Quilt Market Report

Well, here we are, flying into November already!  I thought, for the first time in quite awhile that I’d have two posts in October, but I didn’t manage to make it.  Anyway, I went to quilt market last week and my tradition has been to post pictures of market, but, to be honest, market wasn’t terribly exciting this year.  (I did post a few pictures over on my Instagram account.) Maybe it’s because I missed the Aussie twins so much, who knows.  But for sure, market was smaller than I remember it in the past.  And Sample Spree was definitely a bust — there were several vendors who didn’t even bother to have booths.  Sample Spree used to be one of my favorite things about market, but I doubt I’ll spend the money to go again.

Luckily, the week after quilt market is the big International Quilt Festival in Houston and the quilts from the quilt show are all set up during quilt market.  The quilt show seemed much bigger than I remember them this year and there were lots of beautiful quilts, so I thought I’d show you a few here.  This is the 40th year of Quilt Festival and they celebrated by having a beautiful display of blue and white quilts.  You’ve probably seen lots of pictures of the quilts on Instagram and other blogs, but here are a few that caught my eye.

The blue and white exhibit was so big, I couldn’t get a picture showing the whole display.

Note the Girl in the Pearl Earring quilt — top row, second from the left.  I love the diamonds and what a fun idea — I wish I had taken a better picture.

After I looked at the Blue and White quilts, I seemed to migrate to the applique quilts. This is Sophie’s August Morning by Lynne S. Dahllmeyer-Hartman.  It looks a lot like the Love Entwined quilt-a-long that was online a few years ago from a free pattern, but the card with the quilt said this quilt was from a pattern by Michelle Hill.

When This You See Remember Me by Donna Gilbert.

Joy in the Journey by Lahala Phelps.

Look at ALL those appliqued circles!

This next display was several quilts by Yukiko Hirano and they were gorgeous and all hand appliqued and hand quilted.  I’d be happy if I could make one quilt this beautiful in a lifetime!

I loved the colors on this one.

Bouquet of My Gratitude by Midori Horie.

Promised Season by Sachiko Chiba.

LOOK at all those little appliqued pieces!  And hand quilting!

Past and Future Meet by Noriko Kido.

This is Crazy for Ewe by Janet Stone. I saw somewhere that it received a well-deserved award. It’s an alphabet quilt and many of the fabrics are flannel. The applique pieces were raw edge and sewn down with a blanket stitch. I LOVED all the fun ideas for each letter of the alphabet.

Here are a few other random quilts that caught my eye.  The Performance by Linda K. Ainsworth.  A fun use of bear paw blocks!

Momotaro, The Peach Boy by Keiko Aso.

Baskets by Susan K. Haslett-Scholfield.

Color My World by Sue Bleiweiss.

These next two quilts were from a challenge of quilts with a total of 100,000 pieces.  I didn’t realize it until I was looking at these pictures that they were all made by the same quilter — Amy Pabst.  Now I wish I’d taken pictures of all the other quilts that gave her a total of 100,000 pieces.

Stars and Stripes – 5480 pieces.

Sawtooth Star – 3600 pieces.

Facing the Future by Kat Gay.  I don’t usually like pixelated quilts, but this was just pretty.  It has 8,000 half inch finished squares.

There was also a small exhibit of some quilts from the collection of Joe and Mary Koval.

Isn’t this one interesting without a side border?  I’ve seen them without a top or bottom border, but I don’t remember seeing one without a side border before.

And this one is a 1976 Bicentennial Folk Art quilt.    Above the elephant it says I’ll Try and above the donkey it says Let’s Be Friends.  As the sign says, the workmanship isn’t that great, but the content says it all.  Very appropriate almost 50 years later!

There were so many beautiful quilts at the quilt show and this is just a small sampling. Thanks for sticking it out to the end!

XOXO,
Anna

Did ya miss me?  Haha.  This might possibly be the latest I’ve ever written about a spring market trip.  Quilt Market was followed by my cute nephew’s college graduation, work, work, work, and then helping TheFirstChild and his little family with the first part of their move across the country this summer.  The second and final part will happen in a few weeks.  So, it’s been too busy to stop and think about market.  Thank goodness for three-day weekends!

