Quilt Market: Salt Lake City (2) • Giveaway

May 28, 2016May 30, 2016 Elizabeth E.39 Comments

First off, congratulations to Dorothy, who won the giveaway. I’ll be in touch with you, Dorothy, to get your mailing info and get that off to you next week. Thank you to all who participated, and especially to all who commented on my yank-out-the-carpet-from-under-me fall. I’m pretty much fine, and am going forward, but you can bet I’ll look twice before coming out of an aisle. That story also made it to Carrie Nelson’s MODA blog, as I had to tell a story to her to get one of her camping badges. For a great recap of her Moda Designers’ booths, head over there.

I’ll also have another little giveaway at the end of this post, to reward you for reading, AND in honor of my mother’s 88th birthday. This is a photo of her back in the day. They apparently used to take all their birthday pictures outside because the camera couldn’t really capture the light as well inside. I think of that when I tend to use my mobile phone everywhere because its light-capturing sensors are the best.

Quilt Market is about business–the business of selling, of buying, of hawking your wares, of displaying, of meeting your buyers, meeting the designers, meeting the authors. Sometimes I would get a book at these signings, and sometimes I just snapped photos on my way past. Some publishers were gracious, not knowing who their books were going home with, yet others were a bit cranky about the whole thing. Considering that I buy from all of them, I’ll never tell who was cheerful and who was cranky, but it taught me a lot about that aspect of this business.

This talented lady’s book is part of our giveaway today. Elea Lutz designs not only patterns, but also fabrics for Penny Rose (associated with Riley Blake Fabrics). It’s a book published by Fat Quarter Shop and has charming pieced patterns, as shown in the quilt behind her.

The other giveaway (I’ll divide them into two) is the Stashbusters Book, by Sarah Maxwell and Dolores Smith, a wonderful collection of scrappy reproduction-style quilts. I’ll choose two from the comments left below; let me know if you have a preference for which book you might win.

Once I left the cocoon of my Painter’s Palette booth and ventured out, I saw this young woman modeling the skirt found in Alison Glass’ LookBook. It was like — pinch me!–as I encountered Famous People and things I recognized from all the advertising I see when I read magazines, or attend quilt shows, or wander through the web. It was going to be a day of double takes as I walked among the Business of Quilting, the other side of the quilty looking glass.

Sassafras Lane Designs, in all their colorful glory.

Renegade salespeople in the lobby of the Salt Palace. Great carpet, right?

Quilt Soup. (That’s not Barbara Jones, but a “booth babysitter,” she said.

Don’t look now, but that woman in the Kokka booth is wearing a Wookie Backpack. I was in line behind her later on at the Lucky Spools book signing, and she shared with us all the trending video of the woman who’d just purchased a Chewbacca Mask for her birthday. I thought that was a neat coincidence.

These three pictures are from Katie Cupcake, by Amy Hamberlin. I love that Midtown bag.

Jillily Studio’s booth was a sweet shop, complete with little bagged chocolate truffles they gave out.

Hoffman Fabrics are in my neck of the woods in Southern California, and first started with Hawaiian print fabrics for the local surfers.

I don’t know if you can see it, but Latifah Saafir’s booth (Hoffman Fabrics) has a pair of tennis shoes slung over a wire–so LA. I loved it!

Fun also to see Hoffman’s newest line of fabrics from Thistlewood Farms. Those blues! (And yes, that’s KariAnne Wood holding her quilt.)

Heather Jones’ line of fabric is subtle, but I bought some at Sample Spree because I think it will work well in so many quilts. One of my favorite types of fabrics are those that bring a punch of something new to the existing stash, giving it more life. She has some great designs in her collection.

Here is a series of photos from the Clothworks/Frou-Frou booths, across the aisle from each other. Maybe because I was thinking about my trip to Geneva last week, and how I was missing the small prints from Europe, but I really fell in love with these fabrics (plus I love how they feel).

I love their cans of projects. Very clever.

Now, for a complete change of pace, this is the Free Spirit Booth. I noticed more and more of this type of booth design among the big names: a central section for the business of ordering, and small alcoves for the designers.

Amy Butler’s section. She also had a larger booth:

Tula Pink’s alcove.

Snow Leopard Designs by Phillip Jacobs (again, for Free Spirit Fabrics)

Elizabeth Hartman’s booth, with the lovely creator in attendance.

Cori Dantini, for Blend Fabrics. I loved their booth:

EdMar Company, a small vendor from Idaho was selling these gorgeous rayon Brazilian Embroidery Threads.

