Back Home Again

Hello Hello! I’m back from my whirlwind trip to Quilt Market in Portland. I came back last night on the red-eye and got home mid-morning today. It’s been a busy day, so I haven’t had time to go through all my pictures. I do have a few pictures to show you, although it was such a quick and busy trip that I missed a ton of details. I had the same problem with my instagram pictures and I finally gave up on them.   Sorry.

Anyway, I just wanted to pop in here and tell you about a fun little visit we had with Heather Ross. She’s Back! and she has a sweet new line called Briar Rose. Look at her cute booth.

Here’s a look at all the prints in her new line. (You can see individual shots of each print  Here).

This is my favorite print. Heather told us all about the little bees. She said she is the mama bee on the left and the bee on the right is her nanny with her little girl. Then, she laughed and said “I don’t even have a nanny!”.  I love bees anyway and knowing the story makes it even cuter.  Check out that stinger on Mama Bee — I forgot to ask Heather what THAT means LOL.

While we were at market, I grabbed several fat quarter bundles of Briar Rose to put in my little shop.  This line isn’t due to ship until July, so you can have these prints early!  There are 20 prints in the bundle and they retail for $70.00.  I’ve put them in the shop on sale for $60.00.  They’ll ship in a flat rate envelope for $5.90 postage in the continental U.S.  If you’re outside of the US and you’d like a bundle, shoot me an e-mail, I’ll figure out postage and then send you an invoice.

You can find the bundles Here.
SOLD OUT. Thank You!

I’ll be back soon with pictures from market!

XOXO,
Anna

Spring 2012 Quilt Market: The Fabric

Well kids.  Another week whizzed by.  I’m glad it’s over too — my travel is done for awhile so I can look forward to a little sewing and maybe clean up this pigsty a little.

So, finally, my last market report (I hear all of you screaming yipee out there!) — the fabric you’ll be seeing in quilt shops a few months from now.    Before the fabric, here’s a quick pic for Meredithe and all the Billings girls out there.  Just to prove their gorgeous quilt was at market.

My last two posts have shown a lot of the fabric that I really liked (like Sarah Jane, PKM, and those Riley Blake Chevrons) that I didn’t see at sample spree.  I didn’t manage to snag Vanessa‘s new color line either, but here’s a pretty close up of her new fabrics.

And look!  I was snooping around the United Notions booth and she has an Aurifil line of thread to match.

I thought this new Dr. Suess fabric in baby colors was cute.

Here are my sample spree snags.  At the Lecein booth I grabbed this line called Quilter’s First Collection.  I don’t like all the fabrics, but I love the collection of basics in the group to the right.  (No one does basics like Lecein.)

From Moda, the plan was to get Marmalade by Bonnie and Camille and Mama Said Sew by Sweetwater and I managed to get them both without being trampled by the crowd.

When you buy something from Moda, they give you a bag.  I LOVE this year’s bag.

It even inspired me to get the line of fabric that contains the bag print.  It’s called Odds and Ends by Cosmo Cricket.  I wouldn’t have noticed it without the bag (and the table cloths on the tables) but I’m sure glad I did — there are some very cute prints in this collection.

And that’s it! Too much fabric, as usual, and I have no clue what I’ll do with it. It’s sure fun to fondle though!

Have a great weekend. Mine is going to contain some sewing, how ’bout yours?
XOXO,
Anna

Spring 2012 Quilt Market: The Booths

Wow.  Sorry it’s taking me so long to do these market posts.  It’s been a really busy week here.  I just got back late last night/early this morning from a quick trip to help TheSecondChild move.  He has about 3 weeks until his new apartment is ready, so we moved him into a storage unit and he’s now homeless.  ;-)  Fortunately he has a few good friends to help him out.  But, now I’m all tuckered out.  And sore!  He was in a third floor apartment and all that up and down stairs a bajillion times was painful.

Anyway, I’ll be off again for a work trip tonight, so here are some booth photos to hold you over until I return.  ‘Cause I’m sure you’ll just be sitting around waiting LOL.  I think I saw more booths this time than previous markets — I finally learned the secret — I have to get up early and be in there before market officially opens.  (Don’t Look Now and Lakehouse are in my previous market post.)

Here’s the big Moda area.  All the Moda booths were lucky — right next to the food court.

Here’s that cute little Vanessa in her first ever booth for Moda.

And right next to her, another Moda newbie, Pat Sloan.  Pat and Vanessa were always busy whenever I blitzed by on a food run.

Here’s Bonnie and Camille‘s cute booth.

And Oliver and S.  I LOVED this booth.  The chalkboard half was so clever.  Go check out their very cool Sewing Manifesto.  Her new patterns are super cute too.  For a much better view, go check out the Oliver & S blog.

Sweetwater.  They always have great prints.

Basic Grey.  Their new line is black and tans.  Good for stash building.

Moving right along to a few Westminster designers.  Anna Maria Horner.

Tula Pink.

Amy Butler.  (Was there a David Butler booth this time?  I don’t remember seeing one.)

Here’s the Alexander Henry booth.  I didn’t see new Ghastlies, but they had this great stack of black and white chairs.

Shabby Chic.  Their booth is always cute with the shabby streamers.

Here’s the endcap of the Riley Blake booth.  Those chevron fabrics are HOT and I saw them in several different places during market.  They told me they can’t keep them in stock.

