Let’s just say this, Quilt Market was AWESOME! The new attendees on the Betty’s staff were awestruck. We put in some long days, but it was worth it.
For those of you who know what Quilt Market is, skip to the next paragraph. For those who don’t, here’s the 411. Quilt Market and Quilt Festival are the back-to-back shows held every October by Quilts, Inc. Quilt Market is a trade show where vendors show their wares and quilt shops and distributors can view them. This is followed by Quilt Festival, a trade show which is open to the public. Along side both of these is a juried show of some of the best quilts of the quilting world.
The QuiltWoman.com booth
Betty’s sister company, QuiltWoman.com, had a booth at Quilt Market. Because QuiltWoman.com had 57 new patterns to introduce, they needed four, count’em, four booths! They displayed samples of all the new patterns and had them for sale. We helped the staff of QuiltWoman along with two of their quilt designers, Barb Sackel and Toby Lischko. Jen Eskridge was also there, demonstrating her Seamingly Accurate Seam Guide.
To add to the excitement, QuiltWoman.com raffled off ALL 57 of their new patterns to a quilt shop. The winner of the patterns was Rachael’s Fine Fabrics & Quilting in Lubbock, Texas. Congratulations! Let us know when you have them all stitched up!
But enough of that…what was hot and what was not? As far as QuiltWoman.com goes, their new patterns Hopscotch and Minnie Pinstripes sold out! Also getting a lot of attention were Seasonal Placemats and all of of Barb’s 4-in-1 patterns. The Seamingly Accurate was selling like hot cakes and has been picked up by a number of national distributors. Jen, the brains behind Seamingly Accurate, was dancing in the aisles!
Barb, Nancy, Vicki and Mark Lipinski
We took time to peruse the booths of other vendors. We saw the awesome new AccuQuilt GO! (more on that closer to its availability date). The newest Moda fabrics were HOT, especially at Sample Spree where the fabric was cheap, cheap, cheap! In addition, any patterns that lent themselves to kitting or charm squares were also very popular.
A hot trend we picked up on is embellishments. Anything you could sew through and wash was being applied to quilts and apparel. Hillcreek Designs‘ buttons were great. Beads, threads, yarns, ribbons, leather and fabric scraps were also showing up. There was a lot of couching going on too (if you are thinking sofas when you read “couching”, visit here to see what we are talking about).
Creative apparel was getting some attention. We saw some incredible jackets by Londa’s Creative Threads. The Junk Jeans People were using old jeans to make jackets. They had some very unusual techniques involving a drill and bleach. Bags and totes were hot too. Much more info on these will be forthcoming in future blogs.
Finally, we have to name drop. We had dinner one night with Mark Lipinski of Quilter’s Home. Yes, he is as entertaining in person as he is in his magazine. We got a personal tour of Judy Murrah’s sewing room (she’s the author of the Jacket Jazz series). And we had access to Marie Osmond, Ricky Tims, and Nancy Zieman.
Vicki & Marie Osmond
So Quilt Market is over and this is being written while sitting in the airport waiting to fly home. We made a lot of new friends, including a good number from New Zealand and Australia. We have a lot of new ideas brewing. Our designers’ heads are spinning with all the new ideas they have. Quilt Market is going to result in a lot of new patterns and products for you!
Grant, Barb, Nancy, Vicki & Corinne
