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.

The Renaissance Ribbons Blog & Me

I am thrilled!  Edith Minne, owner of Renaissance Ribbons, has invited me to be a regular guest contributor to their blog.  I am a huge fan of their gorgeous woven ribbons so I know it will be easy to write posts about all sorts of topics related to ribbons.

A box of beautiful Renaissance Ribbons – what a treat to receive in the mail.

Renaissance Ribbons creates original designs for woven ribbons and works with many talented designers including Anna Maria Horner, Kaffe Fassett, Sue Spago, Laura Foster Nicholson, Jennifer Jangles and Dena Designs.  All these unique ribbons are so lovely and special that it is very easy to design projects to use them.  Just a little bit can be made into a card or sewn to a pillow or made into a bracelet.

In my posts on the RR blog, I will share project ideas and tutorials, tips and techniques for working with ribbons, as well as interviews with the people who work and design with Renaissance Ribbons and upcoming sneak peaks of new products.  Plus anything I can think of that is related to ribbons.  This is going to be fun!

Recently Renaissance Ribbons opened an online retail shop so now it will be easy for anyone to purchase their ribbons.  Take a minute and check it out.  But keep in mind that their ribbons are a little bit like really good chocolate….a little addicting, especially if you are a ribbon lover/collector (OK, hoarder) like me.