The Quilt Market, Fall 2010 recap

I’m two weeks behind with this post but, yes! I did go to Fall Quilt Market in Houston! And we looked at a lot of fabric, and met a lot of fun people, and I took a lot of pictures. So here we go…
Just to fill-in some new comers:
Quilt Market is a fabric and sewing trade show, not open to the public, where Designers, Distributors, and Buyers meet. The top names in fabric, patterns, sewing machines, notions, and quilting are there….and press people like little ‘ole me get to snap photos, wander around, eat cake, and chat it up. Fun times! And total sensory overload. By the end of Saturday, I could not look at another geometric shape, or color.

Friday night started with the Sample Spree, where most Designers sell tall Fat Quarter stacks of their latest lines. You buy the fabrics at a normal price but the luxury is that you can snatch fabrics up before they hit the public market…you know, like it’s fun to have something before anyone else? It’s like being a kid again.

And there was a huge long line on both sides of the building, with women waiting to be kids…..
The hungry crowd, at the entrance door:
Me and Deborah from Whipstitch waiting in line. Our shoes matched the patriotic color scheme of the building.
Oh! Line’s moving. And….go!
Women were everywhere and mostly, around the Moda and Kaufman tables. Seriously, you had to aggressively shove your way through.
But there were lots of pretty stacks of these….
Patterns,
And, some Heather Ross?
We found some cool vintage buttons and were tempted to buy but then I thought, what am I going to do with 50 wooden brown bow buttons?
But now I realize,I would have come up with something.
Shoulda just bought em.
And after 30 minutes, women were cataloging their purchases on the floor.
A very blurry pic of me and Deborah. Nice to have someone else in the mayhem with me.
And though I didn’t snap a single photo (since it’s hard in a dark bar setting) we spent the rest of the evening at the Fabric 2.0 party, chatting with fun people….

*finally got to meet Rachel Hobson who contributes to Craft, and happens to live in Austin also….yet it takes going to Houston for us to actually hook up. She was so much fun to talk to. And at her table was also Leslie, owner of the Stitch Lab (the coolest place to buy fabrics and take classes in Austin). Seriously, both those ladies are a riot. Loved talking to them and could have spent another hour at their table.
* Met Jacinda from Prudent Baby who was one of the cutest pregnant ladies I’ve seen! Jaimie, her counterpart was on her book tour and couldn’t make it. But it was so much fun to chat and put a face to the name and cute site.
* Chatted with Callie from City Craft, which I’ve been meaning to tell you about for months. The best, cutest, most fun fabric shop in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
* Melody Miller was wearing a very hip apron made from her new line Ruby Star Rising. Seriously, I’m in love with this girl and her new fabrics. She was so down to earth and her fabrics were my favorite of the entire show (more pics at the end of this post), or look here on her blog to see it all. Funky, retro, different.
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The next morning was the Market show. Apparently, it’s held on a cruise liner, or the George Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston.
In case you forgot, Houston is in Texas.
Seriously though, I want those doors. Fun building.
And inside the show were rows and rows, and rows of booths,
with a wide range of women perusing and serious buyers sitting down to look at the latest collections.
And everywhere you looked there were fabrics, notions, buttons, and trims.
More of the cool vintage stuff:
My favorite part of the show (aside from the seeing the new lines) was the creativity that went into designing each booth. This one from Jenean Morrison was great (and so was she. Simple and cute; I pictured that she rode in on that bike)
The possibilities with fabric truly are endless….
I mean, cool!
I hit up most of the big names first. The ever-so-colorful Anna Maria with her new line Innocent Crush.
Great skirt, love the piping.
Anna, me, and her beautiful fabrics. I’m loving the purple and blue tones on the right.
Of course once I started talking to her, I forgot any of your questions I meant to ask her. But we did talk about Boy fabrics, since uh…that’s right up her alley? No. But who knows, perhaps down the road she’ll create a masculine line, since we all know there’s a need for that.
She’s a lovely gal. I liked her hair.
And I loved this fabric display with the older woman in front, on cell phone and with walker. Photo title, “quilting generations converge”.
Next up, Amy Butler with her gorgeous fabrics of blues and greens.
I’d like a wall like this:
She really is a beautiful lady and quite tall.
All day long, women were waiting to meet Amy and get their books signed. It was like a wedding reception line.
She was super kind and easy to talk to.