I was lucky enough to have my long-time blog friend, CrazyMom for a roommate this time around!  We had lots of fun and it was great getting to know her a little better.  She was at market promoting her beautiful new book, No Scrap Left Behind.  She brought many of the quilts from her book for her schoolhouse presentation, so, naturally, we had to sleep under a different quilt every night.  CrazyMom was so sweet and she let me sleep under my favorites.  It took BIG willpower not to put that red Irish Chain in my suitcase too!  (And how darling is that cute little nine-patch???)

So that’s it!  The highlight of market!  ;-D

Just Kidding.  We had lots of fun visiting all the booths and seeing all the new fabrics.  I didn’t get a lot of pictures, but here are a few, in no particular order:

CrazyMom and I love this quilt on the left side of A Quilting Life’s booth.

American Jane – again, the quilt on the left!

I always LOVE Brenda Riddle’s sweet lines — beautiful colors, as always.

Annie Brady is a new designer and her Big Sky collection is really cute.  She has a print that has tree trunks (a similar print was popular a few years ago) and I’m looking forward to getting some for applique backgrounds.

I was really looking forward to seeing Kristyne again — we met six years ago at spring quilt market.  Her new line is so sweet — and perfect for all of you Happy Quilt Along-ers!

Franny and Jane (love all the blue!)

Jen Kingwell’s booth is always so interesting.  We spent a lot of time looking at the blocks in all those quilts!

This is Sue Daley’s booth in the Riley Blake area.  CrazyMom and I loved that little clamshell quilt hanging on the end of the booth.

And I LOVE this adorable little mini Gelati quilt.  I’d love to have an entire quilt out of this pattern, but oh, what a TON of work!

We had a laugh when we arrived at Amy Smart’s fun booth.  There they were — CrazyMom and CrazyGingham both dressed in Gingham LOL!  Don’t they look cute — and perfect with Amy’s new line, Gingham Girls.

Shannon Fabrics had a ton of double gauze — along with their beautiful, squishy cuddle fabric.  I liked these displays of toddler clothes.

Need a new necklace?

Self-explanatory ;-).

I was really looking forward to seeing this adorable little bird fabric by Kari of New Leaf Stitches and it didn’t disappoint.  I LOVE these cute birds and I MUST get some!

Here’s another fabric that I loved — it’s by the same person who illustrated the P.S. I Love You book.  Coming to an etsy shop near you soon LOL!

Cotton and Steel had these cute squirrels — I mentioned on Instagram that this fabric could justify every time you drop a current project and start a new one.  SQUIRRELLLLLLL!!!

CrazyMom and I spent quite a bit of time in the Ella Blue booth with those Crazy Aussies.  And let me tell you — that’s a LOT of Crazy.  Jody is the Crazy RingLeader and she suggested that we pose for a picture so the shark could eat the other little sea animals.  Naturally, Jody was the shark!

And finally, just a picture of a cool quilt I noticed at market.  This little quilt was hanging in an antique booth and the owner said there are 9,216 colored squares — each measuring about 1/2″.  Add in the white squares and you have over 18,000 squares!  All hand pieced and beautiful.  I walked past the booth again, about 45 minutes after I talked to the owner the first time and the quilt was gone.  Unsurprisingly, it sold right away.

So, that’s it for spring market from this year. It’s always fun and I always come home with so many ideas. Hardly any of which I’ll ever have time to execute LOL!

XOXO,
Anna

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Well, it’s taken me a little longer than it should have to get back here and show you a few of my quilt market pictures.  I was only in Houston for two days — my flight was canceled out of our lovely but small-market airport, and since it was the last flight of the day I was stuck until the next morning.  And since I had planned on spending an overnight with TheSecondChild on my way to market, I had to push everything back a day.

And THEN, I had to rush home on Sunday because TheManoftheHouse had his second knee replaced on Monday.  So, very. quick. trip. and very busy week.  But — Lots of Fun!  It’s late, so I’ll just keep my words to a minimum and show you the few pictures that I took.  (There are more on my Instagram page, if you haven’t had enough of quilt market pictures yet ;-D.)

I’m guessing this may have been the most photographed wall of market.

Cori Dantini for Blend Fabrics is always a favorite.

Another super cute Blend Fabric — a few of the prints from this Paris line will be in my etsy shop hopefully sometime this month.

Fiberworks is always a fun booth — her quilts are so interesting.