Here’s Carina Gardner‘s cute booth.  She’s a new Riley Blake designer.  I wish I’d had a picture of her, but this was an early-in-the-morning shot.

Birch Organic Fabrics.  They had some cute new prints and I think those quilts on the right make really cute baby quilts.

Here’s Bari J‘s First-Prize Winning both.  Very Pretty!

And Julie with all her her new quilts.  She’s been a busy girl!

I always look for the Anna Griffin booth. Her fabrics are always so beautiful.

And Sarah Jane.  Oh, how I love Sarah Jane and her fabrics.  This booth was a big prize winner too.  What a lot of work!  Go read Sarah Jane’s fun post of their almost quilt market disaster.

Here’s another cute little booth.  Suzn Quilts.  I thought using chairs to hang quilts was very clever.

And, last, but certainly not least, The Happy Zombie at the Lecein booth.  This would be a MUCH better picture if I had managed to capture Monica in her booth.

Ok. That’s enough for now….must run and get ready for the next trip. (I’m getting too old for this — I need to stay home!) Be back soon with market fabric — the best part!

XOXO,
Anna

Spring 2012 Quilt Market: The People

Whew!  I’m finally home from market and trying to get caught up around here.  After market, we went to Oklahoma (since we were in the neighborhood LOL) to help TheManoftheHouse’s father celebrate his 80th birthday, so it was a fun trip with some much needed family time.

Market seemed much quieter this time and with this being the 5th market that I’ve done with Kellie, we’re getting so much better at set-up, etc., so it didn’t seem as crazy.  Or, maybe that’s because I only had one Australian to chase after — Kellie decided for this market to have our third person be someone from here in the states, and so, my quilty peep Junie joined us for all the fun.  Surprisingly, Junie understood Australian quite well, so not much translation was required.  Although, as you can see in the picture below, Kellie needed some cold medicine and it took two pharmacists to understand what she was trying to say LOL!

Other than our nightly trips to Wal-Mart and Target, there wasn’t much excitement gull-wise this trip.  Junie and I did learn a few new Australian words though — Crosha which apparently means Crochet,  Nar means No, and I have something about Hardwood Deck in my notes.  Junie?  Kellie???  Hmmm, I can’t seem to remember the translation!

Anyway, market unofficially kicks off with Sample Spree.  Here’s Junie manning the Don’t Look Now tables.

And here’s a shot of some of the other tables.  Definitely not as elegant looking or fun as past markets.

Here’s the Moda table being set up.  We were right across the aisle from them.  We were afraid we might be trampled, but it wasn’t too bad.

The mobbed Moda table.  They came, they bought, and they had the tables cleaned off in about 30 minutes.  It’s the Moda phenomenon — other booths don’t seem to have that “problem”.

The official start of market occurs the morning after Sample Spree.  Here’s Kellie’s booth this time — looking quite a bit like the booth last fall, but with everything reversed.

Kellie debuted one new quilt this market and it’s an absolute stunner.  I love this quilt and I’m kicking myself that I didn’t get some close-up shots of those gorgeous borders for you.  You should see the trapunto.  And her stitching is perfection.

My favorite thing about market is seeing people that I’ve “met” online.  It was super fun to meet Little Red Hen and Tammy for the first time.  And Amy!  I was so excited to meet Amy that I couldn’t even remember her blog name when I introduced her to Junie — SO embarrassing! (In my defense, I associate people in my mind by either their names or their blog names but they don’t seem to mix unless their name is in their blog name!)  I wanted to say, “Junie this is Amy of AmyBlog”, but I knew that didn’t work, so I just looked like a big ol’ goober!  Sorry Amy!   Then there were my usual suspects that I look forward to seeing at every market — Ms. Farmhouse, Anne, and Sharon.  And CrazyMom!  How fun to see her back at market and she was so sweet and brought me one of her darling thread catchers and pincushions!  Thanks CrazyMom!  I also got to meet most of my fellow Aurifil Girls for 2012.  We had a group picture, but I haven’t seen it yet — I’ll post it when I find it.

And then there were my buddies who weren’t there in person, but were there in things they made.  There’s Nanette on the left in the Lakehouse booth.  (Pam Kitty was really there and manning the booth, but did I manage to get a picture of her?  Nooooo.  Bad Blogger!)  How cute is that new fabric?  Yummy!

Gail is another fun person who eluded my camera.  I saw her several times, but never seemed to have my camera with me.  My photo of her booth didn’t turn out, but I got a shot of this quilt from her booth.  LOVE LOVE LOVE those cute posies!

Here’s Kristyne in the Lecien booth.

And Squeal!  I found Amy hiding in the Lecien booth too.  What a treat to see her darling pillow in real life!

And then there were the Quilted Fish girls.  They were at market and I was so excited to meet them.  Here’s Stephanie (on the left) and Jana (on the right) rockin’ the Quilted Fish Make and Take.  Every time I went by that booth, they were having a big ol’ party!

The Fish Girls all got together and wrote a book full of projects.  Here’s Stephanie holding up Jana’s adorable quilt from the book.

And a cropped off shot of the book with Stephanie’s SUPER cute needlework book, which is also a project in the book.  I REALLY want to make one of these handy dandy little books!

So, that’s enough for this post, don’t you think?  I’m sure I forgot someone — I ALWAYS do.  ;-(  I’ll be back soon with some booth photos.  Hope you’re having a great weekend!

XOXO,
Anna

Fall Market Report: The Fabric

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