2010 Fall Quilt Market, Part 6

Marcia Derse with her newest fabric line

Of all the fabric lines I saw at Market, the new one by Marcia Derse called “The Third in Line” for Troy comes the closest to looking like it was hand printed, stamped and painted. If you love surface designed fabric but can’t do this stuff yourself (or don’t want to), this is the line for you! It is spectacular. I wanted a yard of each one!

Marcia had small pieces of her fabric pinned to a backdrop of one of her more neutral fabrics, which made for a striking, yet very simple display. 

And she had yardage of each of them hanging from clips on a rod, inviting attendees to touch, feel and savor the hand and quality of the fabrics.  

Susan Walton of Rubber Stamp Tapestry

Rubber Stamp Tapestry is a company based in Seagrove, North Carolina that was new to me. Susan Walton and her husband Don are potters (the Seagrove area is very famous for ceramics) who started designing “peg stamp sets” — rubber stamps mounted at the end of wooden pegs — in 2002. 

Susan stamped this design using several peg stamps – the leaf, the twig, and the berry – while I watched and talked to her. She uses Speedball inks on a small sponge when she stamps. (Speedball, by the way, is another North Carolina company; it is based in Statesville, just 20 minutes from me!) They sell the inks on their website in 1.5 oz bottles. But other some other brands of ink and acrylic paint – including Liquitex — work well, too. You can see lots of details of their process here.

 

All their peg stamps have placement lines so you can see exactly which part of the design is up when you are stamping. I thought it was cool the way they had them stored in their booth. They are primarily botanical designs. After stamping, you wait 72 hours, then heat set with an iron. After that, you can use the designs in quilts or other projects that can be laundered. 

A creation by the folks at HandBehg Felts

The Handbehg Felts booth is always abuzz with creativity! They sell nifty wool felt and felted wool balls, and a bunch of kits to help you use them. Their kits include pincushions, necklaces, eyeglass holders, brooches and bracelets. If you want to purchase their products retail, check out their Etsy shop.

That’s my “Magical Mistletoe” — which I made for the 2010 Quilting Arts Gifts issue — hanging in their booth. They said I helped them sell several thousand of the little white felt balls I used as mistletoe berries! Quilting Arts Gifts has 148 pages of great handmade projects you can make for holiday gift-giving, and it is available online or at Barnes & Noble bookstores nationwide. Time to get hopping on those gifts if you haven’t started yet!

Ellen Medlock with some of her new designs

I met Ellen Medlock last year at Quilt Market. She designs innovative bag and purse designs, and is back this year with a darling, girly new fabric line with butterflies called “Flight Pattern.” And some new, super cute bags — the ones she is holding in the photo — that are fabric wrapped around metal frames with clasps (they are called “DIY Minaudiere Bag Kits,” and will be available soon).

Pam Goecke Dinndorf of Aardvark Quilts

Aardvark Quilts’ booth caught my eye because it was filled with quilts that used color in such an innovative way. Pamela Goecke Dinndorf’s patterns are bold and modern, and many use large blocks that would be very easy for beginning quilters. Yet they are very sophisticated because of the fabrics she uses. You can see more of her patterns here.

Angie Steveson of Lunchbox Quilts

“About Trout” is one of Angie Steveson’s new patterns for Fall Market. She designs for Lunchbox Quilts and many of her patterns include CDs with embroidery designs.  Angie has a pretty breast cancer awareness pattern called Pink Ribbon Quilt that is available for free on her website; it also comes with embroidery designs.

On Saturday, I posted this photo of me with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims at the launch of Accuquilt’s Go! Baby, a smaller version of their wildly popular die cutting system. It retails for $139, and will be shipping in late November. 

Well, wouldn’t you like to have a pink t-shirt to match Alex and Ricky? I scored one thrown into the crowd by Ricky, and you can have a chance to win it — and the tote bag shown below.

GIVEAWAY! Leave a comment on this post before noon EST on Friday, November 12. Tell me if you have an Accuquilt cutter, and what you think of it, OR if you think you might like one, and why. I'll pull one name at random and send that person the t-shirt and the tote bag. (Note: the t-shirt is size large.)

There’s still a bit more Quilt Market loot to give away in my next few posts, so please come back for a chance to win! 

WE HAVE A WINNER! Carol Hansen won this give-away. Thanks!

