Fall Quilt Market in Houston

I've been exploring the idea of moving my little sewing studio/school out of my home and into a retail location.  So when I found out my my friend Michelle, of Urban Spools, was headed to Quilt Market in Houston, we decided to go together.  Market seemed like a great place to explore the reality of a brick and mortar existence.

I thought I'd share what really caught my eye at market with you.  There is so much to see and I while did feel like much of what was being introduced felt like more of the same, there were some very exciting fabric lines that I can't wait to add to my stash and some really inspiring booths.

 

Does it get any better than this sofa at the Free Spirit booth?  I've pined for some patchwork furniture from Squint in the UK for years and that's what this reminded me of.

Yes, um, Free Spirit... I'll take two, please.

And while you are shipping over the sofas, go ahead an add these pillows and cushons too.  Just beautiful!

This is the handsome booth of David Butler, Amy Butler's husband. His new line is gorgeous!

I saw a lot of indigo blue and ikat at market and his line was a beautiful twist on the trend. I love that quilt and I think lots of men would too.

Amy's booth next door was equally amazing. Her new line is called Lark and I don't think it will disappoint Amy Butler fans.

The designs and colors in Lark were really fresh and the collection has a really happy feel.  Amy and David Butler are one of those picture perfect couples; it was fun to get to see them in person.

Just down from the Butlers, was Anna Maria Horner's booth. On the sofa, left to right, are Elinor Peace Bailey, Anna Maria, and Denyse Schmidt. Yes, I felt like I was in the presence of fabric royalty.  

Anna Maria had some beautiful needlepoint canvases (on the wall at the right).  Her booth was beautiful!

The Seven Islands booth (Prints Charming, Echino, Kokka, Melody Miller) was drool-worthy. Above is the new line from Print Charming for Kokka called Daisy Chain.

I'm going to need some of this line.

And, I LOVE this bag pattern!

This is the new Melody Miller (Ruby Star Rising).  Pretty cute stuff!

There's the new Sew to Swap book at the Krause Publishing booth!

If I had to pick one favorite new fabric line from market, it would have to be this one.

Yes, it's Malka Dubrawsky, but no, it's not hand-dyed.  It's Malka for everyone, it's Malka for Moda!

This line is completely amazing! The colors are crazy bright and beautiful. I absolutely LOVE this line.

There was one original Malka in the booth and there's just no way to do this quilt justice in a photo.  The colors are spectacular.

Well, that's my quick, quilt market recap.  I took about 300 photos and uploaded some of the best to a flickr album you can find here.  I also have some great photos of quilts from the show, but I'll save those for another post. For now, I'll just let you drink these in!  

Want some scraps?

If you know the secret of how to get out of Target without spending $65, please let me know.  I went in tonight for a piece of white poster board.  A sheet of white poster board is 29¢.  So, how did I end up with $64.71 of other stuff in my basket!?  I have no idea how Target manages to wile me into spending, but whatever their tactic, it seems to be working for them.

Anyway, I bought these plastic drawer bins to sort my scraps into.  They are on "sale" for $10 this week.  I think the regular price is $10.99, so the savings is essentially insignificant, but they managed to lure me in with that little red "sale" sign.

So rather than working or preparing the post I've needed to get done for the last two weeks, I've been sitting on the floor sorting scraps.  I've come to the conclusion that I have too many scraps and I'm sick of looking at many of the scraps I have.  I don't want to see some of these fabrics in one more quilt.  Ever. When I finish sorting, I think I'll force what's left into one of those medium priority rate boxes and send it to one of my sweet blog followers who could use and appreciate some well-loved scraps that have lived out their useful life in my sewing room.

Interested parties must be open to wrinkles, strings, general wonkiness, slivers, trimmings, and selvedges.  There are failed quilt blocks in there along with some apparel fabric trimmings.  Some of it's been washed but most of it hasn't.  My house is non-smoking, but we do have a dog.  A big, black Doberman.  He's not allowed in the sewing room, but I can't promise you won't find a stray hair. Don't get the wrong idea though, these scraps are by no means covered in dog hair, but if you are allergic to Dobermans, this might not be the scrap box for you.

