International Quilt Market, More Products and Beautiful Colors (Part 2)

I’m still in awe of all that I saw at the International Quilt Market in Houston and want to share more of the photos I took of products and colors from Market in a continuation from Part 1 of my prior post on Quilt Market.

This gorgeous dress in the Pfaff booth stopped me in my walks. This fuchsia dress has beautiful machine embroidery embellishment by Pfaff sewing machines. It was simply stunning and fit for Cinderella to wear to the ball! And look at the embroidery on the black coat next to the dress.

Dress embroidered by Pfaff sewing machine at Houston Quilt Market

 

Not all products at Quilt Market are sewing and quilt related. Karyn Kozak exhibits with her beautiful FIMO polymer clay products.  Created with different colored pieces of clay in the millefiori technique, Karyn created the beautiful vases and leaves below as well as jewelry, barrettes, and other items. Visit her website to see the ladybug pins and jewelry she created.

Fimo Polymer Clay vases at Quilt Market

and these fabulous teapots…

Fimo Polymer clay teapots at Quilt Market in Houston

 

I showed you some of the new fabric collections by Quilting Treasures in my prior post. Below are more of their fabrics that debuted at market. Simon-Kabuki has a new line out, In the Meadow, in these great, warm colors. I also love the design and applique flowers in this quilt using their fabrics.

Simon Kabuki fabric line In the Meadow at Quilt Market

 

And I also loved this new collection by Studio 8, Fantasia (click to see the individual fabrics) and especially love the color combination of black and white with a lime green.  (See my prior post for free quilt and apron patterns I designed for Quilting Treasures with Studio 8’s Monaco fabric collection).

Studio 8 fabric by Quilting Treasures at Quilt Market

 

I love the play The Phantom of the Opera and this new fabric collection is wonderful. Can’t you hear the music?

Phantom fabric by Quilting Treasures based on Phantom of the Opera

 

Angela Anderson’s Give Thanks, can be used to create a beautiful quilt or kitchen accessories such as a table runner or place mats next fall.

Give thanks fabric by Angela Anderson for Quilting Treasures

 

With quilting and sewing, you need trim. Expo International has all kinds of trim for your every need including home decor. I love the colorful displays of these trims and cords. The center row is button trims, which is fabulous since we all love buttons! I look at this and remember several years ago when I shopped trim, all I could find was dull colors. Its so much more fun sewing with these colors!

Expo Internation colorful trims at Quilt Market

And, there’s these fun feather trims…..

Feather trim by Expo International at Quilt Market

Quilt Market occurred over Halloween so I thought I would also show you Expo’s cute sequin appliques for Halloween.

Halloween applique trim by Expo International at Quilt Market

And the Expo International folks dressed up for Halloween. Debi Schmitz dressed as a witch, but I have to tell you that she’s a sweet  and lovely witch, not at all wicked! I need to find where she got the silver hair.

Debi Schmitz at Quilt Market

 

Walking by Michael Miller Fabric’s booth created a “wow” moment when I spotted this 1950 red MG convertible used in their vintage picnic display. I also like the turquoise cooler. I’ve always thought MG’s were the coolest cars. By the way, this MG was local from Houston and is for sale. It doesn’t run though, but it has a great body and I would just love to have it to look at and sit in (and watch Audrey Hepburn in Two for the Road although her MG was green). Pretend driving would be ok as I would not want to risk getting any kind of ding in it.

Red MG car in Michael Miller Booth at Quilt Market

I thought the Sandi Henderson booth (Michael Miller Fabrics) was beautiful and great merchandizing.

Michael Miller Sandi Henderson booth at Quilt Market

 

The Kaleidoscope Kreator Software booth was beautiful and dramatic with kaldeiscope designs. This software lets you use your own photos and artwork to create kaleidoscope images for quilting, scrapbooking, card making and more. I’ve been eyeing this software and plan to purchase it. Actually, I don’t know why I haven’t already done so, except that when I get home, I get caught up with ongoing work. The software looks easy to use from their booth demo (and the price is great). If you go to their website, check out the paper crafting projects. The quilts are beautiful of course, but the paper stars would be really fun to make.

 

Kaleidoscope Kreator Software at Quilt Market

 

I stopped in Clothworks booth to see my friend Sue Zipkins new fabric collection, Suzette. I love the soft colors of the fabrics.

Sue Zipkin new fabric at Quilt Market

 

 

June Tailor, Inc always has a pretty booth. They have great quilting tools (I use them regularly)!  They have a new program for fleece, Fleece with Flair. The program includes tools for working with fleece, including fringe cutters and various rulers as well as fleece precut flowers. The right half of the booth below shows the new tools and samples made using the tools.

