Sunday, May 18, 2008

Market has been spectacular. A little bit of history - Obama stayed in our hotel last night and Chelsey Clinton was in the hotel across the street. Quite interesting to be in the middle of the political hype while attending our tiny little quilt market in comparison.

It has been exhausting and exhilerating.

Check out all the goodies I am stuffing in my suitcase!

I will finish posting my finds on Monday.

Make sure to make your reservation to attend the post-Market wrap-up at the store on Wednesday evening, May 28 at 6:30. I will have new patterns and books to show you. Some fabrics to preview as well I will be able to answer all of your questions. They sent me home with some good bling - it will be worth your while to come!

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Day 2 on the trade show floor.

An early breakfast in the hotel, a merchandising session with Mark Dunn, President of Moda, before the show - we start the morning running at 9 a.m. at the Moda Booth. (I think I need more coffee)Sooo many pretty lines. I shop for the Moda U lines through November! :-) I was treated to the delightful ginger snaps we serve at our Moda U club at my appointment. However I must be careful to not start the sugar rush too early!




11 a.m. - time to run over to Timeless Treasures. Much to my surprise our favorite hot designers from Blue Underground have teamed with Timeless Tonga Batiks for a great quilt program. SOOO of course we had to order that program! Black, white and yellow are the latest hot twist on Black & White. Taxi (or as I like to call it "Yellow Pages") will debut early this fall... it is stunning!








At noon, I hit Benartex. For those of you who liked Baby Genius... Baby Genius Grows Up! The great educational brights have a sequel. Black and White are HOT this spring!





Not too many pictures this afternoon as I was on a speed mission...


Island Batik, Clothworks, Andover, Michael Miller.


As we are relaxing in our room tonight - much is going on in the city of Portland. Our hotel is hosting a local high school prom and the Presidential candidates are floating around town! All in all a very eventful night!



I must get a good nights rest.. only one more day. Tomorrow the focus shifts from fabric to pattern and books. I have already found a few really cool things. However I have a HUGE to do list... wish me luck!

Friday, May 16, 2008

WOW! I have done this a few times and this is still overwhelming. There is a record number of vendors this year and the convention center is huge. I got lost more than once - where is my GPS :-) The one really great thing is that while there are alot of people here, it is not chaotic like Rosemont. I am able to walk the aisles without fighting crowds to get in an out of booths. My appointment schedule is pretty hectic so I we have to view and pick pretty quickly.


I programmed my phone to keep me on task this weekend. I got snuck in before the show at 9:00 a.m. with my rep Margaret. She is too shy to have her picture taken. We had a whirlwind tour of Wilmington, Alexander Henry, Kaufman, and Free Spirit all before 10:30 a.m.! I planned to just walk the show until noon before I saw any rep, but time is too precious and I had to cave and make appointments right from the start.

I spoke with Kaye England about her newest quilt program. Check out this really cute suitcase for the full size quilt kit!


At the Robert Kaufman Fabric booth I had a special treat. I met Debra Lunn! The one from Schoolhouse yesterday. Margaret helped talked to her and she is going to help us with our August Batik Club. THIS IS SOOO AWESOME!!! She will send us more information on her design process and we should have a trunk show of at least a couple of her FABULOUS quilts! Who knows what goodies the company might send us for club!

Next up, Hoffmann! MORE yummy batiks. They cam out with a fabulous new product "Bali Pops" (rhymes with lollipops). 40 - 2 1/2 strips wrapped in cellophane. Due out this summer, the reps tell me to hop back on Sunday to see if there might be one or two I might be able to bring back to show you.

After a little bit to eat, back to the trade show floor. At the P&B booth, Jennifer shows me Alex Anderson's latest Redwork fabric line. I don't know how many of you remember Janine's fabulous Red - "Blue Willow" quilt with the FABULOUS red and white toile? WELL I found some red and white toille!!! WOOHOO!

A few more fabric manufacturers and a sneak peak at some pattern booths before the show closes.

I found these really cute aprons from Apron Lady Designs. I have a couple samples to bring home to show you! I got the Flirty Skirt Apron in Fresh Squeezed the great new Sandy Gervais line (check out her booth).