So, I'm going to get back to sorting and if you are a follower of my blog and you live in the good 'ol USA, leave me a comment and let me know you are interested.  When I finish sorting (or in a couple of days, whichever comes first), I'll pick a random follower to send a box well-loved scrappy stuff.

One more disclaimer.  I'm not finished sorting, so I have no idea if you'll get what's pictured above, but I'm not going to mail a box of trash.  I promise.

Wordless Wednesday

Can you believe it? I won!

Image from Spoonflower.com.

Thank you so much for your support in the Spoonflower fabric of the week contest! I'm so excited! I can't believe I actually won!

For those of you who asked about purchasing the 'Cheater Friday' fabric, here's the lowdown. Before a designer can sell their fabric on Spoonflower, they are required to order the fabric to serve as a proof (in the textile industry, it's called a strike-off). The designer should use the proof to ensure that the fabric prints as they intended and gives them the opportunity to make changes if necessary before the fabric is available for sale. Spoonflower's current lead time is about 20 days, so I wasn't able to get a proof prior to this fabric going on sale. Spoonflower is going to make the fabric available for sale today (before my proof ships) since I won the contest.

If you buy the fabric from Spoonflower before I see the proof, be aware that I can't vouch for how it turns out since I haven't seen it yet. Stephen also sent me a message to let me know that he's having to rotate the design, and I think that's actually going to modify the repeat, so you may not receive all 56 squares in a FQ.  I won't know for certain until I receive the proof.

Once I see the proof, I am going to order some yardage of the fabric. I'll probably sell some FQs myself since I would actually profit more by selling the fabric myself and you could purchase the FQs for less if you buy it from me after I buy yardage.

Image from Spoonflower's blog at www.blog.spoonflower.com.

[Edited to add - Spoonflower just uploaded some photos of the printed fabric to flickr here and here, and sent out the email. It's official!]

I'm still working on the Paintbox quilt when I steal a few minutes for myself. I'm really pleased with the way it's turning out and I love quilting with the perle cotton. I think I'm going to hand quilt the pinwheel sampler with perle cotton too.

I received a couple of questions about my quilting frame and you can see above, I'm just using a quilting hoop.  It's an Edmunds 14" quilting hoop which I purchased at my LQS. Quilting hoops differ from embroidery hoops in that they are much sturdier and the hoop is thicker (this one is 1" high or thick). I'd love to have a larger frame, but until we move and get settled, I'm going to stick with this small hoop and just continue to move it from block to block as I quilt.

As much as I'd love to stick around and chat, I've got to get to work. Thank you again for your kind words regarding the cheater fabric and especially for the votes! I would like to enter another Spoonflower contest, but I've set the standard a little high for myself after winning the first one I entered. I'm overloaded at the moment with work projects and I'm working against a tight deadline, so real work is having to take precedence this week over the fun stuff. I really want to do some more fun designs now!

Stash enhancement

Hey, Sean, I think I hear someone out in the garage messin' with your stuff! Hurry, go out there and check it out! There's nothing interesting to see here anyway.

OK, now that we got rid of him, I'll share my stash enhancement for the week.

What's this you ask? Oh, that huge stack of lovely fabric up there? That's just fat quarters of the entire line of Paula Prass' Woodland Delights collection that I won from Jona at Fabritopia during Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Week!

I know, awesome, right!

And those fun patterns? Oh, yea, I WON THOSE FROM JONA TOO!

Since she was already shipping a box to Texas, I went ahead and bought some lovely yardage at Fabritopia to go along with those fat quarters to use for binding, backing, etc. I love this happy collection.

Jona has some great fabrics on sale and has a fantastic selection at Fabritopia. Head over there and check it out and stop by her adorable blog too. She's a sewing maven! Thank you so much, Jona!

I won an auction on Ebay and added another HTF (hard to find) FMF (Flea Market Fancy) print to my FMF stash.

So, if I count the swatches from Jody and Holly, I'm only missing one print, the blue seeds. If you are wondering how I acquired all of these lovlies, I put notes on the flickr photo. Almost all of the swaps were for that Pez fabric I found at the Dallas Quilt Show. That turned out to be a sweet find!

