Quilt Market came and went in an amazing blur of people, fabric and notions and I fear that once again I will not do justice to the experience but since I am pretty sure I am going to fail let me just say that as always I was wildly impressed with the amazing vendors, artisans and shopkeepers I met. If I end up leaving you out of one of these market update posts please don’t fret.. I came back with well over 500 photos on my phone ( what DID we do before Iphones???) some of better (ahem!) quality than others so I am sharing just a small number of the photos and will do my best to sort the rest as I go and share them under the hashtag #latermarket on Instagram.
I headed for Houston early ( 5 am) on Thursday Morning ( note to self – think this over next time).. sadly my plane out of Chattanooga was having a pesky issue with the door not shutting so we needed another plane which of course meant I missed my second flight out of Atlanta {sigh}.. this of course meant that I missed well over 1/2 the day with Kizer and Bender at their retail Boot camp for which I had paid well over $100 (boo!) But I did catch the last 1.5 hours and as I snuck in the door I saw lots of friendly faces like those of Mark and Mary Pfeiler of Quilting on the Square and got to meet up and coming store owners like the super cute and sassy Michelle Luke of Stitched Studio which will soon be GrandRapids newest fabric and quilting sensation!
At the Hilton we were greeted by signs of welcome as well as the “carpet of controversy” ( it really is stunning)
I happily did smooshy face photos with so many people ..and treasure each and every shot. This one is with the wonderful Bev and Tracy from Gen Q Magazine.
and of course I peeked down through the “port holes” to see the set up action on the vendor floor! Then scooted off to dinner and then bed.
Friday started with the opening and a big Downton Abby production by Andover fabrics. They gave away more than 100o bags made from the new fabric line ( mine is safely living with the wonderful Ms. Ebony Love in celebration of her new mystery quilt along using the whole line fabrics!)
One more neck squeeze with Melissa from Gen Q and then a day full of classes on everything and anything under the sun having to do with quilting!
and there I leave you until I can get some more photos downloaded and watermarked!
In the mean time I leave you with thoughts about some thoughts with thanks to Kathy Mack and Mandy Leins for their worthy thoughts on trends they saw at Market.