 

June Tailor quilting tools booth at Quilt Market

A closeup of the fleece  flowers….

June Tailor fleece flowers at Quilt Market

 

Tina Givens (Free Spirit Fabrics) won the booth award for best Merchandising.  As you can see from the photos below, it was a beautiful booth in oranges, tans and browns.

 

Tina Givens booth at Quilt Market

Tina Givens booth at Houston Quilt Market

 

I love felt and stopped by Kunin Group’s booth. They have felt in patterns now which makes a wonderful addition to all the solid colors. The patterns below were gorgeous. Kunin’s felt is made from eco-fil which is created with platic water bottles. The felt is so soft, its hard to imagine that it started life as a water bottle.

Kunin Felt new patterns at Quilt Market

You can create such cute critters with felt.

Kunin Felt display at Quilt Market

 

Prym has a new line of sewing products for baby along with a book of patterns for making baby clothing and cloth diapers. In addition, as you can see on the wall to the right below, they have a full line of accessory products and trims, buttons and applique to use with sewing for baby. Really, really cute!!

Prym Dritz booth at Quilt Market

 

 

La Todera had a pretty and colorful booth to showcase their sewing and soft craft patterns. The buttons and flowers below are just a few of their patterns. And the buttons can be customized with your own saying or art.

La Todera sewing patterns at Quilt Market

and aren’t these trees adorable for sewing!

LaTodera sewing and craft patterns at Houston Quilt Market

 

Downtown Houston has changed over the years since I first started attending Quilt Market. Below is a view from my hotel (Hilton) showing the George Brown convention center on the right (designed to resemble a ship) and the Minute Maid Park (aqua building) in the distance, home of the Astros. Discovery Green Park is just a few years old and is a great improvement on the parking lots that were there previously. Its nice to walk through the park for a few outside minutes during the show.

View of downtown Houston from the Hilton

 

I hope you enjoyed my take on Quilt Market. But there’s more to come – pictures of beautiful, unbelievable quilts from the quilt exhibits. The quilts are works of art!  So please check back!

Phyllis

International Quilt Market – Wonderful Products, Beautiful Colors (Part 1)

The International Quilt Market is the most beautiful trade show I attend. It is so visually stimulating with all the wonderful colors of fabrics, quilts and all the related products. I just returned from the fall trade show in Houston and want to share my thoughts, experiences and photos with you. I must warn you, I used my new iPhone  camera and loved it so much, I kept snapping away so I have tons of photos to share with you and will divide them into multi posts.

After arriving on Friday, the first event I attended was a mixer that night, Fabric 2.0, organized by Caroline Devoy of J. Caroline Creative (and sponsored by CHA, Stashbooks, Michael Miller Fabrics, Modkid, JCaroline Creative, and Andover Fabrics). As you can see, it was well attended (and fun).

 

Fabric 2.0 for Houston Quilt Market by J Caroline Creative
I just love colorful furniture and fell in love with this sewing machine cabinet in bright green by Arrow Sewing Cabinets. This will really brighten a sewing room or studio and make sewing and quilting even more fun. The chair cushion raises up for a storage area underneath it. And we all know that there’s no such thing as too much storage. This one also comes in white and the chair comes in bright pink and oak.

Arrow bright green sewing cabinet

Wooly Lady has the most gorgeous artisan wool fabrics, dyed one yard at a time with painterly colors.  They also carry fabulous kits for wool applique and rug hooking with contemporary to classic and elegant to whimsical designs.

Wooly Lady wool fabricsPlease check out Wooly Lady’s website for their line of kits, they are just beautiful to look through.

Wooly Lady booth at Houston Quilt Market

Quilting Treasures‘ booth was filled with new wonderful fabrics.  J Wecker Frisch, a very talented artist, has both a Halloween and a Christmas collection.  I love her snowmen chefs below in her Baker’s Dozen collection. They are so warm and inviting with Christmas cheer!J Wecker Frisch Christmas Fabrics for Quilting Treasures

Her Halloween fabric collection, Creepers Peepers is beautiful and has a wonderful vintage appeal.

J Wecker Frisch Halloween fabrics for Quilting Treasures

Debra Jordan Bryan has a new Christmas fabric for Quilting Treasures as well, Let It Snow, created in her wonderful whimsy style. The blue color really pops with this fabric. All of these holiday fabrics will be out next year in plenty of time for sewing and quilting.

