My Little Market Trending Report

I went to Schoolhouse sessions all day Friday at Quilt Market.  I hit mostly business related topics that gave info on running my website and other such stuff (invaluable info to me, but boring to report to you about).  But my favorite quilty sessions were all from Andover Fabrics, at least that's were I seemed to snap the most pictures.
 

 From Jo Morton's new book Prairie Flowers Encore.  

...I loved the red & white bird toile from the Jo's Variety fabric collection :)

I went to Gail Kessler's Schoolhouse session where they show lots of different Andover designers' fabrics, and here are a few of my other favorite new collection quilts...

Batiks from Andover! 

Everyone's perspective is different at Market, but here's my take: There were plenty of traditional fabrics at Market (among others Marcus had some beautiful collections), but the trends were definitely leaning toward Modern.  Which is cool when you're a quilter like me who likes both styles :) Lots of bright, clean looks ~ I loved collections from Basic Gray & Cosmo Cricket for Moda, just about everything from Riley Blake Designs, and a cute new fabric company called Dear Stella...keep an eye out for them!  Licensed novelty fabrics were popular too, I remember seeing Cat in a Hat, Hello Kitty, Yo Gabba Gabba characters, Berenstain Bears, Peanuts (keep an eye out in Quilt Magazine for an upcoming design by me using the Peanuts collection), and of course Clifford (I showed you my sell sheet yesterday). 

I find it really interesting that some of the "modern fabrics" I saw are prints very similar to some found in the vintage quilts I own :)  Hexagons were very popular at this Market too...everything old is new again! There were lots of fun ribbons and trims, and cottons are still being featured in clothing, but I do think there were less booths showing childrens clothing than in the past couple of Markets that I've attended.  Handbags are still very popular, and Clover had a new template from Nancy Zieman for making ipod/tablet covers that was very well thought out.  I thought the new cool gadgets were a camera for the long-armers to be able to view their quilt backs while they worked, and a neat lighted and magnified seam ripper (I can see great value in this as I get older!) 

So that's my "Off the Top of My Head" report from Market.  There are so many more things that I didn't mention, it's mind boggling.  Tomorrow I'll show you some of the show quilts that I could photograph :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Back Home From Quilt Market

Well I'm back home and finally catching up from my whirlwind trip to Houston.  I didn't take my camera (I know, I'm a bad, bad blogger), but I did manage to snap a few pictures on my cell phone.  This is looking down on the middle of the amazing Market floor.  I never tire of this view.

This is a picture of Houston while I was walking to the Convention Center.  It was a warm day with a beautiful blue sky, and back home they were getting the first snow of the season (They didn't get very much here in central Maryland, and I have to confess, I'm a little bummed that I missed the first snow ~ after all everyone knows the first snow is magical right?)...however, I'm sorry for you people in the Northeast who got blasted and are still without electricity :(

I did manage to snap this quick picture of Laurie & Polly (of Minik & Simpson fame) in their booth (I had to take the picture because I never catch the two of them together!)

I made it to the Modern Quilt Guild Meet Up on Saturday night, and met so many wonderful people!  This is a picture of Robin Woods and me.  Robin is an online friend of mine, one of the leaders of our Quiltsy Group on Etsy, and one of the coordinators of the evening's event from the Houston Modern Quilt Guild.  It was so nice to meet Robin in person for the first time, and we even attended a class together the night before this event. 

Even though I didn't get a lot of photos, I did manage to snap this little picture while visiting the Quilting Treasures booth.  I'm now doing some free lance work for Quilting Treasures and this is the Clifford Fabric sell sheet of the sample quilt that I designed for them!  It's so new that they're just showing the line on paper, no fabric yet (and I just got the finishing touches on the design to them a few days before Market!).  ~ Yes, I was that silly person taking a picture of her first sell sheet, and they were all nice and humored me :)

Market for me this year was about meeting up with a lot of people.  I made a bunch of connections (I'm definitely getting better at that), and spoke to several people about some upcoming work, and I did do a little shopping too :)  Even though I'm not good at taking booth pictures, I did take some quilt photos, but I'm still pulling pictures off of my phone.  I'll post some School House pictures tomorrow :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Jumping on the Hexi Bandwagon

I've been working on little hexis in my down time.  I'm sewing along with the Jo Morton Stitchers Yahoo Group as they are having a year long hexi challenge.  These of course will be all done in Jo fabrics, so it will be a warm rich quilt.  I'm not sure yet how I'm going to set them, but I did decide on making the flowers.  My next one (yes, they're kind of addicting and I'm already thinking of a next quilt), will be done in lighter fabrics ~ possibly some 30s prints, or even modern.