2010 Fall Quilt Market, Part 5

Who wouldn’t love one of these cute blue critters? They are FuddleSnugs by Jayme Crow (right) of Bella Nonna. (That’s Megan Cook hamming it up on the left.) The had fantastic quilt designs ruffled purse patterns, and lots of other darling bags. Check out the bag designs here.

  They also have amazing gilded leathers that they used with Texture Magic to achieve this fabulous lumpy surface, used to great effect in their small purses like the bronzy-brown one shown in the background.You can check out all their leathers, pigskins, cowhides and suedes here. 


They generously gave me some leathers and two patterns to give away! Check out the details at the bottom of this post.

Karen Brow of Java House Quilts designs beautiful applique patterns like this block-of-the-month set called Cat Acatemy. She has a lot of patterns featuring animals – cats, dogs, frogs, turtles, and fish.

A shop owner in Halloween garb places and order for AURIfil thread with Alex Veronelli. The AURIfil team’s melodic Italian accents are so wonderful to hear drifting out of their booth!

The Italian design sense is very evident in these beautiful AURIfil thread display cases. And look at that shine on the long-staple Egyptian cotton in their Cotton Mako threads. It is one of the reasons I’m such a fan of AURIfil for both hand needleturn applique and hand quilting, and thread sketching and machine quilting.

Here I am with the AURIfil team (from left): Alex Veronelli, Elena Gregotti, me, and Davide Moro. I’ve been asked to joint the AURIfil designers’ team, and will have some exciting stuff coming up for you next year on their website.

Ruth Chandler and Liz Kettle

Fabric Embellishing: The Basics & Beyond was a collaboration between fiber artists Liz Kettle (above right), Heather Thomas, Ruth Chandler (above left) and Lauren Vlcek. It came out earlier this year and is already in its third printing! Liz is holding a new book that came out in August, Threads: The Basics and Beyond, which is described as “a complete visual guide to thread techniques and creativity.”

Tula Pink (left) is a young designer for Moda, and this is one of her designs. It was quilted by the woman named Angela (shown on the right) and I am embarrassed to say that I neglected to get her last name. But her quilting is amazing!

Here’s a closeup shot of Angela’s quilting. Isn’t it fabulous? What a great motif to fill in the “negative space” around the print fabrics, and add wonderful texture and visual interest. 

Make sure to check out Tula Pink’s blog post about the copyright infringement of her fabrics that showed up in WalMart. This is happening a lot to many designers, and it is something to think about when you purchase fabric. And did you know that most fabric designers make only pennies on each yard of the fabrics they design? When their designs get knocked off, they make nothing. :-(

I took a sashiko class on Saturday morning from Pepper Cory, who is also from North Carolina. She is a quilt maker, author, and quilting teacher. An excellent teacher, I thought. She is coming to teach and speak at my local guild in 2011!

A sample of Pepper’s sashiko work

I do many different kinds of handwork, but had never tried this before. Sashiko is a kind of Japanese decorative embroidery most often done on indigo fabrics with heavy off-white cotton thread. Pepper made it look easy. It wasn’t. You have to make perfect, even stitches of a specific length, with a certain amount of space in between each stitch, and there are rules about how to handle corners and crossing lines. But I really enjoyed it. It is always a nice break to sit and do some hand stitching in the middle of the chaos that is Quilt Market.

 

In Pepper’s class, we used beautiful indigo fabric made in India and distributed by Dunroven House. Imagine my surprise to find out that they are based in my hometown of Mooresville, North Carolina! Joe and Jenna DeMarco (above) showed me their line of homespuns, kitchen and table linens, and the indigos. You can see more of their products here. 

This is some of Dunroven House’s homespun line. They have an outlet store only a few miles from my home that is open the first Friday and Saturday of the month, and I am headed there soon!  

GIVEAWAY! Would you like to win a copy of Bella Nonna’s FuddleSnugs pattern (above)?

Or their 21 Leather Projects pattern (and the assortment of gilded leathers and suedes shown above)? Then just leave a comment on this post before noon EST on Thursday, November 11. I'll pick two winners, one for each pattern, so let me know in your comment which one you’d like if you win. 

I’m going to keep giving away Quilt Market loot in my next few posts, so please come back for another chance to win! 

WE HAVE A WINNER (actually two!): Victorious Vixen and Katrina won the giveaways. 