The Free Spirit booth was gorgeous — like wandering through a mini quilt show.  The quilt on the left is a Fiberworks pattern.

This is one of Jen Kingwell’s new patterns — I LOVE it!

Ooooh Look!  A Gaggle of Aussies!  Or would that be an Assortment of Aussies??? An Assemblage?  Accumulation? Aggregation????  All I know is that they’re all crazy.  And a ton of fun!

Next to quilt market were the quilts on display for the Annual International Quilt Show.  I took very few pictures, but here are three of my favorites.

This little guy REALLY wants to play ball.

Someday.  On my bucket list.  (Bad, Bad blogger — I forgot to snap pics of the descriptions of these two quilts.  We had so little time – I only had one day for both market AND the quilt show — this was the last hour of the day.)

And, I showed this one on my instagram feed — I love this quilt by Rahna Summerlin.  Apparently the judges do too — it won in Paducah and also took first place in the traditional pieced category in this show.

So, that’s it. It’s hard to believe it’s all over — it went by so quickly. Now back to work — fall is such a busy time. Even more so with TheManoftheHouse incapacitated and my frequent visits to see MeMum. And the leaves. ALL the leaves. So. Many. Leaves. I’m just glad we’re having a prolonged fall this year. More time for The. Leaves.

XOXO,
Anna

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Well Hey Kids!  I’m back from quilt market and VERY slow about posting pictures.  By now you’ve probably seen lots of pictures, which is a good thing ’cause my pictures just didn’t turn out that great.  I was gone for a week — I took MeMum out to visit her sister, the Best Aunt in the World, Aunt Annie.  So, I only spent one day at market (+ sample spree – because you have to!) and it was all a blur.  I really only saw a few of my invisible buddies, and a few of those were just because I happened to run into them.  Ms. YellowFarmhouse was my Sample Spree/Lunch buddy  (Thanks Karen!) and I got to meet a long-time reader which was super fun (Hi Dara!).  And, before market I had lunch one afternoon with the Super Sweet CityHomeCountryHome and she helped me choose some yarns and patterns at the little yarn shop where she occasionally works.

So…my market visit was very short and I don’t have a lot of pictures.  (I have mostly different shots on my Instagram account.)  I miss those days when we were doing booth setup and I could take pictures before the crowds descended on the booths.  Anyway, here are a few of the pictures that I did get —

There are always a few quilts displayed at market and I loved the mix of applique and patchwork on this quilt.  Not to mention the hand quilting.

This quilt is by Susan Gorder of Green Valley, Arizona.  Such beautiful work!

Here’s Melissa Mortenson in her Wonderland booth.  I love those cute rabbits!

Sue Daley does amazing hand piecing and applique.  I always love to see her new quilts.

This is Simple Simon and Company.  I’ll bet I saw at least 4 little teepees at market, but this one with the ruffle fabric was my favorite.

Fiberworks was new to me, but everyone else seemed to know about her.   Very interesting and beautiful quilts!

I mentioned on Instagram that I think the pending arrival of FinallyAGirl (it’s getting VERY close now — eeeep!) had me checking out baby items like never before.  Sweet Melody Designs is a new designer with Shannon Fabrics.  Their cuddle fabrics are sooooo soft — I love them for quilt backs.  They were also doing a cool thing for little baby quilts — they put four layers of double gauze together to make the softest, most cozy little quilts.  They would be pretty pricey, but so worth it!

Here’s one where they put double gauze on the front and cuddle on the back (and wrapped around to create a border). I could see a lot of possibilities with this technique.

This booth had cute baby clothes made from recycled denim.  I’m debating whether a few of those prints will appear in my little shop — they’re really soft and I think they’re pretty cute!

By now, I’m sure you’ve seen the Carina Gardner camper — very cute!

The moda booth is always fun.  They went with a camping theme and each designer was handing out little merit badges.  I didn’t realize it until it was too late though — doh!  They’ll be selling the badges, but it looks like the one I really want isn’t available (hopefully, it will be eventually.)  It’s hard to see it, but they had cute little mason jar lanterns hanging from their “trees”.

Here’s the Erin Michael quilt that you’ve probably seen by now.  Super Cute!  (Sorry for you cat haters out there!)

Amy Sinibaldi’s pretty booth.

Little Dickens, by new Moda designer, Lydia Nelson.  She has a must-have sheepie print!