Debra Jordan Bryan new Christmas fabrics for Quilting Treasures

 

Clover Needlecraft, Inc. had a demo in their booth of their needle felting tools using wool roving. This is one technique I haven’t tried yet, due only to my time constraints.  I love wool felting and have it high on my to do list.  Look at the felted items behind the demo on the booth wall – bags, butterfly and hats! They were gorgeous! Clover also had some new Wonder Clips to clip and hold or clip and sew that you can see on their website.

Clover Needlecraft needle felting tools

I  have been a Kaffe Fassett fan for years and have a collection of his books. I started with his beauitful needlepoint books and have continued with his quilt books. His booth is an explosion of the beautiful, wonderful colors of his fabrics for Westminster Fabrics.  Check out the chair!

Kaffe Fassett booth at Houston Quilt Market

Below, Kaffe is sewing on a quilt with his new book on the table in front of him.

Kaffe Fassett at Houston Quilt Market

I love buttons and know a lot of you do too. I don’t know what it is about buttons, but you can’t have too many!  I have big jars, small jars, tins, and drawers of buttons, some vintage and some new, and keep buying more. And I bought more at Market. So you can see why I visited Dusty’s Vintage booth. There were sooooooo many buttons, and these pictures just show a small part of the buttons they have.

Dusty's Vintage buttons at Houston Quilt Market

The Ogier Trading Company booth was beautiful with all the hand-dyed yarns for needle arts, embellishments and doll hair.  The yarn assortments consists of wool, alpaca, cotton, mohair and silk fibers.

Hand Dyed yarns at Houston Quilt Market

Pearl Louise, of Pearl Louise Designs, is a delightful person as well as talented designer of patterns and fabrics (Troy fabrics). I always enjoy visiting with her at Market and seeing her latest designs. Below, Pearl is standing in front of her newest Block of the Month Quilt featuring her fabrics. Pearl is known for her delightful block of the month quilt patterns.

Pearl Louise at Houston Quilt Market

Leilani Arts, has exotic yarns, fibers, textiles and beads. You can see how luscious their silks are.  I love the vest of woven silk strips and can visualize the strips used for quilts as well.

Leilani Arts silk yarns at quilt market
Luscious, luscious………

Leilani Arts silk vest at Quilt Market

Suzanne McNeill of Design Originals (Fox Chapel Publishing) was showing how easy it is to sew Zentangle type designs for quilts with the new book “Zen-Sational, Stitches for Quilting”. Although it looks like it would be hard to sew Zentangles, Suzanne showed how easy it really is. Really easy! I love drawing with the Zentangle technique and can’t wait to try it for sewing.

Suzanne McNeill of Design Originals at Quilt Market in Houston

Meg Hannan’s Fabric Jewels creates the most amazing and beautiful fabric jewelry in her Rag Sky Art Studio.  Yes, the jewelry is really made from fabric with beads and other embellishments.  She uses a special technique to make this unique jewelry.  You can see more of her jewelry as well as galleries that carry her art jewelry on her website – its a beautiful site so check it out. And congratulations on Meg for celebrating 25 years of Fabric Jewels!

Meg Hannan fabric jewelry at Quilt Market

I hope you’ve enjoyed my view of Quilt Market so far.  I still have lots more to show you from market as well as photos from the quilt exhibits. Walking the quilt exhibits is like walking an art museum as they are really works of art. Please check back.

Phyllis

Quilt Market – full of spectacular colors, quilts and more

I just returned from the International Quilt Market in Houston and am so excited about all I saw. There was so much to see and I want to share some of my favorite things as well as some of the fabulous quilts on display.

Friday night before Market began, I went to the Fabric 2.0 Meet and Great event, which was packed with people networking and just plain ol’ having a great time.  To my surprise, my name was called for the first door prize (so I now I have to stop saying I never win anything)!

Door prize - ribbons from JCaroline CreativeI won a half gallon jar of beautiful woven ribbons from JCaroline Creative and a book from Stash Books.  I am thrilled with my prize and can’t wait to use the ribbons. Thanks Caroline!!

The next morning I took a fun class on surface design using Amazing Angelina, paint sticks and foils from Embellishment Village. I made this leaf design using the Amazing Angelina and a rubber stamp. I look forward to using all of these techniques from class for new projects.

Design made with Amazing Angeling fibers.

One of the booths that captivated me was Woolylady. I have always loved hooking rugs and love the designs and wool that was in their booth as well as their colors.

Woolylady booth at the International Quilt Market

Another booth that I just adored was Handbehg Felts with so many wonderful felted items.  The colors made the booth pop and I loved the decorated dress form centerpiece made with packaging.  The skirt was made with bags of felt balls and the tubes from paper towels.  My picture doesn’t do it justice.