2010 Fall Quilt Market, Part 4

Okay, this is probably my most fun experience at this year’s Fall Quilt Market: I walked into Julie Creus’ booth for her company, La Todera. We chatted for a bit, and then she got a phone call. I was looking around at all her cool stuff, and when she got off, she said, “Oh my gosh, I just found out that Kaffe Fassett and Liza Prior Lucy are coming to my booth right now!” She asked if I’d take photos, and I agreed. Sure enough, a few minutes later, here come Kaffe and Lucy. (If you don’t know them, Kaffe is a very famous artist, well known in the quilting world for his luscious floral fabrics. Liza often partners with him, and designs many beautiful quilts with his fabrics.) I clicked away, both on my camera and on Julie’s, and got a bunch of photos of them admiring her work, including the one above.

Julie makes many of her flower pins with Kaffe’s fabrics, and gave him one to take home. She said, “I hope you don’t mind, but I named my pattern Kafflowers after you, because they look great in your fabrics!” He didn’t mind at all. Julie is holding two cute little mushrooms made from her “Plushroom Pincushion Kit” (it retails for $12, and comes with all the fabrics you need to make the big and little ’shrooms).

This was Julie’s very first Quilt Market. I enjoyed talking with her about her experience, because I’m considering the possibility of trying it next year myself. Her booth showed off her products in a very fresh, whimsical way, without a big expense. Isn’t her use of the parasols hanging overhead wonderful?

You can purchase one of Julie’s flower brooches on her Etsy shop.

This is Julie’s friend, Margaret Travis of Eazy Peazy Quilts. She designs fun handbags and purse accessories, and her latest line is designed for use with wheelchairs and walkers. Check out the stylish rhinestone-embellished walker in her display!

Julie and Margaret came together to Quilt Market, and arranged to have their booths side by side so that they could help each other out. Isn’t that smart?

Joanne Figueroa of Fig Tree & Co. designs fabric for Moda, nearly all with her signature buttercream color as a base. Her booth is always just lovely. You can see more photos of it on her blog and see her kits, books and patterns here.

Pat Sloan gives an autographed copy of her book to a lucky recipient.

From time to time while I was strolling the aisles, I came upon sights like this one (above) where an author was signing copies of her (or his) book. If you get there early enough, and get in line, you can get a book, while supplies last. Sometimes the sponsoring company (usually the publisher or a big distributor like Brewer or Checkers) gives you a ticket when you get in line, and that means you are going to get a copy. They hand out as many tickets as they have books stacked up next to the author.

Pat Sloan was signing copies of Appliqué a Garden, which includes seven projects.

She gave me a sneak peek at her new book, Redwork With a Twist, which will be out in December!

This is Moneca Shelhoup of Dora’s Daughter’s Designs. Her tagline is “All that I am and ever dreamed of being, my mother encouraged me to be.” Doesn’t that make you want to cry, it’s so sweet? I loved their crazy cute patterns for crowns (like the one she’s wearing), hats, an owl purse, and contemporary needlepunch embroidery. (Some of these patterns are so new that they are not on the website yet.)

Fabric companies have the biggest spaces at market, sometimes taking up nearly half an aisle! They are often very elaborately decorated in a theme. Some have entire bolts of the new fabrics available for shop owners to examine. Here’s part of Alexander Henry’s display. 

elinor peace bailey

And now I think it’s time for another giveaway! How about a copy of the brand new book by elinor peace bailey (yes, she prefers lower case), Patti Medaris Culea and Barbara Willis? It’s autographed by elinor!

Elinor describes herself as an “entertainer, educator and entrepreneur.” She is perhaps best known for her exquisite dolls, and for her wonderfully wild appearance. When I landed at the Houston airport last week, I spotted her in a shop wearing her signature art clothing and bright pink hair, and told her, “I know I’m in Houston now!”

Cloth Doll Workshop is a collaboration by all three authors, and features several doll designs from each of them. It includes very detailed instructions, plus a look at their studios. But I think the best part is the marvelous gallery section in the back, with their work and the work of many other talented doll makers and students.

GIVEAWAY! Win a copy of Cloth Doll Workshop by leaving a comment on this post before noon EST on Wednesday, November 10. Tell me if you’ve ever considered dyeing your hair an unusual color, and if so, why and which color.

I’m going to keep giving away Quilt Market loot in my next few posts, so please come back for a chance to win! 

WE HAVE A WINNER! Karen in Tucson won Cloth Doll Workshop.

2010 Quilt Market, Part 3

Pokey Bolton with the 2010 International Quilt Festival: Quilt Scene magazine.

