Final Market Day

Market wrapped up today. A crazy busy day.

I have much to write about and am busy working on an overview wrap-up.

Getting a few zzz's before I have to get back to reality..

Talk to you soon!

Julie :-)

p.s. Correction from last night - Valori Wells has "REALLY FUN" t-shirts - (not rally run - although that might be interesting too ;-) )

Market Day 2

Saturday - May 16th...

The day started bright and early with a breakfast meeting. I was invited to participate in a shop owner focus group. One of the great things about this industry is that it is a tight group. Input, good , bad or indifferent can be voiced and heard.

After breakfast it was time to head off to the show. I road a trolley to the exhibit hall with Mark Lipinski. Everyone buzzing about what might be the next big thing.

Greens and rust with BIRDS - It is like someone read my blog last night, printed fabric and quickly make a quilt. Let's take funky birds, green and some fabric leaning towards curry. Put in a non-traditional shape of a circle and call it a project! I LOVE the new Timeless Treasure line "Apple". Of course, it was here all along. I don't know if we will make this quilt for the shop, but it sure is eyecatching and fun!




While we are shopping for new things - it is great to see how things we already have are done up. "Natural Effects" by Marcus Brothers had some really fun stuff in their display. Bags, quilts, a fun little dress and whimsical artsy pieces.

In between appointments I need to do some celebrity spotting. I stopped at Valorie Wells' booth. We have her fun collection arriving any day now. She is merchandising some really fun t-shirts that coordinate with her fabrics, I just needed one for myself! (I like to shop too!) While I was putting my wallet back in my bag I heard a voice from behind ask "Is that Julie from Julie @ Quilt Market?" Quite confused I turned around to find Jenean Morrison designer for Freespirit/Westminster. For a brief moment I was the "psuedo celebrity" - ha, how crazy is that?

Today we previewed her newest line Picnic Parade.

Some fun news for you scouting fans. Kaufman is following up the popular Boy Scouts line with a Girl Scout line!!! I also put in the word that a group of you are looking for "Girl Scout Green" in a solid.

So I placed our Kaffe Collective fabric order prior to Market, however you never know what I might find. Precuts are now available, so I thought I would try some out for size... They should arrive in a few weeks. I wandered over to check out Kaffe's new book and Rachel, my rep, introduced me to Liza, Kaffe and Brandon. How fun! They were working on a creative project while I thumbed through a proof of the upcoming book. I spotted a quilt that I thought would be a fun project and Liza pulled out a picture of this great quilt, Flower Basket Medallion Quilt. Let me know what you think? I think this would be a great monthly group. For anyone familiar with Lollypop Trees, this is Kim's latest quilt pattern.

Back to fabric shopping. Michael Miller has this great new line. Amy from Blue Underground was really excited about this collection. Maybe we can coax her into making something for us! Wouldn't that be fun! :-)

Lizzie B is so fun. We don't do much with her patterns, but I have such an admiration for her work. She won the booth award for Market. She quilted a tree around the booth pipe!!!! She told me she actually sewed the branches on at the show. WOW talk about sewing under pressure! Great job!!

I ended the day with a great dinner from Lidia's. For those of you who watch PBS cooking shows, Lidia covers all her pans with foil paper and bakes in a "hot" oven for 30 minutes. The pasta was absolutely fabulous tonight. What a great way to finish a busy day!

So much work left to do and only a few more hours tomorrow!!!

Good night from Pittsburgh!

Julie :-)

SHOPPING!!!!

Day One of Spring Market...

The exhibit hall officially opens at 9:30. My appointments start a bit earlier. Margaret meets me and we do some quick work in the quiet before the "storm". Few stores have early morning meetings, it is a privilege but definitely makes the day longer.

The booths are perfect and pristine and the candy dishes are all overflowing!

So much to see with little time to look, absorb and plan. (Do you see the bird on Jennifer's shoulder?) I make lots of notes and take pictures. Some familiar designers are simple, merely plug them into the delivery schedule. If only it all were that easy. I saw all the reps within the last month or so, yet they all seen to have no fewer than 300 new fabrics to show me - from EACH company!!!

I had a busy morning with no pictures to share... I am working on some really cool things to bring back to the shop. Still fleshing out details...

BUT... I have LOTS I can tell you! :-)

GREEN GREEN GREEN. I will say it again. From celery to olive and everything in between. Green is hot. One of my male reps asked me if I really like it, or if I just order it. :-) I love it and I know a lot of you do as well.

Curry that we see in Pottery Barn is creeping in, but I predict it will be AT LEAST another 6 months before we see it.


Birds are everywhere!!!! Stuffed birds, marshmallow birds (peeps), silly birds, pretty birds.

Whimsical more than lifelike, the quilt world is enamored by our winged friends.