Benartex. I think you can see where all those beautiful quilts go that we see in “sneak peeks” on Instagram (and yes, I spelled “peeks” correctly). Every booth was awash in beautiful quilts, and I must admit I hadn’t even hit the Moda booths yet, and I was already in overload. So I thought I’d better head over and see Sherri’s booth, since I’d sewn a couple of items for her and had a sneak peek myself of some of her beautiful fabrics.

I could never get a photo that wasn’t blurry of these two women, so this will have to do. The Moda designers were in clusters at this show, which didn’t give them much space, but that made meeting them easier.

That’s enough for today’s post. More is coming.

Have a safe Memorial Day (or Decoration Day, as my mother calls it). ~~Leave a comment below to win a book in the giveaway. I’ll choose one and announce it in the next post.~~

UPDATE: Comments closed. Winner announced in next post. Thanks to you all for entering!

Classes · Giveaway · Quilts

Quilt Market May 2016 • Day One • Giveaway

May 27, 2016June 12, 2016 Elizabeth E.40 Comments

Yes! folks. That is me standing under the sign, nervous and excited as all get out. Yeah, I know it’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it. And there’s a little bit of a giveaway at the end, just to reward you for reading all the way through.

I’d entered the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City that morning, dazed and confused even though several people had given me good advice for Going to Quilt Market. I came down the escalators to the left (out of sight), trying to figure out what to do next, when a lovely woman walked towards me.

Claudia, the owner of Snowed In Quilt Shop in Panguitch, Utah showed me where to pick up my badge. She then told me to pay for SchoolHouse (all-day classes) and for Sample Spree (really? I’m going to that time-honored craziness??). I designated her my “Handler for Quilt Market,” and off we went to Schoolhouse.

Wait, what?

This is better. We shared the building with burly guys wearing T-shirst that said Coal: Clean & Abundant, as they went to their meetings in a wing of the convention center.

First up: a plenary session where the first 700 who picked up their schedules also got a ticket for a souvenir tote bag from Cotton and Steel. I’d heard about the freebies here (actually less than you think) and was happy that I could get something fun right off the bat. It opened with the officials telling us the stats of our industry, among other pleasantries.

For the very next presenters were the Cotton & Steel gang, all young women, announcing their partnership with Rifle Paper Company, and the new fabric line where they showed us us a video. We had a small sample of it in our freebie bags. We weren’t yet allowed into the exhibition hall, as everyone was still setting up their booths. It dawned on me only later that I had a badge that would let me in. (Trying not to overuse my Super Powers, here. . .) However, I didn’t have time to go in until later, as I was busy going to Schoolhouse. Claudia and I went back and forth between the two sets of classrooms, about a 3-minute walk between them, until we wised up and chose classes in a clump next to each other.

This presentation by Ink & Arrow/Quilting Treasures was stellar. I learned a LOT. Every quilt shop should have attended this one.

Plus the brownies in their little giveaway bag were a nice treat.

Many of the Schoolhouse classes are like this one: an introduction to a new line of fabrics, in this case Frou-Frou, distributed by ClothWorks, Inc. I liked what the head of Frou-Frou was saying about quilting being like cooking. “Spaghetti” in column 2 is actually skinny tubing, suitable for spaghetti straps on clothing.

I loved Maywood Fabrics’ presentation. Claudia won a bundle of their fabric. She actually won two times that day, which is nice payment for her having to drag me around.

Somewhere in here, at the urging of my darling husband (yes, he is!) I went down to the floor to see my quilt hanging up. Sigh. You read all about that yesterday, so I won’t bore you today, but it was wonderful. (And yes, I’d finally figured out at that point that I had a badge that would let me do that.)

After lunch it was more classes. Here’s Anna Maria Horner’s Schoolhouse class, showing off her amazing quilt. And skirts. And fabric. And more quilts. And her fine sense of humor.

(Reverse applique flower and leaves)

So glad to see her in fine form. We’ve missed you, Eleanor Burns!

The Moda Schoolhouse was all about their program starting in fall and continuing through next year: “Be My Neighbor,” where they will give out “blueprints” of blocks to fabric shops, where we plebeians can get them. I’ve already made a house quilt, (click *here* to see and to get free downloadable patterns, too) but after looking at this one, it’s mighty tempting to try another.

By now Claudia and I are dragging and we have to muster up some strength to make it to Sample Spree that evening.