Handbehg felts

Handbehg Felt booth

There were several book signings with so many new books out.  I was delighted to see Kathy Davis who was signing her book Scatterjoy in the Free Spirit Fabric booth. Her new fabric line is behind us and is really gorgeous.

Kathy Davis booksigning

And here are some of the fabulous quilts from the quilt exhibits – all works of art.

Caddy and Cakes Quilt by Janet Fogg of Lake Oswego, OR.

Caddy and Cakes quilt

Circle of Life: Hibiscus Christmas by Heidi Lund of Bremerton, WA

Circle of Life: Hibiscus Christmas

Crocus by Maggie Weiss of Evanston, IL

Crocus Quilt

I love this one because I have a black cat – Look Out for Scout by Penny Sander of Arlington, MA

Black Cat Quilt

Spring is Just Around the Corner by Saradean Hallman of West Columbia, SC.

Spring is Just Around the Corner Quilt

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my pictures.  I will post more tomorrow for Part 2 with more booths and quilts. So please check back!

Phyllis

Quilt like the Gypsy Wind!

The colors of the fabrics used in this quilt – turquoise, lime green and purple – are my favorite colors. So I was “in heaven” while designing and sewing “Gypsy Wind” for the book “Patchwork Comforters, Throws and Quilts” published by House of White Birches.  The fabrics are Marie Osmond’s “Gypsy Breeze” collection by Quilting Treasures.  

41 colorful and exciting quilts are shown in this book along with patterns and instructions.  It is a book quilt lovers will cherish.

And if you love these fabrics as much as I do, please check out my earlier post where I met Marie Osmond at the International Quilt Market with another quilt I designed using these fabrics for Quilting Treasures’ booth.

I wish you a day filled with your favorite colors.

Phyllis

Houston International Quilt Market

I just attended another spectacular International Quilt Market in Houston and wanted to share some of it with you.  Quilt Market is a trade show filled with fabulous quilts, fabrics, fibers and all sorts of quilting supplies and embellishments as well as being a fusion of colors.  Here is a bird’s eye view of a small part of the show floor.

There are always some great quilt challenges and exhibits at Market and here are some that were spectacular. I just loved this quilt made by Maureen O’Doogan from Tallahassee FL.  Its fun and whimsical and great colors!

There was an exhibit of  kaleidoscope quilts by Paula Nadelstern.   They were simply amazing. Here are a few of them along with a close up.

Another huge and fascinating exhibit was the Fabric Forrest, a German exhibit to represent the Black Forrest. The quilts were tall and slim and were hung to represent trees.  One of the amazing aspects of these quilts was that they were double sided with both the fronts and backs equally as beautiful. My photo’s didn’t do them justice with the colors because of the space and lighting.

Now for a brief pause before I continue.  Not everything about Quilt Market is about Quilts.  I just have to show you the gorgeous red shoes my friend Jill (with Quilting Treasures) was wearing.  Aren’t they awesome! Some serious Shoe Envy here!

Games are really hot right now, especially board games.  I think I could change my middle name to “opoly” because of all the work I’ve done with “opoly’s”.  I designed and made this Monopoly quilt for Quilting Treasures booth.  They debuted the Monopoly fabric line at Market.

The DMC Corporation showcased their Quiltopoly and Stitchopoly games in their booth.  I designed the components of the Quiltopoly board and game last year.  Cilene (with DMC and a friend for many years) and I are posing in front of the game display.

In addition to all the beautiful quilts and colors of Quilt Market, Its always fun to catch up with friends including Brenda Pinnick and Debra Quartermain, and many others.  I’m already looking forward to the Spring Quilt Market!


Quilt Market and Sewing Machine Decision Time

The International Quilt Market in Pittsburgh this month was wonderful as usual.  Color was everywhere as new fabrics were displayed (including mine – Its a Dog’s Life with Quiting Treasures).  The mood was upbeat throughout the show and buyers were doing just that – buying.  I took loads of pictures of great vendors as well as my friends   But, if you read my last post, you know that my photo files were corrupted on the disk (the file names are all goofy symbols and Windows doesn’t know what file types they are- so if anyone can tell me what happened, I would love to know).

I am really excited about something that I purchased at the show (actually its being purchased through my local dealer).  I bought Bernina’s digitizing software, “DesignerPlus Version 5” so that I can turn my art images into machine embroidery.