I hope she doesn't mind me sharing this, but the sweet Holly from thimble+bobbin sent me the most wonderful package of 2.5" squares for my hexagon quilt!

Hey, Holly, YOU ROCK! 

And...

(yes, it's been a pretty good week)

I received a generous swap from a thoughtful member of the Hexagon Charm Quilt Piece-Along flickr group who included the most adorable needle case with a little embroidered hexie on the front!

Geesh, you guys are laying it on heavy.

I'm feeling really blessed this week!

Sorry for the two post in one day. I was just too excited and couldn't keep all this goodness bottled up!

Thank you.

I am overwhelmed by all of your kind comments. Thank you all so much for taking the time to let me know I'm not alone. There is comfort in being reminded that others have felt or are feeling the same thing you feel. Especially during the stinky times life hands us.

I had lunch with a sweet friend today whom I always enjoy spending time with. She brought me some mini pink roses in an attempt "restore my faith in humanity". I probably went overboard yesterday, but I think I got to that point where my extreme anger over the break-in turned to sadness and I needed to vent. Thank you all for being there. And thank you, S, for the gorgeous roses and lunch company. I think I'm going to keep the roses in my sewing room all to myself!

I picked up a few things at my LQS Monday and then stopped at Hobby Lobby for a fabric pen (for the siggy swap) yesterday. Nothing like a little retail therapy!

Two and a half yards of a lovely, buttery soft  Lecien floral. I think this needs to become a light summer tunic in my size.

Some adorable Lecien Minny Mu and some fun Rainy Days and Mondays polka dots. I'm using the dots for my Modern Siggy Swap blocks.

A fat quarter bundle of Jennifer Paganelli's Dance with Me from the sale bin at the LQS. No plans for these yet, but I love the colors.

And, another fat quarter bundle of Windham's Merry Mushroom to add to my collection. I bought two bundles at Joann Fabrics a while back, but I found a bundle at Hobby Lobby yesterday with the brown prints, so I needed to have that one too. No plans for these yet either, but I adore the funky colors and fun prints.

Not too much sewing going on today, but I want to make this adorable ruffle tote! I'm concerned about it looking like a diaper or baby bag though, so I can't decide on fabrics. Any suggestions? 

Wordy Wednesday

My posts lately have been very hexagon intensive, so I'll save the hexagon post I prepared for tomorrow.

  

My first Spring to Finish 2010 finish! I finally finished my charcoal and orange placemats.

They are super crinkly after washing.  Super crinkly.

I finished my last four pinwheels for the pinwheel sampler. I'm seeing a pattern emerge here though. The next step is sashing and I have another project (the paintbox quilt) waiting for sashing. Sashing my be my least favorite part of the make-a-quilt process.

I picked up some fabrics my LQS last week.  I already had that Pez but I was taking photos earlier and thought this stack looked pretty.  It's  gradually grown over the week as I stacked newly acquired fabrics on top of the Pez.

I found some 1974 charm packs and a Recess charm pack online and they arrived today. The 1933 pack and the Tweet Tweet packs came home with me yesterday. I don't have plans for any of these yet, but I'm hoarding the 1974 and Recess.

I hope you are having a happy Wednesday!  See you tomorrow.

Weekend Shopping

My mom and I went to the Dallas Quilt Show yesterday.  I found the things on my list and more.

YLI hand quilting thread, 1" pre-cut hexagon papers, and some great FQ finds...

including buying out of all the Peas & Carrots fabric from a rural Texas quilt shop!

Because of an alarm clock/daylight savings time mishap, we missed church this morning.  I hope that the Lord doesn't mind that I went to Target rather than being an hour late for church. I picked up some things for my sewing room,

a nightie for me, some sundresses for my me and my daughter, and an un-pictured shirt and boxers for the hubby.

And, a couple of cute totes.  It was very hard to exercise restraint.  Very hard.

I'm out of batting, so I can't finish this up the New Wave quilt until I do some more shopping, 

but, I'm loving the way it's coming together!