What Is It?

Apparently this is the new way to present lectures and seminars. I attended several classes and seminars at Quilt Market in Salt Lake City last week. Instead of being given a handful of printed notes, I received key chains, bracelets etc. Each item was also a flash drive that you can plug into your computer. Then you can see all the notes from the class plus lots of extras such as free patterns and even a quilt design program with hundreds of quilt blocks that can be made into quilts of any size. When you find the design you like, you push the "print" button and print out a coloured picture of the quilt, the fabric requirements and the cutting instructions. How cool is that!

A Few Great Quilts from Quilt Market

Here are just a few of the amazing quilts I saw at Quilt Market in Salt Lake City last week.

Vintage Buttons

Vintage buttons and assorted trims were a hot item at Quilt Market in Houston! There were several vendors selling them and of course I had to buy just a few. I will have some of my treasures for sale at the CreativFestival in Toronto this week (booth 509). The show starts on Friday and runs until Sunday.

Buttons are being used as embellishments, to make jewellery of all kinds and are being combined to make totally new buttons. Mix and match seems to be the way to go!

Here are a few pictures from the vintage button vendors' booths in Houston.

International Quilt Market in Pittsburgh

I have just returned from Quilt Market in Pittsburgh. There are hundreds of booths and people in the quilting industry attend this trade show from all over Canada, USA, Europe, Japan and Australia. Here is a bird's eye view of portions of the show floor taken from the walkway that passes above the floor. It's hard to imagine how large the show is unless you are actually there!

New Fabric from LakeHouse Dry Goods

This great collection of fabric from LakeHouse Dry Goods was hand-delivered to my door today. I saw the fabric in the LakeHouse booth at Quilt Market in Houston and just knew it was my kind of design. I enjoy doing Redwork designs and it is really hard to find a real red fabric, so this one is going to be perfect! Thanks Holly!

You can check out all the great fabric and projects at the LakeHouse web site. Holly also has a Blog that is fun to read.

Ribbons, Trims and Lace

Yesterday I received this wonderful box of ribbons, trims and beaded appliques that I ordered at Houston Quilt Market. Now I need time to play!

Today I am leaving for Vancouver where I will be teaching 4 classes at the BC Creative Expo. This is a large retail show that also offers dozens of classes for quilting, scrapbooking and needlework enthusiasts.

Ribbons and trims that I purchased at Houston Quilt Market.

More Famous People Sightings at Quilt Market

More pictures of the "famous people" who were at Quilt Market in Houston.

Here is Jeanie Sumrall-Ajero, who with her husband, designed the Kaleidoscope Kreator software. It's a great product for designing both fabric and paper creations.

Mark Lipinski, editor of Quilters' Home magazine, telling his famous girdle story.

This is a preview of Mark's new "Krakow" fabric line which is available from Northcott Fabrics.

Jane Sassaman with her new fabric line

Ricky Tims autographing his newest books

Famous People Sightings at Houston Quilt Market

Here are a few of the pictures I took at Quilt Market in Houston last week. It's always exciting to meet the people you often only see in the magazines!

Patti Carey, Marketing Director for Northcott Fabric, with one of the new Northcott Fabric lines

Marie Osmond was showing her new fabric designs.

Eleanor Burns was dressed as "Rosie the Riveter" to promote her "Victory Quilts" book.

Eleanor's son Orion forgot to bring the projector for the presentation, so here he is, holding up the laptop so everyone could see the screen. Sorry, Orion, it didn't quite work - there were 150 people in the room - but everyone enjoyed the show anyway!

Another staff member from Eleanor Burns' company showing one of the "Victory Quilts"