Thursday, November 19, 2015

Post-Houston and Pre-Holidays

Yes, we survived International Quilt Market and Festival and now we are both getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Can't believe the year has gone by so quickly!!

I'm sure many of you have already heard about the "challenges" we all faced at Market and Festival this year - possible hurricane, flooded streets in and around Houston, bad weather all around us and the street and front of the George R. Brown Convention Center totally under construction - at times it seemed like a nightmare!  But when all is said and done, we fared quite well.  Our latest quilts and Block of the Month were well-received and the book was a huge success. I did manage to take a couple of pictures of the Market booth (it didn't change much for Festival) and I will share the picture of our fans waiting on line for our book signing.  Now that was really exciting!!!


This picture with the ladies waiting for the book signing makes me smile - my new BFF is there, our friends from Australia (hi Karen and Linda), and Jeanne from SupplyLine!  This was a great group of ladies and we enjoyed visiting with them while we waited for the "official" book signing time!  Pati (from Marcus Fabrics) even took some pictures as we signed the books.  That's Michelle Joyner from Fat Quarters Quilt Shop in Vista, CA in the first picture and my new BFF in the second picture. Marcus Fabrics hosted our book signing and all in all it was pretty exciting!  We even bought new pens for it!!
 


Paula has been working to get all of our Market orders out and to get all of the new patterns and kits on the website.  Now is your chance to purchase these great new patterns and the kits.  Remember our kits feature the same fabrics that you see in the quilt sample.  Click on the quilt name for a link directly to our website for ordering.

Paula had a number of new collections with Marcus Fabrics out this year for both Spring and Fall Market, so let's start with the newest collections and quilts:
Laura's Quilt features her Carolina Blues collections - yummy blues and yellows - and measures 76"x102". This may be my personal favorite!

Banks' Retreat is made from the Heritage Reds collection and it measures 92"x92".  Who doesn't love a red and white quilt!

Wilderness Road is this year's scrappy quilt (72"x84") and it's just gorgeous too!

Gettysburg is a re-do quilt and this time it features some of the fabrics from the Latimer Farms collection.  Great alternative for those of you that love the Latimer Farms fabric, but don't want to tackle a Block of the Month program.
Pemberton is a smaller quilt and it features reds, blacks and caramels from some of Paula's previous collections.

Davenport features the golds, purples and blacks of the Davenport Gardens collection.  While actually a Spring Market quilt, we finally have the kits!! This could be tied for my favorite quilt.


Latimer Farms BOM - 101"x101"
We have also decided to sell complete kits for our Latimer Farms BOM.  Right now we are just taking pre-orders, but here are the details:
    - complete kit - quilt top and binding
    - $350 with free shipping (If purchased monthly, it would be about $28.00/month plus shipping)
    - January 2016 shipping
    - 108" wide backing available
If you are interested, please email me at: maryellen@redcrinolinequilts.com  with your name and phone number.  I will contact you prior to shipping for your address and credit card information.

I thought I would share our picture with the biggest book cover I've ever seen.  This was hanging at the Schoolhouse session we did with Martingale Publishing at Market and then in the Martingale Publishing booth.

As I read other blogs, Facebook and Instagram I see that many of you are fully enjoying Fall and many even the beginning of Winter.  Florida has had some record warm temperatures for November, but I'll be heading to upstate NY for Thanksgiving.  I'm looking forward to some good family time with my son, daughter-in-law, granddaughters and youngest daughter and apparently some much cooler weather!  I visited my oldest daughter in Louisville right after Festival and got to enjoy some of my favorite foods: duck fat popcorn, queso and margaritas, and garlic butter bread sticks!  I even tailgated at the U of L/Syracuse football game at the coolest tailgate bus I've ever seen.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and until next time,

Happy quilting,
Mary Ellen and Paula