Travels Archives - Phyllis Dobbs Blog

Spring International Quilt Market in Minneapolis

By Phyllis May 28, 2015 May 29, 2015 Fabrics, Quilt Market, Quilts & Quilting, Sewing, Travels

I recently attended the Spring International Quilt Market in Minneapolis. As most of you probably know, it’s the largest trade show for anything related to quilting – fabrics, patterns, notions, threads and more and is a kaleidoscope of colors. I took so many photos so am dividing my Quilt Market review into two posts – check back for all the beautiful quilts on display.

Quilt Market started off with gloomy, rainy and very cool weather, but it turned warm and sunny for two days before it turned ugly and stormy again. Minneapolis is a great location for Quilt Market when weather doesn’t cooperate as city has a system of skywalks going from building to building so that you don’t have to go outside. The Minneapolis convention center is pretty and in looking at this photo, looks like the inside of a space ship with the large domes.

I always enjoy seeing an American Flag Quilt and especially so at this show since Memorial Day was the following weekend. This large quilt was displayed in a booth but I, unfortunately, did not get the name of the booth.

I was in the A&E and Gutermann thread booth during the show. I love, love their threads.

With these beautiful threads and colors behind me, you can see why I enjoyed working in this booth. Yummy!!!

I also spent time in the Quilting Treasures Booth, the fabric company that my fabrics are with.

One of my amazing friends, J. Wecker Frish, has a new fabric collection “Letter Stitch” with Quilting Treasures and were displayed beautifully in the booth. Janet always adds such detail and antiques in her displays.

I also loved the new fabrics “Owl in the Family” by Desiree’s Designs.

And for kids, Quilting Treasures has the fabrics for the 1 in a Minion from “Despicable Me”. What kid wouldn’t want a quilt with this fabric!

I’m a huge fan of Downton Abbey, and always get a smile with anything associated with the spunky Dowager Countess. Pink Sand Beach has an exclusive for the Downton Abbey patterns and fabric kits.

June Tailor is another favorite booth of mine – it’s always so beautiful, colorful and always has some wonderful new quilt tools and notions.

A new item by June Tailor is “Quilt As You Go Pre-Printed Batting” that comes as a complete quilt and four block designs” that are a piece by number construction.

I also love the Thread Mate Spool and Bobbin Pegs from June Tailor, a really great item to let you keep your spool of thread and bobbin together. No more searching for the right threaded bobbin as you get ready to sew. It’s the little things like this that makes sewing and quilting easier.

Quilt Market is not all walking the aisles. There is always the time for fun with friends. Taking selfies by friends in the News Room for dinner – Jackie Frisch McClenning, Janet Wecker Frisch, Loralie and Ann Regal.

And I enjoyed spending some time with the people from Quilting Treasures. That really tall paper mache in the back is Freida.

This is a different view of one of the domes over the convention center. While looking at it from a distance, it might look like a space ship, but looking straight up, it looks like a quilt pattern, which made it perfect for Quilt Market.

Please check back, as I’ve already started writing another post about Quilt Market to show you some really amazing and gorgeous quilts that were displayed.

Happy Quilting,

Phyllis

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A Step Back in Time

By Phyllis July 24, 2014 July 24, 2014 Travels

I decided to take a day away from my studio this week for a “Girls Day Trip”. We planned a trip to a small town that we could drive to within an hour or two. After considering our options, we decided on the town of Scottsboro, AL, which is approximately 127 miles away. We had an ulterior motive – shopping. (We are women after all.) But the best stop was for lunch at an old-fashioned soda fountain.

Payne’s Sandwich Shop and Soda Fountain is an authentic old-fashioned soda fountain. It is 147 years old and still has that vintage feel of stepping back in time. I guess pulling out my iPhone for pictures was a little out of step, though.

Deciding on Payne’s for lunch was easy. An internet search by one of my friends, Jan, pulled up a review showing a very high rating. After eating there, we definitely agreed. Two of us had BLT’s which were delicious. The other two had different choices and also loved theirs.