Mixed media concepts going strong. Mixing textures is huge. (You can see some quilts at the shop that play with batik, print, solid and even corduroy all in the same quilt.) There are more lines with a variety of textures to use together. Sweetwater (we featured some really cool patterns from them last holiday season) is now with Moda Fabrics. Here is a preview of their fall line.

All work and no play make Julie a dull girl...

Tonight was the big Moda bash. Mark Dunn chartered a river boat to entertain the customers, designers and Moda employees.

What a great time! Great food and drink. A fun tour of the Pittsburgh area by river and a great networking opportunity for all as we were at sea for 2 1/2 hours. My Moda Rep arranged for her Wisconsin and Illinois shops to sit together. It was a great time to sit with my neighbors.

Here are just a few pictures of a few of the great support team at Moda. Each time I travel to one of these events, I gain more quiltie friends. It is so cool to be able to be on a first name basis with all the great people in this industry. Just another reason to love my job.

Time for rest. Tomorrow I have the most buying appointments. Tough job, but someone's gotta do it. :-)

Dreaming of all the quilts I will make with all the new fabric...

Julie :-)

Welcome to Spring Quilt Market 2009

What an action packed day!


The first day of Quilt Market is called Schoolhouse. We have an action packed day of education provided by manufacturers, designers and fellow shop owners. Everything from the latest trends in fabric to how to teach a Beginning Quilting class. There are over 200 classes to choose from among 20 or so classrooms. Classes run 15 - 30 minutes and you better run in between sessions.

This is one of the biggest reasons I come to Market. It is great to hear new ideas, be exposed to what the manufacturers think is the next big thing and to get a little preview of all the goodies that will be available in the exhibit hall over the next few days.


One of the great bonuses is the "freebies" - just like we tempt you with goodies, the vendors lure us with yummy fabric to see what they have to offer.


Lunn Studios showcased their Kaufman Artisan Batiks with a theme "Permission to Play" - I absolutely love it! Debra and Michael talked about how there are not many self proclaimed art quilters, yet so many of us like to dabble in the "creative" side of art quilting. Do you know what she said? "There are no art quilt police!" How liberating! I don't know about you, but I do get quite concerned about is something "artsy" daring enough... WELL - guess what? IT DOESN'T MATTER. She continued, "It's just fabric" HA!!! So go ahead - give yourself permission to play. We have seen her striped batik patterns before and they only get better. 3 1/2" strips cut on the bias or on the straight. Subcut into squares or simply resewn together, this fabric is absolutely magical in creating works of art out of simple patterns.


Local favorite Kim Schaefer showed off her holiday lines and debuted her newest "Folklorika". Christmas themed "Partridge in a Pear Tree" is classic Kim and perfect for your whimsically primitive project. One of my favorites for this Christmas line is her pear table runner. The whole gang at Andover Fabrics gets into the act at the class. Company owner David proudly parades quilt samples and one male staffer even struts down the catwalk with a tree skirt as a man kilt. We were lucky enough to grab a sample pack of Partridge and a matching coveted Andover tote bag. (These will be part of the loot on the Post-Market Review Night May 27th at 5:30 - have you reserved your spot yet?)




Kaye England hosted a Hoedown! Retro and kitchy (I love that she uses that word too), this fabric line demands a closer look. We will see what goodies she has tomorrow! Back Home Again with Diane has been such a hit at the store, I do like to see what Kaye has to offer.



Maple Island Quilts have this really cool technique for stripe fabrics. We'll be checking this one out tomorrow.




Electric Quilt Company featured a fascinating Kaleidescope add on... make a note - more research. Very cool twist on paper piecing projects.



Tonight, we had Sample Spree. Now I didn't have to scalp a ticket this trip... I actually got in line at 5:00 p.m. (I know the doors open at 8:00 p.m.) See Pittsburgh is a great city, but the hotels are not connected to the convention center, so where else was I going to go? The funny thing is, jockeying for position totally didn't matter tonight, they opened doors on several entrance doors for efficient entry for all to the event. (grin) Regardless the swarming and elbowing was on! I was as ladylike as possible and somehow ended up with an amazing amount of stuff by 8:15. You know we get bolts delivered by the case to the store, yet I still find tremendous joy in acquiring an amazing fat quarter pack or two (or three or... Frank isn't reading this is he :-) ?) I have the packs spread out on the bed in the hotel room.

An incredible bonus, our buddies from Me & My Sister Designs GIVE charm tablet samples with orders. We are the proud new owners of their latest design Fiona. More challenging than Emma, This sixth offspring is a GREAT baby quilt or basis for a larger quilt.

The classes today were held above the exhibit floor. In between classes we could see the exhibit floor take shape. AHHH all the goodies to take in tomorrow...

Must rest... Sweet fabric dreams from Pittsburgh...

Julie :-)

Get Ready for Spring Market 5/14-5/17

Check back 5/14 to follow my every move at the Pittsburgh Spring Quilt Market!