Quilt Market, Part 6

Carolyn Friedlander is a new designer, and I absolutely loved the quilts she had in her booth. Her stuff is fresh, arty and contemporary. Her website isn’t quite up yet, but it will be soon!

This is one of Carolyn’s wonderful designs. I predict you’ll be seeing lots more of her stuff!

This is Corinne Jacobson of Jacobson Creative, Inc. They manufacture and market these cool little ClingOn magnetic holders for pins, scissors and small tools. They are made of resin with extremely strong magnets embedded in them.

One side goes on the back of your shirt or pocket, and the other side, embossed with a pretty design, goes on the front. I think I need one of these for when I sew, and another for when I’m doing handy-woman things around the house; they would be great to hold nails and screws, too!

SusanClaire Mayfield of New Zealand calls herself The Gourmet Quilter “because quilting is delicious!” Here she is with her pattern called “That Japanese Doll Quilt.” It is darling! 

The last day of Quilt Market fell on Halloween, so a lot of the vendors were dressed up. Check out this guy in the Primitive Gatherings booth, dressed as Elvis!

Primitive Gatherings Quilt Shop has wonderful quilt patterns, kits and punch needle embroidery with an old-fashioned style. They make their own hand-dyed wool, and also have historical fabrics in their online shop. 

Here I am with Jan Patek in my witchy attire. I have long admired Jan’s work. Her style is so different from mine, but I love it! She has an amazing line of books, patterns and fabrics. We are posed near her pattern called “The Witch is In.”

Robin of Nestlings by Robin has been designing and selling quilt patterns for six years, and this was her first Quilt Market! You can read more about her experience vending on her blog.

Robin had some cute little quilts in her booth featuring hand embroidery. (This is a big trend this year!)

Mary and Barb of Me and My Sister Designs create quilt and purse patterns, write books, and design fabric for Moda!

Here’s a good example of a company exhibiting at Quilt Market that makes a product that crosses over into quilting. Imaginisce makes products and papers for the scrapbooking and paper crafts industry. Their i-Top tool (below) transforms a brad into a custom embellishment (like the ones on the necklace in the photo above in a few easy steps.

That’s all for now, but stay tuned! More photos, info and giveaways are coming (eventually!)

“Magical Mistletoe” pattern now available as a download

A few months ago, Tami Pfeil, the owner of Handbehg Felts, contacted me to ask if my Magical Mistletoe project (shown above) was available as a pattern. I told her that Magical Mistletoe was a project I created for the 2010 Quilting Arts Gifts, and that they now owned the pattern. When Tami e-mailed Helen at Quilting Arts, and told her about the demand for the pattern, Interweave decided to set it up for them as a downloadable pattern. You can now get it for $4 on Interweave’s website. Just in time for Christmas!

And if you do, you’re going to need some cute little felted wool balls from Handbehg’s Etsy shop! (Shipping is free right now, for a limited time.) Better get busy so you can smootch with your sweetie under the mistletoe next month!

I’m in Sue Bleiweiss’ book about The Sketchbook Challenge

In January, I decided to participate in The Sketchbook Challenge. The project was developed by Sue Bleiweiss, and a team of fabulous artists, including fiber artists, art quilters, and mixed media artists. The idea was to inspire artists to work in their sketchbooks, and to share their work with others through an online photo site. It took off in a big way, and major retailers of art supplies kicked in some amazing prizes for those who participated. 

Each month, the group announced a new theme, and provided tutorials or insights to inspire readers. In the middle of the year, Sue wrote to ask if I’d like to have my work featured in a book she was working on that detailed the Challenge, and showed examples of how artists worked on themes to create sketches that they then made into artwork. I was really honored, and of course, I said, “Yes!”

The book will be out this summer, but you can already pre-order it on Amazon.com. 

Next year, I’ll be one of the artist hosts for The Sketchbook Challenge. I encourage you to join us!

Quilt Market, Part 5

Several days into the 2011 Fall Quilt Market, I realized that I had so much stuff that I couldn’t post it all … at least if I wanted to get enough sleep ;-) So I’m going to keep posting it here in chunks. And I’ll have some give-aways as soon as my giant boxes of stuff that I shipped home arrive.

Kaleidoscope Kreator is software you can use to make fabulous kaleidoscope designs. The samples in this booth always pull me in for a closer look at the intricate patterns created by fracturing and stitching.

This booth offered beautiful hand-crafted items from Africa. Akonye Kena helps artisans in Africa find venues to sell their goods and earn sustainable incomes. The name of the company means “I will help myself” in Acholi, a tribal language of northern Uganda. It was founded in 2009 by Richard Kennair, who has lived and volunteered in Africa for many years.

There were colorful fabric beads made from local fabrics:

And lots of luscious hand-dyed silk scarves:

Lynn Koolish showed me some of the new products available from C&T Publishing. Joen Wolfrom’s Magic Design-Ratio Tool helps quilters understand and use ratios to make their compositions stronger. It retails for $9.95.

The third edition of Joen’s Ultimate 3-in-1 Color Tool is out. It features larger color swatches and expanded guidelines for use than earlier versions, and retails for $16.95. 

The Any Way You Slice It Eco Tote bag benefits the NAMTA Foundation, a non-profit that supports art education and encourages participation in fine arts by providing scholarships and grants. Six artists from C&T created this art quilt in slices; it is based on Van Gogh’s painting Bedroom in Arles. It is made from 100% recycled polypropylene from plastic water bottles, and retails for $8.95. 

Joan Wolfrom’s Studio Color Wheel is a 28" square double-sided poster that helps you find the right combination of colors for a quilt – or any art project. It retails for $9.95. 

 

C&T’s PatternSpot.com is a website with thousands of patterns for quilters, sewers and crafters. It has grown tremendously in the past year.

Jenean Morrison designs fabric for Free Spirit; her new line is called Power Pop. Jenean’s booth won the Creativity Award at Quilt Market. It featured hundreds – maybe thousands! – of three-dimensional flowers made from her fabrics that were affixed to canvas on stretched frames.

The lampshade and vase in her booth also featured the flowers, and she had also made a cool floorcloth and pillows with her fabrics.

 

Embellishment Village is always on my must-see list at Market and Festival. They have wonderful stencils, paints, books, fibers, foils, glitters, you name it – a myriad of supplies for the art quilter or mixed media artist. Didn’t make it to Market? They have a great online shop.

Gina Reddin of Splinters & Threads has a new tool called Wavy Squares (by EZ Quilting) that lets you cut these cool shapes, which can showcase embroidery designs, create a frame, or stand on their own. The nested template can be used to cut fabrics, paper, metal – anything you can cut with a rotary cutter or scissors. They retail for $29.99, and are available to wholesalers at Brewer and Checkers.

Fran Ortmeyer, communications director for Clover Needlecraft, Inc., was demonstrating a new way to use the Clover Yo-Yo tool to make really cute flowers. You can layer the flowers and then add a button in the center to make a pin like the one she's wearing, or a bigger flower.

That’s it for now. I will have one more post about the goings-on at Quilt Market, and then it is on to the quilts at International Quilt Festival!