I love this row of soda stools and the counter. We would have loved to eaten at the counter but couldn’t talk as much if we were spread out!

And of course, being a soda fountain, there was ice cream. The chalk board had a long list of flavors and types – shakes, sundaes, malts, floats, splits, and much more. Jan ordered this dish of scoops. I just love the colors – they make a great color scheme for art or decorating.

I was so full that I was going to pass on ice cream even though I really wanted some. The hostess suggested a very small scoop. It was just a few small bites of Butter Pecan and enough to satisfy my craving.

And here we are! Starting at the right, Vicky, Jan, the owner, Jeannine and myself. We knew we were in for a treat talking to the owner. When she came to our table, one of us asked “what are you known for” and she answered “bad advise”. She was a delight and gave us a lot of attention and information about the restaurant.

Although we planned to stop at any spot we found interesting during our trip, our main goal was the “Unclaimed Baggage” store. None of us had been and wanted to see what it was like as it’s where all the lost airline luggage ends up. I thought I might find a piece from my luggage lost many years ago, LOL. The store had lots of items, was clean and organized, and had much more product than from airlines. They said that the items came from anything that involved travel and included a lot of new things (from lost containers?). It was kind of like a thrift store on steroids! We didn’t buy much, mainly a few books (I just started the new Dean Koontz book that I bought). I bought a lot of very inexpensive costume jewelry to tear apart and make into other things, maybe add to quilts. Who knows, but at a couple of dollars each, it was too good to pass up. You know how crafters and artists are, add a little sparkly, beads, etc. and our eyes glaze over.

But the bottom line is that we had a blast, just talking about anything and everything that came to mind with a lot of laughs. A day like this is good for the soul!

Here’s to the power of girlfriends!

Phyllis

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Sights at Atlanta Gift Market

By Phyllis July 17, 2014 July 17, 2014 art licensing, Artist Friends, Travels

I attended the Atlanta Gift Market last week, a trip that I always enjoy and wanted to share some of my photos. I love to attend market and while there, check out new products and trends, as well as meet up with friends. Atlanta is considered the best of all the gift markets.

Needless to say, July in Atlanta is so NOT cool, so I really enjoyed seeing Christmas with snow in some of the showroom windows. I felt cooler just looking at these windows. This white reindeer was in the Cody Foster and Co. showroom. This reindeer, combined with snow-covered white trees, made me instantly feel cooler.

This whole display in the Mark Roberts showroom was really refreshing and had me on the verge of singing “Jingle Bells” (well not really since I can’t carry a tune). They did have another deer that was singing Christmas songs, but I didn’t join in.

I love looking at the displays at Market. This vintage bicycle was standing outside the Vintage showroom and was one of several vintage type bicycles I saw displayed throughout Market.

The Kalalou showroom is always on my list to visit as it’s always fun to see what they will display at the entrance to their showroom. This huge elephant greeted their visitors this time.

I walked the market a little while with friend and talented artist Jane Maday. We went by the Evergreen Enterprises showroom to see the display of the very cute baby products using her art.

A bunch of us artists meet up during market to catch up with each other and to participate in lots of talking. This group includes Genevieve Gail (standing), Shelly Comiskey, Karen Embry, Chad Barrett, Dan DiPaolo, Robin Davis, Caroline Simas, Paula Joerling, Jan Beach, and myself.

I also returned home with lots of work, so it’s back to the “drawing board”.

Phyllis

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Spring Quilt Market in Portland, Part 2

By Phyllis June 11, 2013 June 11, 2013 Fabrics, Quilt Market, Quilts & Quilting, Sewing, Travels

The International Quilt Market is always beautiful and filled with great products. The recent Spring Quilt Market in Portland, OR, was no exception. Here are some of the photos I took during market.

The first thing I notice when attending a Quilt Market in Portland is the beautiful flowers that are in bloom everywhere. Rhododendron is always in bloom with spectacular colors and are in abundance outside the convention center.