Well, Quilt Market is officially over, and in the Houston Convention Center all the vendors are taking down their booths, and some are setting up again for International Quilt Festival. But I’m still playing catch-up! I have lots more photos and news to share from Quilt Market. If you are headed to Houston for Festival, make sure you pick up a copy of the 2010 International Quilt Festival: Quilt Scene magazine. You can get a copy in the Quilting Arts booth (or online, if you can’t get to Houston).

Quilting Arts’ booth at Market

There are lots more goodies in their booth, including my newest DVD, ”Master Machine Stitching: Thread Sketching Beyond the Basics.”

You can also see my candy corn piece (above left), which will be in the 2011 Quilting Arts Calendar. 

Scott Murkin’s “Stars Over Texas” is the 2010 IQA raffle quilt.

This year’s International Quilt Association Raffle Quilt is made by North Carolina’s own Scott Murkin, a fabulous quilter and quilt show judge. It is 80" x 80", and you can purchase tickets for a chance to win it at Quilt Festival.

Sheree Schattenmann of Sheree’s Alchemy Designs

Sheree Schattenmann is owner of  Sheree’s Alchemy Designs. She carries a great selection of fabrics at her online store, including organic cottons and out-of-print, rare, and hard-to-find prints from designers such as Amy Butler, Heather Bailey, Anna Maria Horner, Denyse Schmidt, and Kaffe Fassett. She has a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry, but wanted to be at home with her children, so she started her store, and has just launched a darling new line of patterns and clothing designs. Major cuteness! You can read her blog here. 

Here’s a shot of the floor of the Convention center.  There are a gazillion booths. Twenty three rows, with an average of 50 booths on each row (although some companies like the fabric corporations, have many booth spaces). You do the math. Did you know that according to a 2010 survey, quilting is a $3.6 billion industry in the United States? Wow.

This is my friend Vickie Clontz of Annie’s Keepsakes. I love her green, earthy style. Her booth was a serene oasis in the hustle-bustle on the show floor, although the quilt shop owners were keeping her hopping placing new orders!

This is part of the area where Moda sales reps meet with quilt shop owners placing their fabric orders. The new collections are shown on the wall displays.

Me with “The Art of Quilts Postcard Collection: Nature”

I was excited to see that they were taking pre-orders for “The Art of Quilts Postcard Collection: Nature” at the C&T Publishing booth. I have two pieces featured in this product, and one — the purple orchid — is on the cover! It will come out in early December, and should be a great gift item. It includes 30 high-quality images that can be mailed as postcards or framed, and will retail for $9.95. 

Anna Maria Horner

I’ve admired Anna Maria Horner’s fabric, her patterns, her books, and her blog for a long time, and it was nice to finally meet her. And I can report that she is just as nice, as smart, and as interesting as I thought she’d be! Her new line is called “An Innocent Crush.”

Melissa Averinos

I met Melissa Averinos two years ago at Fall Quilt Market and have been following her career as a fabric designer, an artist, a shop owner, and a blogger since then. Melissa’s Schoolhouse session at Quilt Market was so fun, because she was very anxious about public speaking, and perfectly honest about it with the huge crowd that turned out to hear her talk about her brand new fabric line for Andover called “Swoon.” She is such a kind, authentic soul.


You can read her blog here, and see the cool stuff in her shop (Yummy Goods) here, see Swoon here, and find out about her new book (“Small Stash Sewing”) here. 


Swoon!

Alicia Salazar with a finished flower

This is Alicia Salazar with a beautiful flower made from the very clever “Flower Frill Templates” by Clover. I think this will be a hot product this year. It is brand spanking new; I can’t even find it on their website yet!

You can use any “crisp” fabric (batiks work great). Alicia demonstrated how you use the templates (four sizes come in the pattern) to cut several folded petal shapes (above), and then stitch them together at the base.

 

After that, you fluff up the petals, and voila! A beautiful flower. Pretty cool. 

The flowers above were stitched to a small pillow. 

GIVEAWAY! Win a copy of the Flower Frills Templates (which aren’t even available yet, but Alicia gave me one) by leaving a comment on this post before noon EST on Tuesday, November 9. Tell me what you’ve found most interesting about my Quilt Market posts so far.

I’m going to start giving away Quilt Market loot in my next few posts, so please come back for a chance to win! 

WE HAVE A WINNER! Sandee will receive the Flower Frills Templates!