And hey – look!  It’s our invisible friend Helen Philips and her beautiful book, Modern Vintage Gifts.

I always look forward to Brenda Riddle’s pretty new collections.  She’s had so many lately that I can’t keep up.

And, you can’t really see the Bareroots booth, but I’ve just always loved their cute embroidery – they’ve been around forever!

So, that’s all I have for quilt shots.  Utah was absolutely gorgeous this year — I don’t remember ever seeing her so beautiful.  They’ve had lots of rain this spring and the mountainsides were lush and green, which is unusual.  And the lilac bushes!  Every time I turned a corner there was another huge lilac bush just full of blooms — absolutely gorgeous!!!

Have a wonderful weekend — and for you in the US, a Happy Memorial Day!
XOXO,
Anna

Boy, I’ve had a little trouble finding time to blog this week.  It’s been pretty hectic since I got back from quilt market — lots to do.  I had a great time though — market is always so fun — seeing people and lots of inspiration.

I met Kellie at market and we had a great time.  Kellie is opening a gorgeous new shop in Melbourne (you Victoria residents are SO lucky) and she was shopping for stock.  I joked how much fun I had spending her money, but it was really fun to sit down with vendors and see lots of fun stuff.  I hardly even know where to start.  My pictures are all over the place, so I’ll just jump in.  I also posted a lot of pictures over on Instagram and I’ll try not to repeat any here — although there are one or two.

One of the first booths we hit was Birch fabrics.  They had tons of adorable little baby onesies hanging on two racks.  I want ALL of their beautiful knits NOW ;-D.

Another early booth was Art Gallery Fabrics.  They have such beautiful fabrics (I have a few sample spree bundles left over from them that will appear in my etsy shop in a few days) and there were lots of pretties in their booth.  I really like that big text fabric — it reminds me of the IKEA fabric that has been used a lot for quilt backs.

Art Gallery had all of their chairs covered in some of their basics fabrics — I loved it!

Lecein was another favorite.  And that cute little guy there taking orders was playing magnetic darts with people and giving prizes — lots of fun.  I LOVE LOVE their new lines of fabric — how I would love to have them all!

Brenda Riddle for Moda (more moda booths on my Instagram) — her new Windermere line is so soft and beautiful.

And here is the famous Small World quilt by Jen Kingwell (there’s a new quiltalong starting for this quilt on IG if you’re interested).

While we were talking to Jen, she asked what the quilt market buzz was, since she’d been unable to escape from her booth.  I noticed two things —

Darker, richer colors — almost like the jewel tones of the 90’s, yet different (also a lot of purple) …

and gauze.  Gauze in a lot of booths.  People mentioned using it in quilts, but I think I would worry that the quilts would wear out too fast.  I would use it for things like clothing, swaddling cloths, and scarves.  A few booths sucked me in and there will be a few bolts arriving in my little etsy shop later this summer.

This was an interesting booth.  Chenille-It.  They have strips of fabric on rolls and you sew it to a background fabric.  Then, when you wash the quilt, the strips bloom and make chenille.  It looked like it could be fun.

And here’s a quilt that was on display as you entered market.  I thought it was your basic applique quilt until I got closer to it.

It’s basically a bunch of quilted and bound mini-quilts that have been joined by a double row of yoyos that make sashing.  Very clever, and beautiful!

I didn’t take as many pictures this year as I have in past markets.  I was probably just enjoying market — we had so much fun talking to people.  This was Kellie’s first market without being in a booth and I felt like she was at market for the first time!

All in all, it was a perfect (exhausting) weekend!  Well, except for one little mishap.

Some wanker decided that he wanted an old rolly briefcase that I had totally forgotten was in the back of my car and he smashed in the window to get it. (I wish I had a picture pre-patch-job — it was pretty dramatic.)  Luckily, the case was empty. And even better, he didn’t take all my sample spree loot that was in the back of the car – that would probably have ruined the trip. It made the ten-hour drive home a little noisy, but I survived.

And now, there’s so much to do around here! The weeds are waist-high, the house is a disaster, and there’s the matter of a little swap that needs to be completed. AND, SweetiePie and Winston are coming for a visit this weekend. So there will be a lot of playing and even a 5k to add to my already tired state. Busy is good, right?

Have a wonderful weekend!
XOXO,
Anna