I was working with Gutermann of USA while at market. I also decorated their booth and used some of my fabric collections with Quilting Treasures to make the quilts. (Most of these patterns are available for free here on my blog – Halloween, Bee Yourself quilt, Bee Yourself Placemat, Birthday banner .) I love Gutermann threads and heard the same comment from so many people during market. Our sewing machines also love Gutermann, so if yours is acting grouchy, try Gutermann threads to make it smile.

I was excited that my next fabric collection, “Wild Flower” with Quilting Treasures was being pre-sold at market. I can’t wait to show you pictures of this collection, so check back. A friend who also has fabrics with Quilting Treasures, J Wecker Frish, has a new fabric collection coming soon, “She Who Sews”. As you can see in the picture below, it will be another fabulous collection .

June Tailor, Inc always has a beautiful booth. The Hexagon Ruler ,”You Hexie Thing,” and Grid Marker are both fabulous quilting tools. You can see the beautiful quilts and sewing that can be created using them. Hexie’s are so hot in quilting!

Another product, the Swatch Buddies, caught my eye. These are reusable plastic cards that let you mount fabric swatches on one side and write swatch information on the other side. You can shop for multiple projects at the same time by creating rings of Swatch Buddies for each project. You can also use these for your color palette when building your fabric stash. Another use it to attach them to a fabric bin so that you can see what fabrics are in the bin. I really think that there are many, many uses that they will be handy for.

This really cute tulle tutu was created by my friend Debi Schmitz for the Expo International booth She used various accessory pieces from Expo International to decorate a bodice. Its so feminine!

The Pfaff USA sewing machine booth had several really unique and beautiful quilts on display. This one, “Positively Paisley”, is by Robyn Smith of Austin Sewing Machines. She used a combination of free motion and quilting designs created with the 5D Quilt Designer software.

This is a close up of the detail of one of the paisleys in the quilt.

The quilt below, “Porcelain Peacock” in the Pfaff booth, was created by 5 ladies from The Quilting Hen. Its very dimension and textured.

Therm-o-Web had a really cute display of projects you can make using HeatnBond.

One of the benefits of having Quilt Market in Portland is that there is so much natural beauty in area. I could easily spend a week touring throughout Oregon. We did have a half day after setup to sight see and went to Multnomah Falls that is located about 30 minutes from Portland. This waterfall is so tall (620 feet) that its just about impossible to get the entire set of falls in a single photo. In the bottom photo, the small light speck on the right side of the bridge is me.

The mountains in Oregon and Washington are spectacular and I had a terrific view of 3 of Washington’s mountains from my window shortly after takeoff. Mt. St. Helens is the flat topped mountain at the left. Mt. Rainier is in the center top with Mt. Adams at the right side. They may be hard to pick out at first glance due to the puffy clouds.

You can click to see my first post of the Spring Quilt Market with some of the spectacular quilts on exhibit.

Now, I’m already looking forward to Fall Quilt Market in Houston.

Phyllis

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I’m off to the CHA Winter Show (the Craft & Hobby Association)

By Phyllis January 26, 2012 January 26, 2012 art licensing, Crafts and Crafting, Travels

I’m really looking forward to attending CHA, the trade show for the Craft and Hobby Association for a few days and as well as the warm weather in Anaheim, CA. I always love attending this show to see new products, take the educational seminars, and for the exciting atmosphere of the show.

I’m excited about the seminar The New Dynamics of Art Licensing that I along with Brenda Pinnick and Karen Embry will be teaching while we are in Anaheim. We have been really focused in putting the seminar together with some great information. (You can click on the NDAL button in the sidebar to see more on what is being offered.)

At CHA, I will be working for Gutermann, so you can find me in their booth most of the time. I’ve always loved the beautiful Gutermann threads and am delighted to be working with them. So if you are attending CHA, please stop by and say “hi”.

The Designer Showcase is having a change in the format this year, focusing more on what the designers can do for a company. I’ve always exhibited in the Designer Showcase and had been giving a lot of thought to my showcase this year. Then it just all finally came together in a mental snap so all I had to do was gather up things I wanted to use and do a little printing. This year, it will also be open to everyone, except for non-CHA members.