And I asked her one of your questions! Will she ever carry her fabulous prints in KNIT fabrics? YES! She said that she and some other designers were working on that very thing. No fine details but exciting to know that designers are aware of our need for more knit prints.
Near Amy Butler was the Michael Miller display. Not as beautiful as the layers and layers of white ruffles from the Spring show but kind of retro cool.
I especially loved these two men, sitting near by.
I think he’s trying to do this:
I stopped by modkid and met Patty Young who is so cute and down to earth. She felt like your friend down the street. AND….she just started carrying a new line of interlock knits! She has been pushing for them for years and finally got distributors to listen. I think we’ll start to see more of this trend.
And her daughter is just darling. It’s nice to see a little brunette girl after snapping so many of my blondie.
I browsed around Art Gallery,
Moda (and their Bake Shop)
And though I’m not always drawn to them, the quilt on the top left caught my eye. It seemed out of their norm. And when I looked closer, I realized why…
Designed by:
And there she was. Darling Liesl of Oliver+ S Patterns
Wearing some really fun shoes. I can’t believe she stood on these for a day straight.
When I met Liesl at the spring show, I was impressed with how sweet, knowledgeable, and interesting she was. Real easy to talk to and very passionate about her work, as you can tell by the cool kids patterns she puts out.

Blurry photo but she just looks so cute.
This time around we talked about her new line of fabrics (through Moda), displayed on the clothing below and….drumroll….she has a book coming out! There was a preview sample chapter sitting on the table. Very exciting!
And it’s weird to see candid photos of yourself, (I found this on Melissa Stramel’s site), but here’s what I look like carrying all my gear and chatting it up with Liesl.

When we needed a break from all the fabrics, we watched Deborah’s demo and book giveaway…
She’s so cute.
We enjoyed a slice of cake from Lizzy’s shindig. There’s a party in my tummy, so yummy! so yummy!
and we witnessed gobs of middle-aged women waiting in line to meet this guy:
Ty Pennington. 43 going on 20 (or trying to).
He had some really cool laminates and home decor fabrics.
This shop was very understated but had some great women’s apparel patterns. They’re called: Sewn, Square One for Your Style. Definitely worth checking out. That skirt on the bottom left was great.
Have you ever seen such large polka dots? Love it.
And though I’ve been showing you all the modern, hip stuff…..I should definitely point out that 2/3 of the show, really looked like this, which is fine and dandy and there’s definitely a market for it (since people were gobbling it up!):
But for my own aesthetic, walking up to a booth like this was a breath of fresh air.
Jan and her organic fabric company called Daisy Janie are very cool, modern, simple, and interesting. Little by little we’re seeing more organic cotton lines pop up.

Such as….Birch Fabrics.
Created by Cynthia of Fabric Worm.
And the lovely Cloud 9 Fabrics, also an organic cotton company.
There’s something about the organic companies and their simple, streamlined looks.
Another breath of fresh air.
And finally, I saved my favorite display for last, the Seven Islands booth with Echino and Ruby Star Rising.
There were bags and butterflies and birds. I just wanted to sit down and hang out for a while.
The cool new line by Ruby Star Rising.
So many fun looks, especially on the bottom right, a take on the old Viewmaster!
And finally, for a girl who doesn’t quilt, I think I know what to do now with my stack of Echino fabrics that I bought last year.
Check out this quilt!
Busy but really fun. I just might have to give quilting a whirl….
And that was our day at the Market!
As I’ve seen other posts pop up, I wish I had crossed paths with a few more ladies (True up, Meg from Sew Liberated, Linda from Craft Apple). But there’s always the spring show, in SLC….

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