Friday 5 June 2015

Quilt Market

Well . . . I'll try this again!

I had a wonderful post all typed out and hit the "publish" button and nothing happened.  I hit the "save" button and the "publish" button a few more times and still nothing.  I then hit refresh and **POOF** the entire post was gone.  So I'll try and remember all the wonderful words that I had in the first post . . .


Downtown Minneapolis was completely overtaken by wonderful quilt shop owners, designers, wholesalers and the like on May 14th to 17th.  The shuttle from my hotel was literally back and forth a million times during the day - bringing people to and from the Convention Centre.


These are the doors that you need to go through to get to the trade show floor.  They are guarded.  At exactly 9:30 a.m. each morning the line-up of people were allowed to enter . . . after it was ensured that you had your name tag on though!

Every morning at 8:00 a.m. and every evening at 6:00 p.m., I arrived at the Convention Centre to take a class . . . I love taking classes and workshops on quilting related content!  One class was a cute little snowman and bird picture made out of wool; another class was from the owner of Stitchin' Heaven (what a show she was!) who also shared a ton of information; Jodi Barrows from Square-in-a-Square fame demonstrated her wonderful methods; another workshop on writing books and patterns and on and on.  I was in Heaven!


Every year at Quilt Market, just as you enter the trade show area, there is a collection of award winning quilts on display.  LOOK AT THIS QUILT!!!  It was absolutely amazing!



The detail, the coloring, the stitching, the composition . . . everything was perfect.  I would have liked to know how long this took Laurie to make . . . it was worth every second!


This happy quilt makes me smile - wouldn't it be fun to live in a city like this?  Immediately after I snapped this photo, my camera died.  So I did not get the information on the maker or the inspiration behind the happiness of this piece.  To whomever made this quilt - GREAT JOB!!!


This brings me now to Sample Spree . . . I know some of you have heard of it before, but this was my first.  The last two times I was at Quilt Market I had a booth and was so tired from setting up the booth that I just could not drag myself to Sample Spree.  This year I went as an observer and I made sure that I saved my energy to attend this much discussed event.  The line ups started before 6:30 p.m. - the doors opened at 8:00 p.m.  You see that sign above the door that says Ballroom A?  That is where hundreds of men and women have to funnel through to get to the designers, fabric companies and other industry trade company tables/booths.  The whisper in the crowd was that you go through the doors, veer right and head for the back wall . . . that was where the Moda tables were set up.  So that is what I did!!!  I got a lovely fat quarter stack of Primitive Gatherings and Laundry Basket fabrics from the Moda booth and then some lovelies from Henry Glass, some wonderful little patterns from another booth, a batik layer cake and dessert roll from another booth and on and on.  Oh, yes, my VISA is very happy!!!


Here is the Moda booth on the Trade Show floor (not Sample Spree).  If you were a shop owner you would pull up one of those chairs there and have a Moda rep go through the upcoming offerings from their designers . . . orders could be placed and plans for the new season are made.

If you look into the distance on the left side you can see the smaller booths of some of the Moda designers.  Everyone at Market, not just the Moda crew, were giving out those wonderful buttons/pins - you know, the kind with the pin on the back and metal fronts - too cute!!  The Bunny Hill one is adorable!!


Here is another shot of the Moda tables and the designer booths in the background.  What I love about this is the quilt that is pretty much dead centre in the photo - isn't that wonderful?!?!  I love those colors and how it all links together to make an awesome quilt.  I'm not a modern quilter, but I do love some of the bright colors that exist these days.  BUT, I was mostly drawn to the booths with the more traditional, primitive colors . . . the browns, tans, reds, golds, creams . . . that's just me.

So, having said that . . . I hung out at the Primitive Gatherings booth for a bit.  Miniatures are certainly in vogue this year and the wool and smaller kits are also.  That is a good thing because I love them all!!

I hope to get another post out about some more of Market - even though it is a bit late!  I also have a post started to highlight Ricky Tims Super Seminar that was held recently.  I better get busy!!!

1 comment:

marie said...

Of all the quilt blogs I read your was the first one to post of photo of Primitive Gatherings booth. I am not a fan of the modern look and seems there was so much of it this year.