Quilt Market – Days 1 & 2

Been a busy couple of days walking all the booths. Yesterday was looking for fabric and today was spotting new block of the month programmes.

I have a couple of great new BOMs coming in  a few months when I will then need to buckle down and make samples of them. There is a pieced star one and an circular appliqué one.

As for fabrics, I have ordered a wonderful collection called Grandeur from Robert Kaufman. This features a full width print with some great co-ordinates and should be in stock in July.

I will do the rest of my ordering of fabric tomorrow.

The frustrating thing always is that you have to wait several months before the fabric is ready!

Off to the Mall of America this evening which is supposed to be the biggest mall in the world.

I have a late flight home tomorrow and will be back in the UK monday lunchtime…….and hopefully back and still awake to surprise my son, Thomas, by picking him up from school!

Quilt Market

Well here I am in Minneapolis at the Spring Quilt Market, THE trade show for the quilting industry.

I can’t believe it has been soooo long since I posted anything! Life has been rather hectic in the last couple of months both with the business and personally.

I flew in from London yesterday direct to Minneapolis. I was hoping to post some pictures while I was here but not only is my camera playing up but I forgot to bring the right cable with me to download them to the pc! Maybe because I didn’t put that on my list?

Anyway today is Thursday and that means Schoolhouse and Sample Spree. Schoolh0use as the name suggests is like being back at school where about 20 different 15 –20 minute presentations are put on by the Vendors in different classrooms at a time and you decide which ones you want to go and see and then when they are finished you go and see another one. Its a great way of finding out very quickly about a lot of the new products and fabric collections that are being released at the show.
Sample Spree is MAD! It is not quite a free for all but its every woman for herself as you enter this massive room where loads of the vendors have tables set out for you to buy samples of fabrics, patterns, notions, you name it at discounted prices. The best places to head for are Benartex and Moda as they have fantastic bundles of their latest fabrics.

Tomorrow the show starts proper and I get to walk around all the vendors booths looking at things in more detail. Think Festival of Quilts……but bigger!!