I will be involved in something else at CHA that is really fun, but I can’t talk about it yet. But I can mark it off my bucket list. So you will have to check back to find out what this is – it will be videoed and out there for the world to see. I just have to make sure I don’t mess up, but it will be among friends. Speaking of friends, that’s another reason I love to attend CHA – to catch up with friends, network, and gab a little.

Check back and stay tuned – I may come back with a little gossip, or not (probably not). But I will have lots of photos of new products, great displays, splashes of fun and splashes of color.

Phyllis

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Look Around and Observe the Patterns

By Phyllis January 24, 2012 January 24, 2012 Travels

Sometimes (or most of the time) we are so focused on what we are doing or thinking that we don’t look around us. By just stopping to observe our surroundings, there is so much pattern, detail and color that we normally don’t notice.

While in Atlanta for the Gift Market this month, I looked down the escalators in Building 1 and snapped a photo because it looked interesting from my viewpoint.

This photo was taken on the 14th floor. The 6th floor is at the bottom of the escalator shaft. After attending Gift Market many times and going round and round and round on the escalators from 6th floor to 18th floor, I never noticed the pattern seen from looking down the center of the shaft.

Walking in Building 3 of the Mart, I looked across the center from around the 7th or 8th floor and saw this pattern formed by the elevator shaft and escalators. I wish I had taken a picture looking down from a higher floor, but thought this looked very balanced.

This is another view of the pattern formed by the open floors in Building 3 looking from the escalators. The curvature of the floors from this angle gives a different look and pattern.

After I took the pictures of the floor patterns in Market, I was in a mental mode of observing other patterns. As I walked through the lobby of the Marriott Marquis on the way to the Hilton where I was staying, I looked up and saw this dynamic view of the floors and arrangement. It was really beautiful to see, especially since the floor vertical arrangement is not symmetrical. Previously being mentally focused on other things, it took several trips through the Marriott before I looked up and noticed it.

I noticed that the Hilton also has a pattern by looking up. This is looking up from the 14th floor, but there were almost solid floors looking up and down so the view wasn’t as dramatic. This view is interesting with the elevator shaft going up through the opening. It looks like a higher view would have a better view pattern formed by open floors.

So, take a moment to look up, look down and all around you to really observe things you might be missing. Its so easy to be tunnel visioned in your thoughts or conversations.

Phyllis

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Atlanta Gift Market was buzzing!

By Phyllis January 17, 2012 January 18, 2012 Art, art licensing, Artist Friends, Travels

I just returned from a few days at the Atlanta Gift Market and was thrilled with how exciting, upbeat and busy market was. Market was really busy all 4 days that I was there and I consider it a good sign for the gift industry.

Its always fabulous to walk market and see all the new products (many of which are designed by my artist friends). And its always fun to meet up with these friends. I can’t take pictures of the product displayed throughout market but its fun to take pictures of friends.

I went to several artist’s signings, where they were autographing some of their products. Robin Davis adorable new line Blessings with Wings is with Carson.

Lori Siebert was autographing her new products with Carson as well. I have to tell you that Lori was wearing the most fabulous and colorful boots (much like her art). I did try to take a picture of them but it turned out really blurry but take my word, they were great.

The fabulous Giordano brothers, Greg on the left and Bob on the right were both autographing some of their many flags at the Custom Decor showroom. I’m doing a pretty wimpy job of holding the flag.

My agent, Jewel Branding and Licensing, was exhibiting in the License and Design section that is held at the January markets. On Thursday, after the License and Design was set up, several of us met for an impromptu photo op – Robin Pickens, Brenda Pinnick, myself, Shelly Comiskey, Karen Embry and Sue Zipkin.

And for a period to get together and talk a bit, there was an artists gathering at the Westin on Friday afternoon. You may see several of your favorite artists here – Teri Conrad, Paula Joerling, Joyce Shelton, BJ Lantz, Gina Wilder, Jane Maday, Sharon Himes, Robin Davis, Beth Yarbrough, Beth Logan, Audrey Jeanne Roberts, Karen Embry, and on the front row, Cherish Flieder, Janet Wecker Frisch, Shelly Comiskey, myself, Sue Zipkin, and Robin Pickens. Getting us all together for this photo was like herding cats and several got away. (Thanks to Shelly for this photo as mine didn’t turn out!)

