Friday at Quilt Market

I attended Quilt Market in Houston last weekend. It was a whirlwind of activity and was over way to fast!

I did my homework before hand, I went in with a list of booths I wanted to go to and people I wanted to meet. I had made a few appointments to talk to people about my patterns and upcoming series on Craizee Corners. So I thought I was prepared to accomplish what I went there for. I did keep every appointment I had, but the rest of the research went out the window pretty fast.

On Friday was School House. There was well over a dozen time periods to take a class. These were informative sessions about products in the quilt world. Some were done wonderfully and some bombed in my opinion. Among my favorites were:

1. Nifty Notions Ruler system where I met Kaye England who is a hoot. Kaye showed us some great new rulers coming out soon, which I can't wait to get my hands on. And I have some exciting news for y'all coming soon that have to do with this ruler system so stay tuned.
2. Thomas Knauer's Pear Tree show. Here's some pics from that session. The bottom pic is the preview of Flock!

And imagine my surprise when we all got the pattern sheet of 2 patterns for Pear Tree when we walked in. Then when we left there was another surprise...we all got Pear Tree bags! I think that was the swag to have! I had to watch it closely because one of my roomies was threatening to steal it (cough Tiffany).

Here's some pics from other School House sessions

And there were prizes in many of the sessions. I won this adorable Tulip Bag in my very first session.

Then it was time to get on line for Sample Spree. I had a list on my IPad with fabric that I wanted. You never know what they will have but I thought a list would keep me focused...not!
Once I got in the room all plans went out the window and I just let my senses take over. I knew I wanted Pear Tree so I went to the Andover booth first. I got Pear Tree in all 3 colorways and the cutest fabric called Morning Rush.

Then I went to the Robert Kaufman table. I got some Happy Home, which is perfect for a chef like me :) I also picked up 2 cute charm packs (the 2 on the left) and have no idea what they are. If you know please help me, it's driving me craizee not knowing. Plus I got Jacqueline some Lorax fabric that she was dying for :)

Next was Riley Blake. By the time I got to this booth I was pretty overwhelmed and was just picking stuff up. I did know that I wanted Daisy Cottage and I found some adorable Sunny Happy Skies.

Then I decided to brave the Moda table. It was about 20 minutes into Spree so it was still crowded, but by then everywhere was. I had quite a few things on the list, but for some reason only ended up getting 2 FQ kits. I knew Twirl was at the top of the list. I am a big fan of anything Me and My Sister and am working on a new quilt pattern specifically for Twirl. The I spotted A Stitch in Color and grabbed that one too.

4 down and 1 to go. I knew Benartex had some cute things and stopped there on my way out. By now I was in full panic mode from the crowds, but a specific fabric caught my eye and I had to get some. This is the No Bullying fabric from Canvas which is associated with Benartex. This fabric spoke to me, I need to find the perfect project for it. I met the designer, Maria Kalinowski, who was so sweet and has some great fabric lines coming up. The other fabric I grabbed from Benartex is Bold and Beautiful.



There's my Spree loot. Once I got back to the room I realized that I hardly got anything that was on my list, but I still got some great fabric. I'm not even sure if they all are new lines, but I like them anyway.

Come back tomorrow to see how Saturday was.





Getting Ready For Quilt Market

In less than 3 days I will be in Houston for the International Quilt Market and I am so excited! I have been working on a few quilt patterns and am looking forward to talking to some people about them. For some reason I have been 'in the zone' as far as ideas, now if I had time to start and finish all my pattern ideas by Thursday that would be great. But alas that will not be happening.

So to get ready for the weekend I decided to make a purse. I have only made little zipper pouches for makeup before (pictured right) so this was my first real bag. I was looking thru Moda Bake Shop (one of my favorite things to do, along with spending hours on the Fat Quarter Shop site planning) and found the Mill House Inn Tote Bag Pattern and knew at once that was MY bag.

Pattern picked out, now for the fabric. I love Hometown and thought the combination of the bright red and soft colors would look great with the scrappiness of the strips. I have come to realize that I am not a scrappy kind of gal, I am much too symmetrical to make many things scrappy. I even drive my quilting friends 'craizee' (pun intended) with trying to plan quilts. So this bag is about as scrappy as it gets for me. I am very proud of myself because I didn't make each side from the center match the other. Don't laugh...it was a big step for me...OK you can laugh a little.

I am not afraid to admit that I was petrified of making a bag. I just couldn't visualize how it would come out...especially the part where you put the inside of the bag on the outside of the bag and flip it thru a seam left open. But I was pleasantly surprise when it worked! So what do you think? I can't wait to walk around Market with this bag!

Then after I finished the bag I had a burst of energy, probably from the endorphins from being so darn excited about the bag :). I knew I needed to make a bag for my IPad while on the trip. I was going to just make a simple zipper pouch like the one I made for my first IPad that now resides with my daughter. Here's a pic of that one. You'll notice I made it from Sunkissed, another Sweetwater line.

But then I thought I would up my game and try to make a matching case. It was easy once I figured out the dimensions. I ended up starting with a 9x11 piece for the bag body and went from there. I used 2" strips instead of the 1.5" strips called for in the bag pattern. I followed the same pattern, except didn't put the shoulder straps on. Here's what I came up with. What do you think?

I am thinking of making a little pouch to put my IPod in. And maybe a wallet too, but we'll see how much time I have. For now I am happy with the pieces I have so far.