Market/Festival 2014 and Beyond

International Quilt Market and Festival 2014 are over and we can check that off our To Do list!  It was great to be in Houston - good friends, good food, good fabric, good times!!  Market and Festival can best be compared to a high school reunion - good friends stopping by the booth all day to say hello and spend a moment with you! If you were one of the many people that dropped by for a quick hello and a hug - thank you, you made our day.

Now I talked about food before I left and I have to say I did manage to check off almost all of the restaurants I hoped to get to - Ninfa's, Lupe's, Macaroni House, Red Oak Grill, to name a few.  I definitely got my Tex-Mex fix!!!  Queso and margaritas - yum!!  And now it's back to the real world!   Here's a sample of just one of my fabulous meals - mac and cheese from the Macaroni House!

Good fabric - well I finally got to see some of the new lines Paula has been working on.  She always shares pictures, but you know how we just have to get our hands on it and play with it.  We are over the moon excited about her collection that we shared at Market - Paula's Border Companions.  Five border stripes, each in three different colorways - can you say heavenly! They coordinate beautifully with her Companions collection too.  Besides all the beautiful quilts  you will be able to make with these, they are also perfect for your Lucy Boston and 6-pointed star blocks!  We've got some great things planned for this collection!

This year we set up the booth for Market with the intention of keeping it the same for Festival.  We moved a few things (we always do), but basically it was an easy shift from one show to the other.  Here are some pictures of the booth for Market.  I don't know what happened, but I somehow never got a chance to take pictures of the Festival booth.
 

Soldier's Waltz hanging in the center.

Quilts from left to right- Bonnie Blue, Hanover Stars, Parker's Crossing, Foursquare and Lancaster on the table.

Quilts from left to right - James River Red, Hampton, New Market, Lily, Cumberland Valley (cheddar).

All of the new patterns and kits are now available on our website.  We sold out of some kits, but we making new ones as we speak.  Look for them to be available after Thanksgiving.

This year was the 40th anniversary of International Quilt Festival - the Ruby Jubilee.  And it was celebrated in style with red everywhere.  The red and white quilt display was beautiful and very similar to the show in New York a couple of years ago.  The tote bags were red and white, but the insulated glasses were the best - they were blinged!!!  Needless to say we had to buy two of them.

We were directly across from the Marcus Fabrics booth and that is always so nice.  They had so many new collections and quilts to share.  Check out Marcus Mentions for some great pictures of the Marcus booth.  Pam Buda of Heartspun Quilts introduced her new program: Prairie Gatherings Quilt of the Quarter featuring her new Prairie Gatherings collection.  If you love red (and who doesn't), then this is the program for you.  Sign up with your local quilt shop.  They even put  her to work writing up a sale.  Check her out with Indra and Rosie of Scarlet Today/Redworks Plus (looks like Rosie will have the program).

Prairie Gatherings Quilt-of-the-Quarter and additional projects.

Indra, Pam and Rosie

We did a lot of driving around Houston and Katy while I was there and I was amazed to see all the changes in the Katy area.  I've only been gone for 4 years, but they have been busy.  New home construction is booming and they've completed a lot of the 99/Grand Parkway in that area.  Only in Houston do you see roadways that look like spaghetti noodles piled on top of each other!

And my last picture of Market/Festival - what the George R Brown Convention Center looks like on Sunday night as everyone is leaving!

I've been back home for a couple of weeks and there really is life after Market/Festival - it's called pre-Spring Market!  I've already started on a new quilt, but we will actually debut it at the Dallas Quilt Show (March 13-15, 2015) and we will have kits also.  Here are the fabrics for the blocks and the border will be one of the new Border Companions (waiting on that to arrive). I've also worked on some personal sewing, but it's mostly Christmas gifts, so I can't share them yet. 

 I did get the house decorated - for Fall, not Christmas.  I am a firm believer in giving Thanksgiving its day!  The whole family will be here and I can't wait.  All the Northerners are hoping for warm weather, but at this point I think they will be happy with the predicted 70's - definitely warmer than the 20's and 30's they are currently experiencing!  It's been cooler here, but we managed to get to the beach for a sunset and fruity drinks!

I did say I would post pictures of the completed Sew-Along quilts after Festival and that will be the next blog, so here's your last chance - get your photos to me this week and I will post them this weekend.

Until next time, happy quilting,
Mary Ellen