie?)

I loved the booth set-up this year.  For the first time, we got rid of that pesky center pole which was always required to hold the chandelier.  We went from one chandelier to two on cross poles.  And look at the adorable chandeliers we found this year (Shandi is VERY jealous!):

Sadly, I didn’t get a picture of the other side of the booth.  Heck, I didn’t even get a full sized shot of Kellie’s newest quilt.  Here’s a partial shot though — it’s adorable robots!

Kellie made a new table skirt for the booth and put the robots on them too.  And we had new aprons this market — also with robots.  Aren’t they cute?  (Here’s Kellie and her two Wilsons — doesn’t that Wilson on the right have a beautiful smile?)  Kellie commented that I didn’t run around taking pictures of them doing weird things this time.  So true.  I think I was trying to be on my best behavior for Kathy.  With this being Kellie’s fourth market, she’s getting used to the states and she’s not nearly as goofy.  Plus, Kellie and Kathy don’t look like twins, so I couldn’t make fun of them for that.  And, I think I might be getting used to Aussie-speak.  Although, when Australians came into the booth, I told them they’d have to speak to Kellie or Kathy, ’cause I only speak English.  I think I offended a couple of Kiwis when I inferred that they speak Aussie!  (I’m sorry!  I’m a dumb American!)

Oooh, look — we interrupt this post to bring you some dessert!  We ate a LOT of dessert.  Here’s a gorgeous chocolate cake that Kathy and I split one night.

And I introduced the gulls to “Cheesecake”.  Not just any ol’ cheesecake, The Cheesecake Factory.  Our first trip there was right before sample spree and we had trouble finding it, so there was a little stress.  I’m thinking the gulls weren’t that excited about it — but then they had some Cheesecake food.  We may or may not have visited SEVERAL more times.  Yum…Yum….

Ok.  Back to market.  After set-up was sample spree.  Here’s our table this year — or rather tables (with a better shot of those robots) and Kellie talking to Maura, our helper extraordinaire in Houston.  (Hi Maura!)

Our view of Sample Spree.  Anna Griffin’s table was right across from us — in the foreground of the picture below.  We were crazy busy all night and I didn’t really even get a chance to look around.  I ran off to the Moda table (waaaaay in the very back of this picture) just as they were opening the doors, and hit the Lecien table for a quick look too.  So, no time to take more pictures at Sample Spree.

Here are the Lecien guys with their goods after all the mayhem.  Gotta love a guy who will wear a frilly apron and flash you the peace sign.

Ok. That’s it for tonight — must get some shut eye.  (Work was brutal today). More market report when I get a little more rest!

XOXO,
Anna