Fall Quilt Market – More Quilts

Here are more of the quilts that caught my eye in the exhibitions area of Fall Quilt Market in Houston.

There were several unique quilts that had openwork sections.  It was fascinating to study them to try and figure out how they were constructed.

One of the quilts in the World of Mother’s Dream exhibit by Reiko Kato

A detail of the Reiko Kato quilt.

Another Reiko Kato quilt

Circle Quilt

Detail of Circle Quilt

Blue Tone Quilt by Aki Sakai

Detail of Blue Tone Quilt

And there were the quilts that tugged at your heart strings:

Boy & Best Friend by Jennifer Day
Photo of her 10 year old son and his dog printed on fabric and enhanced with 58 different thread colors.

My Best Friend by Nancy Hutchison
Scrappy pineapple blocks, created with fabrics from her late husband’s favorite shirts. Quilting served as therapy following his sudden death. The backing is an expensive Dallas Cowboy fabric she’d been saving.

Mayapples by Judith Busby
Part of the Healing Quilts in Medicine exhibit. These quilts are based on pharmaceutical plants or animals being used in cancer treatments today or being researched in studies and trials.

And there were many quilts that made you smile. The What’s for Dinner? exhibit proved that quilters also had a passion for food, along with their passion for fabric.  Each art quilt was an enlarged place setting, complete with place setting, silverware, plate and food.

Fall Quilt Market Report……… Part 2 – The Quilts

Quilt Market Exhibits – Peaceful Inspiration and Quiet as a Church

One of my favorite things to do at Quilt Market is to spend quality time enjoying the rows & rows of quilts hung for the various quilt competitions and exhibits.  During Festival, those rows are packed with people admiring the quilts and eager to see all the details.  But, during Market, while most attendees and exhibitors are busy conducting the business of quilting, the rows are practically deserted and it is as quiet as a church – so peaceful and inspiring.  Here are some quilts that caught my eye this year.

Exuberance by Wendy Starn – a windmill block cut using the stack & whack method

Fish Scraps by Rahna Summerlin. Inspired by a vintage fish quilt. Almost all the fabrics are from surf wear industry ready-to-wear fabric samples & remnants.

Cakes Are Ready by Keiko Maida of Japan. Just gotta smile when you look at this one.

Dear Jane, Welcome to the 21st Century by Valerie Mullally of Ireland. Jane keeps up-to-date with apps and icons for her block designs.

Recycled Silk Ties – No Necks Needed by Virginia Anderson. Sewn from silk ties.

Pink Candle, Organic Log Cabin #5 by Jennifer Emry. The color palette for this quilt was inspired by the Henri Rousseau painting, “The Pink Candle”.

Mediterranean Colors and Perfumes by Sonia Bardella of Venice, Italy. A beautiful mosaic pieced quilt.

A detail of Mediterranean Colors & Perfumes.

Irish Crochet Lace by Chieko Shiraishi of Japan. A combination of crochet and quilting.

Looks like there are several more quilts I’d like to share, but I will stop here and do Part 2 of Part 2 shortly.  I guess that would technically make it Fall Quilt Market Report – Part 3.

Fall Quilt Market Report – Part 1

As usual, fall Quilt Market in Houston was a colorful visual treat for all the senses and an overload of sewing/quilting and creative inspirations.  Here are just a few of the booths and products that caught my eye when my camera was close in hand.

Fabric, fabric everywhere!  It seems to me that this show, more than ever, featured so many new designer fabric collections.  I sure am glad I am not a fabric buyer because it would be so difficult to narrow down my favorites.  Here’s a peak at what was new:

Laura Foster Nicholson of LFN Textile and designer for Renaissance Ribbons introduces her first fabric line with Troy.  http://lfntextiles.blogspot.com/

Andover Fabric makes a big splash with their Downton Abbey collection – free tote bags at Schoolhouse.  http://bit.ly/1go3SVm

Amy Butler Hapi collection inspired by her travels to Egypt.  http://bit.ly/1bTTbUM

Heather Bailey’s award winning booth.

How nice to meet Denyse Schmidt (no relation!) and see her Ansonia collection and Modern Solids. http://bit.ly/19whitQ

Anna Maria Horner’s beautiful Dowry collection. Anna Maria just had her 6th child…how does she do it all?!

Of course there were lots of other things besides fabric to get excited about.  A couple of my favorite new products:

Nathan Wiedenmann, creator of the Stella EDGE light.  Santa…I need this!  http://stellalighting.com/

Terial magic spray that transforms fabric into paper like sheets. Makes incredible soft flowers that can be molded and formed. Exciting what can be done with it and the Silhouette Cameo. More things to add to Santa’s list.

And of course there are always the quilts!

Love the graphic look of this bicycle quilt. Sorry I didn’t write down the company who featured it in their booth.

How cute is this Dena Designs ruffle chevron quilt?