Bernina Desginer Plus Software

I plan to start with the motifs from my fabric collections. I also want to create designs to put on some of my projects featured in magazines and books.

Call me a nut, but I actually love learning new software, until I get to a frustration point!  The good thing about this software is that my local shop (Robin’s Sewing Shoppe) will give me lessons on using it, in addition to the demo I received at Quilt Market.  So, any frustration points can be resolved locally!

But the next step is that after getting home, I have decided that I want to upgrade my sewing machine.  That actually means starting new since my machine can’t be “upgraded”.  I’ve been visiting the websites of ALL the sewing machine companies to see which one has the features I want. Boy, now that’s frustration!  Some of the websites have much more information than others and its frustrating looking at one that has very little information on the features of their machines.  Then when I find a feature of one machine that I really like, I look back at all the sites again to see which ones have that feature.  And I love features! Unfortunately, the $$’s go up with each feature so I am going to have to tone it down.

So now, I’m off to visit local dealers to make a decision on which machine I want and to see if I can find one in my budget.

Oh well, wish me luck!

Phyllis

Invitation to join me Sunday night for a live chat!

I am very fortunate to have two events Sunday night (May 24).  At 4:00 p.m. EST, I am going to be the guest for the live chat on the Fiber Arts/Mixed Media Forum with Susan Sorrell.  My topic will be Art Marketing and Licensing.

At 7:15 p.m. EST, I will be on Inspired at Home with Tiffany Windsor on BlogTalkRadio. My topic will be Trending and using trends in designing, home decor, and crafts.

I would love to have you join me as you will be able to ask questions.  If you are unable to join in, you can still listen to to the interviews later by visiting the above links.

I had some wonderful pictures that I took at Quilt Market.  However, something happened to my disk with the photos and all the files were corrupted with strange file names.  I have been unable to open them to post the pictures.  What a bummer!  If any of you know how this could have happened, please let me know.

Quilt Market was wonderful, upbeat and exciting!  I will write more about it in the next couple of days and hopefully, I can get some pictures that my friends took to show you.

I hope to visit with you tomorrow night!

Phyllis

Off to Pittsburgh for Quilt Market

My bags are packed, my Quilt Market projects are finished, my Schoolhouse talk is ready and my boarding passes are printed.  Flying is my period of rest, thinking and reading as things are always so hectic getting ready to leave.  I picked a James Patterson book to read in my flying and airport time.  And I’m looking forward to meeting up with friends who are also going to Market – dinners, lunches and just walking the show together.

I will return energized, inspired and ready to hop back to work on new designs and art.  I will post Quilt Market happenings and celebrity sightings when I return as well as the projects and patterns that I created for market.

If you are attending Quilt Market, I want to invite you to attend my Schoolhouse session “Using Trends to Boost Sales”, Thursday 3:35 in room 325.  And of course, I would love for you to visit the Quilting Treasures booth to see my new fabric “Its a Dog’s Life”.

Until I return,

Phyllis

At work in my Studio

I have been busy preparing for International Quilt Market next week.  The Spring Quilt Market is open to the trade only and is being held in Pittsburgh – a city I love to visit.  And, my new fabric collection  is debuting there.  After designing fabrics for kitties and cats, I had to show the love that I feel for dogs as well and designed Its a Dog’s Life for Quilting Treasures.  My cutting table is piled with the fabrics for the projects that I’m sewing for Quilt Market.

I will have a free pattern or two to post after Quilt Market.  I’m sewing an apron and a quilted tote bag as well as a badge holder.

If you are attending Quilt Market, I want to invite you to attend my Schoolhouse session, “Using Trends to Boost your Sales”. on Thursday, May 14 at 3:35 pm.  I would love to meet you.

OK, back to sewing – I have to get these finished!

It’s A Dog’s Life – new fabrics debuting at Quilt Market

I’m excited that my next fabric collection, It’s a Dog’s Life for Quilting Treasures is debuting at Spring Quilt Market in Pittsburgh starting May 14.  A quilt that I designed with these fabrics will be in the Quilting Treasures booth and the pattern will be posted to their website for downloading after Market.

It’s A Dog’s Life features dog bone, dog lingo, paw prints, and activity dogs fabrics.  Also, as friends of the dogs,  two bird fabrics are featured.  The blocks feature 10 dogs in various activities – cooking, exercising, shopping, gardening, and many more.

The collection can be viewed on Quilting Treasures website or on my website.

Woof, woof! (And if you are attending Quilt Market, I invite you to attend my Schoolhouse session “Using Trends to Boost Your Sales” on Thursday, May 14, the day before the show opens – I would love to meet you).