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 :-)