I love Market and Spring Market especially. Because there is no Festival right behind it like at Fall Market in Houston, we don't have extremely late nights and we get to see the Market quite a bit.
A very added bonus for me is that my grand-girl, Stella, lives in St. Louis, and I would get to see her and show her off a bit. We spent 2 hours together Saturday morning and had a great lunch at Sugarfire BBQ, just up the street from the Convention Center. She was unhappy when I sent Mommy and Daddy in to Market to look around, but really "on" when they came back out:
Things I noticed: LOTS of Blue and White quilts and fabrics. 2019 is the Sapphire Celebration of International Quilt Festival in Houston and a Blue and White Exhibit has been announced:
see here.
I fell in love with this quilt and have already got plans to teach it locally this Fall:
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| Spellbound from Calico Carriage Designs |
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| Detail of quilting designs |
It uses two jelly rolls for Shibori II from MODA and 3 yards of white. What a great quilt to practice free motion machine quilting!
More Blue and White:
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| Laundry Basket Quilts Edyta Sitar |
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| Carolyn Forster in Schoolhouse talking about handwork |
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| Calico Carriage booth |
Other things I noticed: lots of bright fabrics, children's clothing samples, handwork, and still some "primitive" and "country" feeling lines. Wool is popular for handwork. Embroidery is strong. Whatever brings new and younger quilters/sewers into the industry is fine with me. My daughter-in-law was surprised at what she saw, not the quilts she knows that I make. She was smart enough to take photos and send them to me--now I can get busy on special request projects.
Here is my loot, er, stash, er, inventory additions:
Most important of all for me, is seeing some of my favorite people, faculty, show staff, vendors. This is by no means a comprehensive list, just good folks you should know:
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| Julia Kelly-Hodenius of Pique |
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| Catherine Redford |
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| Cindy Rennels of Cindy's Antique Quilts |
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| A few of the Quilts Inc.Show staff: Deann, Debra, Terri, Becky |
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| Charlotte Angotti |
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| Jen Kingwell and me |
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| Kay Roberts of Franklin Quilt Company |
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| Alex Anderson and Friend |
Last, but absolutely not least, the Education Team that I am honored to be a part of, at our farewell dinner. Did I mention we ate really well at this venue:
Marcia Barker, me, Vicki Thomas, Meg Zimmerman, Barb Cline and Jill Benge, at the Bridge.
There you have it, a taste of Spring Market 2017. I could add many more photos. Instead, I recommend you go to Instagram and search for #missingmarket and #quiltmarket. You can spend hours seeing so many booths, projects and people. Enjoy!
Let's Quilt!
Barbara