As I was walking through Building 3 of the market, I saw this giant red and white helmet. I’m assuming it was due (or I’m attributing it) to Alabama’s win of the BSC bowl last week. There was definitely a lot of Alabama items showing throughout the showrooms.

I’m back in full work mode, but will be leaving next week for Anaheim for the Craft and Hobby show (CHA). Check back as I can show lots of product from this show.

Phyllis

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

By Phyllis November 8, 2011 November 8, 2011 Fabrics, Free Patterns, Quilt Market, Quilts & Quilting, Sewing, Travels

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.

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.

and these fabulous teapots…

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.

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).

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

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.

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!

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

A closeup of the fleece flowers….

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.

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.

You can create such cute critters with felt.

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!!

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.

and aren’t these trees adorable for sewing!

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.

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

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

By Phyllis November 3, 2011 November 4, 2011 Fabrics, Quilt Market, Quilts & Quilting, Sewing, Travels

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).

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.

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.

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

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!

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

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.

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Luscious, luscious………

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.

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!

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

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Classes and More from The Creative Connection

By Phyllis September 27, 2011 September 27, 2011 Art, Artist Friends, Crafts and Crafting, Travels

This has been a busy week, unwinding and getting back in the flow after attending the amazing Creative Connection Event held in St. Paul. Days 2 and 3 were devoted to classes, various panels, and other speakers and panels at breakfast and lunch. (My prior blog post detailed the first day with exciting BlogHer panel discussions.) I chose to take 4 classes on these 2 days although there were several panel sessions I would have loved to attend.

Its always fun to have some arts and crafts play time and to work in different techniques than I’m used to. There were many classes to choose from but I chose to take all 4 of Traci Bautista’s classes with different focuses of art journaling.

There are so many surfaces you can journal on and, as shown by Traci, fabric is one of the surfaces that can be used.

Our table early during first class with our basic journal pages in process.

Karen Embry and Brenda Pinnick are very intent on their journal pages.

In another of Traci’s classes, she is explaining different page techniques and the binding of journals.

Our table in another class – lots more more product and lots of swapping between tables.

A journal page I was working on during one of the classes.

Art journaling can get messy so its best to cover up both surfaces and clothes. Its amazing that I didn’t get any paint on the shirt I brought to protect my clothes. If I had been in my studio, I would have had paint in my hair, on my face and all the way to my feet. But it was impossible to keep my hands clean!

On Friday evening, the event had a cocktail party with book signing by the authors in attendance. I didn’t pass up a chance to have my picture taken with several of the authors.

Jo Packham, although the same height as me, is a giant. She is not only the editor for Where Women Create and Where Women Cook, she is the co-founder of The Creative Connection Event. I know TCC event took a tremendous amount of planning, but Jo pulled it off to perfection.

Holly Becker is the author of the popular decorating blog Decor8 and her book Decorate is an international best seller. Holly is a tremendous speaker and was the dinner keynote speaker Thursday night along with Christina Ferrare.

Kelly Rae Roberts, author of Taking Flight, was also part of a very informative breakfast panel of speakers.

And I love this group photo at Crafty Chica’s (Kathy Cano-Murillo) signing, left to right – Eileen Hull, myself, Ann Butler, Kathy – Crafty Chica, Karen Embry, and Brenda Pinnick.

I remain inspired from this event and am already looking forward to next year’s. If you are thinking of attending, you won’t be disappointed!

Have a inspiring day!

Phyllis

Category Archives: Travels

Spring International Quilt Market in Minneapolis

A Step Back in Time

Sights at Atlanta Gift Market

Spring Quilt Market in Portland, Part 2

I’m off to the CHA Winter Show (the Craft & Hobby Association)

Look Around and Observe the Patterns

Atlanta Gift Market was buzzing!

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

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

Classes and More from The Creative Connection

Phyllis Dobbs Art & Design Studio

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