I already own a Hexi quilt that my mother made years ago that I blogged about in This Post.  As you can see it's a lot brighter, made all from scraps and that wow pink ~ I'm thinking after the current cozier one I'm making, I'll need to make one with pops of bright yellow :)

My hexis are large by the standards of some of the other gals in the group.  My papers measure 1" on the sides.  Some of the gals are making 1/2" hexagons!  I might tackle that on my next project, but with this one, I'm using my AccuQuilt Go! cutter to cut the papers and the fabric.  I use the smallest hexagon on the Hexagon Die (which is 1" on the sides and 2" point to point) to cut the papers (I'm using a thin cardstock that I had on hand), and then I cut my fabrics from the medium hexagon shape on the die (which is 3" point to point, and 1-1/2" on the sides).  This makes the cutting quick and easy, and I don't have to purchase the papers :)  I cut a whole bunch at one time, I've even listed some hexagons in Jo fabrics in my Etsy Shop in two sizes ~ the medium and small hexis (I'm not cutting papers to sell at this time though, they can be obtained in large packs in many sizes from Paper Pieces). 

This is the back side of one of my flowers.  There is a good amount of seam allowance by cutting these sizes and that makes for low stress in basting my shape edges.  I'm going for low stress here ~ I'm taking some of these, along with an applique block in progress on my trip to Quilt Market.  This is going to be a crazy busy week for me, so you might not see me online until I get back. 

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn 

Christmasy Thoughts

Are you thinking Christmasy thoughts yet?  Well we are ~ Lisa and I have decided to do a local craft show the first weekend in November.  I haven't worked a craft show in years, and never with my daughter, so we should have a blast!  

We'll be taking Quilts and quilted items of course, Infinity Scarves by Lisa...and Christmas items!  So that means among my customer orders I'm working on, and multiple deadlines before heading off to Quilt Market next week, Lisa came up for the weekend and we made Christmas ornaments and gifts.  Here's a little sampling of what we did all weekend...

(These wool trees were cut out with my AccuQuilt GO! cutter Holiday Medley Die and layers were fused to make them sturdy)

Dad cut up some wood for us ~ We're capitalizing on some of that hurricane damage that we sustained back in August :)

We put together some little dittys that I've been planning to make for a long time.

And Lisa brought me this neat idea.  These little post-it holders will make great affordable teacher and co-worker gifts!

We got out the scrapbook papers, ribbons and embellishments (I have a bunch of all of that stuff, because my scrapbooks are yet to be made). 

We made a bunch in different sizes, colors and styles ~ they were actually quite addictive, and we got a little carried away :)

And we didn't forget the Dad's either, they need cool stuff on the desk at work too!

To really make some progress we had to do most of our creating after the little ones went to bed at night.  Then we got out the snacks, turned on the TV and played ~ one night we got carried away and "played"  until after mid-night.  Even if we don't sell a thing at the actual event, I've already enjoyed this craft show...play on :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

And the Winner Is...

Thanks for all of your sweet comments on my blog and my Winter Friends quilt!  I used the magic Random Number Generator to pick the winner of the Snow Days fat quarter bundle...

...and the winner is number 24...Kris!  I'm emailing you Kris to get your information to mail out your bundle :) 

If you're not Kris today, and you want a little Snow Days bundle ~ don't fret!...they're available in my Etsy Shop...and I have even more Snow Days on the bolt on my Website, and of course I have kits for the Winter Friends quilt Here on my Website ~ but hurry, it'll be gone before you know it! 

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

500th Post Give Away!

Yes, this is my 500th post here on the blog!  I feel a little like Seinfeld ~ only not as witty (a whole lot of talk about not much).  Anyway, I thought that post number 500 was worth a little Give Away.  So in honor of the publication of my Winter Friends Quilt, I'm giving away this little fat quarter bundle of five fabrics from the Snow Days collection.

These sweet prints are designed by Teresa Kogut for Marcus Brothers Fabrics ~ and by the way, I think that's my all-time favorite snowflake fabric.  Anyway, we'll keep this short and sweet, leave a comment on this post, and on Friday I'll pick one random winner :)

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn

Snow Days are Ahead!

Even though we just enjoyed a nice Autumn weekend here, Winter is on the way, and what's more cuddly than a cute Snowman quilt! 

This is my Winter Friends quilt as seen in the Dec/Jan 2012 issue of Quilt Magazine, on new stands now!  I made it to be a quick and easy, generously sized throw quilt (measures 70" square) that can be made in a weekend and used all winter long ~ mine will be right on the couch by the fireplace for those cozy winter nights :)  It's made from the cute Snow Days fabric collection from Marcus Fabrics, and you can get a Kit for it Here on our Website!  (While supplies last...)

As you can see, back when I made this quilt and snapped the photo it was Springtime, and getting warm here in Maryland (see our window open in the background), so I had to really rush to get it finished for the photographer and shipped off to Colorado in time for the photo shoot while there was still snow on the ground there (...so I can attest to the fact that it can be made up quickly) ~ I'm still getting used to working half a year ahead of myself!

You can find this issue of Quilt Magazine on most news stands (I found mine at the grocery store), and I know that Walmart, Joann's and Barnes & Noble usually carry it too...And I just love the scrap quilt on the cover this month made by Paula Barnes ~ it may just have to become my new "sew offs" project :)

PS ~ Don't forget to snag the Free Pattern for Month Two of our Quick Mystery BOM Runner!!

Enjoy the day!
~ Dawn