Final Day of Market

Today was the final day of Quilt Market - the wholesale event that retailers attend to find out the latest and greatest in the quilt world bringing home these finds to their shops to share with their customers, you and me! The fabric rep booths are always wonderful to behold -- sample cards of the new lines of fabrics are there with the reps as they lay out sample, after sample, after sample for the shop owners to narrow down their purchases. Goodness, most of us quilters have no idea what our local quilt shop owners must go through! Oh the choices! Um...I want one of EVERYTHING please! (smile). As a longarm quilter I'm the gal that's getting up close and personal with the shop samples made from the new line of fabric that hang in these fabulous booths...I want to see how it's quilted! (I do get a lot of funny looks, but hey, I'm used to that) by the way, did ya'know that most of the fabric companies have free downloads on their websites? they love to have you print their PDF patterns to use with their new collections. Next time you are surfing the net check it out!

If you've been following my webshots you've probably noticed my friend Trish. She's been my side kick all through market. We went to schoolhouse together on Friday, hit the vendor mall on Saturday, took Sunday off, and went together again to day. Here she is visiting with Renae Haddadin in the A-1 booth as well as Janet, a fellow longarm quilter we met today from up around Dallas/Fort Worth -- who, by the way, showed me photos of some of her award winning quilts! Wow, what talent there is in the longarm community! Enjoyed meeting you Janet, hope our paths cross again.

Renae brought her own A-1 so she could work on one of her personal projects. It's amazing to me that she can quilt with so many distractions! But as she said, she'd rather be working on something than just doodling as she demos. But I did catch her ~ found evidence of her doodling...she was "testing" a new thread from YLI, a silk metallic and here's a look at her doodles.. Wish my doodles were half as good! What an imagination, I would have just tested with loops and swirls (sigh) double click on the photo to make it larger, really cool quilting if ya'ask me. Oh, and did I mention that several of her award winning quilts are hanging in the booth? She also has one in next week's quilt show which I'm bettin' is a winner! We'll know in a few days!

While I was sneaking photos I found a "Jamie was here" mark -- easily recognizable Jamie Wallen design element- haven't captured him on film yet this week, always too busy talking to think about taking a photo!! But he's here and he loves to doodle as he demos the machine. Jamie and Renae will be in the A-1 booth this next weekend for Festival, so if you are coming to H-town be sure and stop by the booth and say hi -- tell'em karen sent ya'

Well, as I mentioned, Market is the wholesalers buying mecca. And since I'm a longarm quilter I'm in the market for tools of my trade -- namely thread, batting and such....so where else do longarm quilters gather besides the Superior Threads booth? How 'bout batting booths! Here we are at FiberCo.

And yes, it was the end of the day and we got a little silly. We asked Gary if he would mind to take a photo of us and then we said we needed him in a photo too and that we'd be his Vanna Whites...

How'd we do? Would you buy batting from us?? (grin) By the way -- did you know that FiberCo has a Soy batting?? Trish went home with a sample of that to quilt up and I went home with a roll of Bamboo/Cotton blend. Quilters are "going green" (smile) so I think I'll jump on the band wagon and give it a whirl. Ohhhhhh did I mention how soft this batting is???!!!!!!!!!! The Soy feels like cashmere and the bamboo is luscious. They had quilted samples for us to touch and feel -- of course my question was how did it hold up to washing -- and they showed us...so now it's up to me to do my own test in the Quilts 'N Kaboodle studio....but it won't be tonight (sigh)...so stay tuned I'll have a bamboo batting report soon --- hum....Dangling Carrots is almost finished being pieced , just have borders to go...perhaps I can use the bamboo on that one! Again, stay tuned!

Well my friends..it's been a long day in the saddle. I'm holding up better than I thought with my hip/leg problem...but I really need to put up my goodies and call it a night. Tomorrow morning I'm joining fellow longarm quilters off campus at Diane 's Quilter's Cabin Retreat Center for a workshop on my Machine Quilters Business Manager software program. Looking forward to additional learning on the "business" side of quilting. Then I hope in the evening to photo the newest Quilts of Hope - Blankets of Love ....received a big box today from Ginny & Torrie that I haven't even opened yet (sigh) don't shoot me please...it's a wonder I don't fall asleep on my 35 mile ride home each night ... but I betcha' your bottom dollar that I open the box before my tootsies hit the bed! Again, stay tuned and I'll report in soon!!