Now that my work is done for the day I am off to a couple cocktail parties. Unfortunately I do not have a full photo journal of the parties... what do they say... "what happens at Quilt Market STAYS at Quilt Market" ahahahahaha

I did run into our friend Lisa Swenson Ruble (right) and her colleagues. Lisa moved to Harris Publications from Fabric Trends Magazine. She is with Marilen Forneas and Elaine Sexton.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Schoolhouse

It’s a bright sunny day in Portland and Quiltie Ladies (and men) from all over the world have converged on the Portland Convention Center. The ballroom is a buzz as we wait for the opening session of our Schoolhouse Day.

Schoolhouse is a day where shop owners get a preview of all the new goodies from designers and manufacturers. A chance to hob-knob with the quilt elite while we elbow for chairs in each mini-session. A total of 226 classes are offered between 15 sessions. You can’t possibly hit them all in this day of stimulation overload.

First Up Me & My Sister Designs

We learned about their mini-charm tablet patterns. You can make mini table runners or crib quilts to make the pattern to size or you can expand the size by making multiples of the quilts.

Amanda is a great pattern to make out of holiday fabric to make a quick and easy decoration! They have been making patterns with Layer Cakes as well. We will visit them at their booth!

Ooh – I ran into Alex Anderson in the hall – she said “Good Morning” to me.

Next up Darlene Zimmerman fabric designer, author, and gadget maker.

I’ve met Darlene before so we caught up in the hall. She will be talking about her latest 30’s line from Kaufmann. We will be joining her Clothesline Club, so this will be exciting!!! I got a really fun sweet treat fabric goodie just for coming to her class!

Check out these awesome projects!

We got bumped out of Mark Lipinski’s class (he is the crazy Quilter’s Home magazine guy). SOOOO many shops here, there must have been about 100 of us that didn’t get in. He is such the rock star! We will see him tomorrow in his booth. He has a great new fabric collection with Northcott. I can’t wait to get it!

Instead I popped into Eleanor Burns’ Victory Quilts session. OHH what a treat! Eleanor was in classic style and had a whole multimedia spectacle put together to showcase her new book. She was in costume as Rosie the Riveter. A little history, a little song and dance… and 20 great blocks make for some awesome quilts.

After lunch, Erin McMorris introduced her new line with Free Spirit, Park Slope Inspirations. A textile designer for over 15 years, Erin is breaking out on her own with her second fabric line. I love her use of fabric. It is such a great way to get those non-sewers into quilting. She uses raw edge appliqué without fusible web to create soft “organic” designs with pillows, wall art and other home dec items.

Local favorite Kim Schaefer was featured in the Andover classroom. Andover Fabrics has one of the best classrooms, each attendee receives a great fabric goodie bag out of the class featured fabric designer. Her husband Gary did most of the talking while she showed off her latest fabrics and patterns. I just LOVE her snowmen. Her latest is Cottage Blooms (which we have in the store right now). Plus we got a preview of her winter and upcoming children’s line. I didn’t win the door prize of a fat quarter bundle… better luck next time.

We saw the coolest thing with the latest from Lunn Studios Artisan Batiks. Using simply the elements of the fabric, foundation piecing 6" diagonal strips of ONE fabric side by side, they created a quilt. No horizontal seams in this quilt. It is unbelievable! I can't wait to make one.

Last but not least we made sure we stopped by the Blue Underground Ladies session. Janine and Amy have great new designs to share with us! I can't wait to show you!!! The quilt shown is done in Dupioni Silks.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008


It’s Wednesday in Portland. Today is the day before festivities begin at the Lloyd Convention Center. Walking the streets downtown you run into quilters from all over the world. Everyone is so friendly! I am rooming with Rosemary from Bigsby’s and we have hit the famous Button Emporium. Vintage and new buttons, ribbons and trims. So many yummy things! I HAD to get some Halloween trims and buttons. I still have no clue what I will do with them but I had to pick them up!

Next we traveled to this decadent coffee and chocolate shop. We indulged in a Mexican Mocha to hold us over until dinner. Fresh cinnamon and nutmeg dancing with the chocolate caffeinated concoction hit the spot.