So we stayed in our seats through another designer’s presentation (basically a demo of all her new products and how we could buy them) then went next door to Moda/Martingale’s presentation of the Match Game, featuring quilty terms, and a cast of brilliant stars (some lined up above). It was really funny, and very high energy and we had a great time. Some of the quilts featured in the book are below, slightly blurry as they were parading them before us at a pretty good clip:

There. Now you’ve had your fill of eye-candy for one post. (I do think I’ll get this book.) We went to find dinner and I took a photo of the sample spree line from the second floor, where people had been lining up for hours:

And then I took one of the market floor. See those people laying green carpet over to the left? Stay with me now, there’s a story there. Claudia and I grabbed a salad for dinner, and ate it quietly away from the Sample Spree line. She agreed to watch my bags while I went in for one last picture

I came out of the aisle just as three uber burley guys gave the green carpet runner a hefty yank to the left. . . and I fell down to the right. Yes, so graceful, but the rug had been pulled out from under me, just like in the cartoons. The burley guys to the right came running over. One of them was the crew leader, and after watching me get up (again, incredibly graceful *ahem*) he insisted I go to the boss of the crew. I followed him to the loading dock, where it smelled like brine, a storm coming in off the salty Great Salt Lake. Kind of like being at the ocean, really.

Then he insisted I go to the Floor Boss, who was driving around somewhere on a yellow cart. You think if they were so concerned about my injuries that they would have put ME on one of those dumb carts and driven me around, but no. I had to go with this guy, chasing around looking for the other guy on the dumb cart. We found him, but I explained that I was going to miss my PARTY and that my friend had my bags and I needed to go and get them, and really I felt fine (but knowing the next day I was going to feel it). He agreed to let me release Claudia so she could get in line.

Now I’m carrying all my loot from today, and following this guy around. Back to the loading dock, where we get another boss, who determines that I should to see Security. (But my PARTY!! I want to scream, for that’s what Sample Spree was to them–how could I explain what would be the mad dash of frothing quilters straight for the Rifle Paper Company new fabric line by Cotton & Steel?) He takes me along the back of the convention hall, to a wide gaping doorway and I realize I’m looking at Sample Spree and nobody is in here!! Did I take advantage of this and grab a stack? No. Like a good little girl, I follow the guy through the other doors, out into the hallway, where everyone in line is looking me, like “How’d she get in there?”

We go down the lines of foyer-sitters, into the office. He says “This is the lady who fell down.” Wait. I pipe up to say, “I didn’t fall down. Someone yanked the carpet from under my feet!” I was asked to wait while they called for an EMT, and while I was waiting, would I write a description. The EMT guy arrives and wants me to go in an ambulance to the ER.

Meanwhile. . . I can see the lines start to move into Sample Spree. I turn to him, and say “My Party is starting! I’ve got to go!” He assesses me (no slurring of speech, no fuzzy vision, no impact to the head, appears to be somewhat sane and walking straight); I sign waivers to not to go the ER in an ambulance. But by now, I’ll be at the back of the wagon train in the Sample Spree line. So I look at him and say, “You look official. Can you walk me to the front of the line and get me in?” He smiles, agrees, and we pass by hordes of frothing quilters, and I slip in past the Quilt Police, into Sample Spree. I’m still achy, my hip and ankle are sore, and I know I’m going to feel it in the morning, but hey–I made it it to The Party.

This sort of image was not unusual. I decline to show you my group of bags so as not to incriminate myself, but I got in about halfway through the long line, and no, at that point there were no Rifle Paper Company stacks to be had unless I bought ALL of the new Cotton & Steel lines for a mere $271, which would include their tote bag. Um, no. But it was fun going around, seeing the FQs (Frothing Quilters) grab and push and terrify those on the inside of the tables as they snapped up their stacks and bundles, and overheated their credit cards.

I did see Claudia later on, and she asked how I was. She’s lovely and terrific and as she was still shopping, and I was pretty spent (in all ways), I headed home to my sister’s new apartment in her basement, where I had a lovely space all to myself. I took some ibuprofen, and while I was uploadiong some IG photos, all the power went out around me.

I looked outside: dark. I looked on IG: all the quilters in the hotels downtown were freaking out, saying “Way to go–the Fabric Geeks broke Salt Lake!” Sounds like the party was still going on. I knew the light would wake me up when it came back on in the middle of the night, but I rolled over and went to sleep.

Because I was surprised at how little freebies there were (I had to purchase most of my souvenirs, except for the bag I mentioned), I have one giveaway here and a couple of more over the next two weeks, courtesy of the people I’ll name.

This first one is a charm pack with lots of colors of 100% wool felt, for those of you who are working on your tree (another one’s coming on June 2nd). The colors are beautiful:

It’s from National Non-Wovens, and they also donated some for our next Oh Christmas Tree post, just in case you don’t win this round. While this is a vendor, they will sell smaller quantities to us quilters at Commonwealth Felt.

