Well, I made it back from a fun, busy, relaxing, colorful (from fabric that is), yummy, and girly Market weekend. I had planned to blog about it all while we were there. But sometimes real life is more exciting than sitting at a computer. So here I am with the recap.
Friday morning we headed to the main Market event: The Show.
Walking into the hall were displays of amazing quilts. This rose quilt immediately caught my eye.
Though I’m not sure how cozy it would be sitting on the couch watching a movie, it would make a beautiful wall-hanging.
The details on this one were quite impressive:
And I liked how this artist painted in the building windows of her skyline quilt:
There were many more quilts but those were my modern favorites.
Just beyond the Quilt Art were the Designer Booths. If you’ve been to any sort of trade show before, I’m sure you’ll agree that the design of the booth itself is often more interesting than what they’re showcasing. I really enjoyed the artistic display of items, fabric, and sewing creations.
There were booths showcasing notions, sewing machines, and quilting tools.
Ever seen thread spools this big?
This wall was one large printed photo, featuring fusible fabric products.
Need embroidery hoops?
But of course the most interesting booths were for the trendy fabric designers. So here’s what caught my eye as I walked the floor. If you weren’t able to be there, hopefully this gives you a Market taste (caution: lots ‘o photos)
From Art Gallery Fabrics:
This small pillow/huge flower was cute. I liked the ruched sides:
I spent a good amount of time browsing the Echino booth and wishing the sunglasses and camera fabrics had been in the bundle I purchased at the Sample Spree!
Very cool stuff.
And some new laminates. There’s a moving trend with laminated fabric and I hope more designers do it!
I still find laminates a bit pricey (compared to oilcloth) but hopefully that will change with time. Um, can I buy that bag? (they said no)
more fabrics near the Echino booth:
While admiring this beautiful quilt, I heard someone call my name. It was Callie from City Craft! (a darling fabric shop in Dallas and a place I’ll be featuring down the road along with other TX fabric shops). It was fun to see a familiar face. And she was perfectly in her element soaking up fabrics for her well-stocked store.
Next in my line-of-sight, the Sandi Henderson booth (also known as the Portabellopixie blog). The booth design was charming. You just wanted to hang out there and chat.
Cute ruffled baby quilt.
Framed fabric:
And a clever way to display her new line….mod podged to the booth wall:
This colorful spot featured clothing and patterns from Modkid.
The turqouise Janome was the perfect touch. I may have to buy that for Lucy in 5 years.
Of course the big names were all there.
Aside from the normal Robert Kaufman stuff, he had a new organic line called green Style. I chatted with the rep who happens to live in Austin as well! Small fabric world.
Another organic cotton line was Cloud 9 Fabrics.
The blues were soothing and inviting. Check out their site. It’s simply relaxing.
Riley Blake was colorful:
Moda used an old dollhouse theme. I remember that little house from childhood.
This line of fabric was too stuffy for my taste but the display was really cool. Alice and her friends were huge cardboard cut-outs with 2D (slightly 3D) outfits glued on.
There were fabrics for boys (though this was all I saw),
More beautiful displays (these tree tags featured lovely sayings, pages from old novels, and pictures from their sewing patterns):
and finally I landed in this cute spot, birch fabrics, which also features 100 % organic cotton with very cool/modern designs.
Cynthia, the creator and business lady behind Birch, is none other than the Fabric Worm mastermind! I’m sure many of you have used her site before.
Aimed at children’s design and clothing, Cynthia’s fabrics are fabulous.
And she was just as pleasant and fun to talk to. We chatted for a bit about being moms, about sewing, and about how cool these scandinavian-inspired chairs are.
not to mention the 1960s homes:
and I couldn’t walk away without saying hi to this funky doll.
Next up was Amy Butler, who’s new line is decked out in gorgeous greens and blues.
Yes, Amy is quite tall. And yes, her stuff is impressive. She’s actually branching out into a new knitting line for Ravelry:
and I really loved this photo:
Liesl from Oliver+S was there with her aqua backdrop and cute illustrations.
She was just adorable, very easy to talk to, she made me feel important (such a nice quality), and well, of course I had to take a photo with her. Thanks for playing along Liesl.
And the big show shopper of the whole event had to be the Michael Miller display. You couldn’t keep your eyes off of it.
It was loud and soft. It was white. And just beautiful.
There were ruffles everywhere.
In birdcages:
and on men. Move over puffy shirt, Michael Steiner (the Michael in Michael Miller)’s on the scene.
I could have lounged on that bed for a while, thumbing through magazines.
But I’m sure I would have gotten stares. People already gawked at me for snapping so many photos. You’d be surprised, but I didn’t notice many other bloggers at the event. It was mostly quilting women, vendors, and shop owners.
another over-sized flower. Fun.
And that my friends…..is it!
I actually only showed you 10% of what was there. Because, to be honest, the rest of it was kind of boring to me. I thought the event would be a bit younger/hip but there’s still a huge market for traditional quilting and fabric. And that was a large part of the Market displays.
So that’s my recap in a nutshell. I have one more blog post, sharing our out-on-the-street fun, but we’ll save that for tomorrow.
Cheers!
