Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Fall 2011 Quilt Market Recap in Pictures

I'm back from a whirlwind few days at Quilt Market in Houston. It took a whole day just to decompress. There were so many great things to see. It seems to go by way too fast every time. Since words can't possibly do it justice, instead I'll share 642 pictures (or close to it) with you.

There were so many beautiful and innovative booths:










Some great new patterns and books, including a few new pattern companies that I've never seen before:



There were tons of great home dec and clothing items made from quilting fabrics:












Of course, lots of beautiful quilts:










And celebrity sightings:

                           Lotta Jansdotter                                    Mary Fons shooting a spot for QNNtv.com                                   Valori Wells

                              David Butler                                                      David & Amy Butler                                                   Anna Maria Horner


     Laura Gunn & her mom Elinor Peace Bailey                           Weeks Ringle & Bill Kerr                                               Marcia Derse

            Gina Pantastico of Cloud 9 Fabrics                         Natalie Lyman of Cinderberry Stitches                                          Pokey Bolton

                          Kaffe Fassett                                                               Cat in the Hat                                     The Ghastlies in Alexander Henry's Booth!

I bought some new fabrics, new patterns, and a few notions that will be arriving in the next couple of months (some not until May!!). Some of the things I'm most excited about include:

A great new line from Lecien designed by Natalie Lyman of Cinderberry Stitches. Her Woodland Utopia is just adorable!


A line called Curious Nature from a brand new designer, Parson Gray aka David Butler aka Mr. Amy Butler. It's very masculine and sophisticated without being about tools and beer. Lots of greys, taupes, greens, and blues.


Weeks Ringle & Bill Kerr of Fun Quilts, soon to be Modern Quilt Studio, not only have a new book (Transparency Quilts) coming out soon, but a new magazine! Called Modern Quilts Illustrated, it will be published three times per year. Each issue will feature three quilt projects and will have tons of full color instructions. It's unlike any magazine you've seen before & I can't wait for it to come out.


Ty Pennington from Extreme Makeover Home Edition, and formerly Trading Spaces, has a great looking line coming out. I didn't order his fabric last year, but wish I had. So I made sure to get some this year. I like this year's line better than last year's.



I also got some great notions. I ordered beautiful glazed buttons in four colorways from Basic Grey, and some great pearlized snaps. The pearlized snaps are perfect for bags, purses, and small wallets. I really really wish I could have found some of these when I was making the Valori Wells Little Wallets.


 

And finally, The Ghastlies are appearing in their THIRD line for Alexander Henry Fabrics called A Ghastlie Family Reunion. They have been such a huge hit, that Alexander Henry has decided to release a new Ghastlies pattern every year. I'm so excited about this. I always get a little sad when I sell some Ghastlies because I love them so much and want to keep them all for myself. Look for the new Ghastlies in April or May.


I have lots of things to give away as prizes. But I'm not exactly sure how to do it. Even though this was my fourth time attending Market, it's only my first time blogging about it & collecting prizes to give away to readers. I'll try to figure that out soon & share some goodies with you. Any ideas? I'd greatly appreciate it.

4 comments:

  1. Holy moly! Too much good stuff. Wish I could have been there but the pictures you've shared are so great!

    Hmmm...how to go about the giveaway? Blog comments and random.org to determine the winners? That's how I've done a giveaway in the past and how lots of bloggers do them. It's your blog and your giveaway, though so ultimately you should decide!

    Lovely photos. Thanks for sharing.

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  2. Oooooh, ahhhh – how friggin’ exciting! Awesome FABRICS, Buttons, booths, people, pictures!!!!!! I know, I’m not supposed to get excited about this stuff, I’m NOT (reassuring myself & repeating myself – really NOT) a quilter. I’m only 33 years old, I can’t be a quilter. I can’t have any interest in quilting, fabrics, buttons… those that refer to quilters do not think of ME. I’m fighting it, but it’s not working so well! I am in LOVE with your pictures, FABRICS, Buttons!!! Part of me thinks I should stake out your house (basically from now through May) and wait for the UPS/Fedex man to arrive, and casually go over and pick up the packages… HOW FUN to open those boxes when your stuff comes!!! I repeat, am not a quilter, so this really shouldn’t concern you! I am not a threat… If something would turn up missing, please don’t point fingers at me, I couldn’t possibly sit in a tree during the winter months, but certainly do envy you and the fun of opening the packages.

    I can understand your hesitation on selling some of the fabrics, because you truly love them so much! I’m all oogly eyed over your fabrics, and they are just photographs!

    I agree with Victoria – she has great ideas in theory. I subscribe faithfully for a NON-QUILT related blog (that’s because I’m not a quilter, remember?)… They have lots of giveaways because it’s a website for thrifty people, deals & steals, etc… and she gets a lot of free stuff and gives it away to her readers. (hip2save.com) I think you could use a concept several to hers in that she has a Weekly Photo contest (I think that’s what it’s called – or something similar).. You could ask your blog followers to post one of the following each week (could require it to be a photo contest also), you choose the winner – and they get some type of goody!!! Ideas for things they could post:
    • Photo of NEW fabric they LOVE
    • Photo of a Great deal or Steal on fabric
    • Photo of Some new tool they found or fell in love with
    • Photo of Something to simply make you smile
    • Photo of a completed project
    • A Tutorial they created
    • Anything related to fabric that makes them happy!
    • A trick they learned about quilting, etc….
    • Something they learned about their sewing machine – with photos!?

    You need to make it flexible because not all of us are hardcore quilters. Some of us depend greatly on our mothers to help us every step of the way…

    Ok, so if you don’t like that… the easiest and CLEARLY the best idea is that you could just give your friends the goodies, they really are your biggest fans! 

    PS. I previously drafted a much MUCH superior and impressive post, but somehow lost it, so this post sucks in comparison, but I simply couldn’t put the same amount of effort as my first attempt, it really just wouldn’t stand a chance – I was much more clever and creative the first time around.

    Jess

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  3. Jess- Methinks thou doth protest too much! I told you we'd make you into a "real" quilter some day. Pretty soon you'll actually be sewing at home all by yourself and not just twice a year during retreats.

    I have thought about random number generators for blog comments, but I just don't get enough people commenting yet. I know you're all out there reading. I can see you in my analytics. But you need to speak up more!

    All good ideas up there. I'll ponder some more & do some giveaways in the next week.

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  4. Hi Amy...I'm visiting from Jennifer's blog, Ellison Lane. I just wanted to say Thanks for sponsoring her giveaway. I saw your pictures of market. How exciting it looks!! I'd love to go one day but I wouldn't know where to look first. So much fabric, all the colors and seeing all the quilting celebrities. hehe. Oh, also I'm a new follower. Looking forward to going back through your blog to see what I've been missing.

    Thanks again for sponsoring Jennifer's giveaway.

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