The other item I’ll throw into the giveaway is this book by Carolyn Culling McCormick, In the Pines, from Kansas City Star Quilts. This is a book of paper-pieced patterns so you can make the more traditional pine-tree quilts with tiny pieces. The paper-piecing makes is manageable. Leave a comment below and I’ll activate the Husband Random Name Generator and pick a winner (one winner will get both items). This will close on Saturday, May 29th, my mother’s 88th birthday. (Happy Birthday, Mom!)

NOTE: Comments now closed. Winner to be announced in next post.

Next Up: Day Two of Market

200 Quilts · Creating · Quilts · Textiles & Fabric

Starry Compass Rose

May 26, 2016May 25, 2016 Elizabeth E.29 Comments

Starry Compass Rose
Quilt # 156

I’d like to tell you the background about how I went to Quilt Market. I was contacted by Paintbrush Studios in November of 2015 to see if I would design and make a quilt for them using their Painter’s Palette line of solids. At first I was like, who is this? but soon got to corresponding with Anne, a delightful woman with a great sense of humor. She turned me over to Deena in the design department, and I sent over a rough sketch. Then another. We soon had several renditions flying back and forth over email, which meant not only did I have to design a quilt for them, and sew it, but I also had to learn how to express myself in EQ7 (cue: grimace). I learned it “enough” and produced the sketch you see above.

Of course, all this is stuff I couldn’t mention on the blog, but I worked on this steadily from late November until mid-February when I sent off to them a quilt top, binding, backing and a label. Someone else would quilt it.

As a thank-you for this experience, I made them Focus, a small quilt to hang in their booth at QuiltCon. While at QuiltCon, I screwed up my nerve to ask Sue and Deena if I could get a pass to see the quilt at market, and they arranged it.

But I was most interested in seeing my quilt, all quilted up by Denise Marieno, at Quilt Market. I was sad to see it go in February, but ecstatic to see it now, hanging in the Painter’s Palette booth. I checked on the progress several times on Thursday as they set up their booth, watching as they moved it from an inner spot, to an outer spot. They were very happy with the result, as was I. Denise did a terrific job of quilting it.

So now it’s gone, and who knows when I’ll see it again, but oh, what a high! to see it at market. I hope I can work with them again sometime, as I thoroughly enjoyed the process and the people at this company.

I’ve spent my life in unheralded endeavors: a young bride having babies, a mother at home, a student, an adjunct professor, but no one praises your skill at loading a dishwasher, managing a complicated carpool schedule, or compliments you on the nice comments you leave on student papers. So to come into Quilt Market and to see my quilt hanging there as a professional quilt designer was an experience I won’t soon forget. It was like someone patted me on the head and said “You did great,” that my skills were recognized, instead of just giving service or being a cog in what passes for Higher Ed these days. I certainly don’t regret being a mother-at-home, nor of my years of teaching. I don’t regret being an older student, trying to fit in with the 20-somethings who were writing edgy short stories that included drugs and sex, while all I could come up with is little stories of mothers and fathers and families that somehow always included a quilt somewhere.

But to round that corner that first morning and see this quilt?
Oh, so satisfying.

Next post: Day One of Market, going to Schoolhouse, a Tumble, and a Giveaway

200 Quilts

Beauty All Around

May 25, 2016May 26, 2016 Elizabeth E.11 Comments

Beauty All Around
Quilt # 162

Before I start on my market wrap-up posts (although Sherri of A Quilting Life has a nice array of photos of her Moda contemporaries), I wanted to show you some of the market sewing I did for Sherri. She sent me some fabrics, I sent her an email with a design, then I got to work creating this little mini for her Moda booth. She has the words “There is Beauty All Around” on the selvage of her one of her fabric lines, so I grabbed a bit of that for a title. I got it wrong initially, thinking it belonged to this line, Desert Bloom, but it belonged to the previous collection.

She writes: “I love the name you gave your quilt, too; however, the selvage quote “There is beauty all around” comes from Valley…the selvage quote for Desert Bloom is “Nature’s beauty brings joy to the soul.”

Now you know them both!

It’s pattern #23 in my Craftsy Shop, and in my PayHip Shop (for EU readers). It’s a fun little mini that makes up quickly. Because it is a new little pattern and a wee little star at Quilt Market, it has a lower price for the first month, then I’ll put it back up to the regular price in my shops.

But that’s not all. I also made Sherri a clutch out of her fabric, featuring a pinwheel to match the quilt. I used Diane Stanley’s clutch pattern (she’s also known on IG as ylmommyx4), and it went together really quickly.