A happy BOM color therapy quilt program from Westminster Fibers. Inspired by Michele Bernhardt’s book Colorstrology: What Your Birthday Color Says About You. My color is nectarine…what does that say? I like to eat them!  http://amzn.to/18UhKhp

And the booth that I thought was really unique:

Green Bee Design & Patterns. Love how they showed their patterns in muslin with the design lines in black. You can imagine them in just about any fabric.  http://greenbeepatterns.com/

Here I am after my book signing.  Thank you to Fabric Editions for helping me promote Precut Patchwork Party.  I signed 20 books in 20 minutes–whee!  http://amzn.to/HDkxWH

In Part 2, I’ll show you quilts from the exhibitions area.

Time slippin’ away…..and so much to be thankful for.

I know I haven’t written in a long time, but I didn’t realize it’s been 2 1/2 months since my last post.  Yikes!  Time sure has a “funny” way of slippin’ away.  Rather than write a lot of words, I’ll share a few pictures of what has been happening around here, going back to September.

I spent the month of September chained to my sewing machine, working on projects for Quilt Market and Quilt Festival (more about that in another post).

Cruisin’ the Mediterranean

Although Quilt Market wasn’t until the end of October, I was super motivated to get everything done and out the door by 10/1 because we had a very special trip planned – a 12 day Mediterranean cruise to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary.  We have never traveled like that and it was indeed the trip of a lifetime! (Took over 1000 pictures which I will eventually edit and share just a few with you in an inspiration post.)

Came home for a few days – full of family and friends and fun – as we celebrated our niece’s upcoming wedding and our anniversary.  A big thank you to our amazing daughters who planned it all since Mom was a bit jet-lagged.

Renaissance Ribbons Quilt Market Fall 2012

Then off to Quilt Market and Festival in Houston where I taught a Schoolhouse class and demoed for Renaissance Ribbons.  Their products are so beautiful and the response was amazing.  I demoed making bracelets from ribbons and must have made several hundred between the two shows.  It was so energizing to spend time with the talented folks from Renaissance Ribbons and all the consumers who absolutely fell in love with everything in the booth.  Exhausting, stimulating, overwhelming….what else can I say?  It was quite an experience.

But while I was enjoying myself in Houston, Hurricane Sandy was on its way to NJ.  We do not live near the shore, so I really wasn’t that worried.  But then again, last year when I was in Houston, I came home to 23″ of wet snow, downed trees, and no power for 5 days.  So maybe we would get a lot of rain and wind and lose power for a few days.  But as we all know, it was much worse than expected.  I was able to get home Saturday night after the storm.  We ended up without power for 14 days and phones and Internet for 17 days.  We live out in the country, surrounded by trees….and we lost about 36 trees, all pushed down in a row, like matchsticks.  Luckily nothing hit the house.  Everything was OK.  But driving around and seeing the images from the shore communities, we saw that many had lost so much.

If anything good has come from the storm, it has been the heartfelt outreach of so many people – from checking in on neighbors and friends near and far, to our church finding a generator and serving meals to hundreds each day, to the many volunteers who are still are out there cleaning and clearing and getting things back to what will be a new normal.  There is indeed so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Wishing you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving.  Hugs all around!

NY Gift Show Trend Report

A day out of the workroom on Monday, walking the NY Gift Show, was just what I needed to get my creative juices going. So happy I live just a train ride away from the city and can make it a day excursion.  Whenever I can get to one of the gift shows, I look for trends I can translate into upcoming projects.  The fabulous online marketplace, One Kings Lane, along with Pantone, made that very easy for me.  Here are the trends they displayed so beautifully at the show.

American Vintage – nostalgia, classic motifs, denim, patchwork (yea!), numbers, flags with distressed finishes, salvaged materials, schoolroom style.  Colors – blues, green and grey including Pantone colors Amazon, Bright White, Mars Red, Micro Chip, Oil Yellow, Peppercorn, Stonewash, Turkish Sea and Vintage Indigo.

French Moderne Way – elegant French design, blending rich materials and exotic elements.  Colors – muted neutrals, traditional dark blues and reds including Pantone Almost Mauve, Crown Blue, Gray Morn, Parisian Night, Rose Taupe, Silver, Sparrow, Tibetan Red and White Swan.

The Marrakesh Express – ethnic looks from North Africa, aged color story, set against distressed finishes.  Colors – richly aged patina metal surfaces, including Pantone colors Antique Moss, Cloudburst, Deep Mahogany, Fir Green, Mecca Orange, Moostruck, Morel, Red Dahlia, Rooibos Tea, and Stormy Weather. The Linen Revival – a dry hand, with rough linens that look hand-loomed, two-color tweeds, animal prints such as zebra and alligator wovens.  Colors – reaching beyond light neutrals, including Pantone Arabian Spice, Caramel Cafe, Deep Well, Hemp, Orange Peppers, Papyrus, Seal Brown and Toasted Coconut.

Graphic Modern – grounded by strong print statements with “pop”, often rendered in just one or two colors.  Colors – jewel-toned colors, including Pantone colors Bosphorus, Cayenne, Evening Blue, Gloxinia, Green Sheen, Jazzy, Sodalite Blue, Tender Shoots and Wild Aster.

So there’s a sneak peak into the trends you’ll be seeing in the stores in the upcoming months.