International Quilt Market/Festival Shoe Report

Ok, I'm only about a month late with this...so sue me. Life's still hectic on our dirt road, what with Andy's health issues, running two retreat facilities, quilting for my ever-so-patient customers, and now...babysitting for two of my grandchildren (Jack & Sofie, ages 4 & 2) now that my daughter's in the throes of morning sickness with #3!

Aren't they the cutest little minions?!

On to Market/Festival!

Pre-Market activities begin with an all-day marathon called Schoolhouse. This year I attended 15-30 minute sessions from 10am-6pm with fellow Sew-Hos Peggy, Kathi, and Mandy, and good friend, Nancy. Went to some great presentations by Andover, Krause, Marti Michel, Avlyn, Pin Peddlers, RJR, Sizzix, Electric Quilt, Kaufman, Cabin in the Woods (just had to see what they were all about - great patterns and books), AccuQuilt, and so many more.

Sometimes, you'll get handouts or freebies, or even win a doorprize. Here's some of the loot I  was lucky enough to pick up from some of the Schoolhouse presenters: fusible batting, Steam-a-Seam, totes, charm packs, fat quarters, patterns...

After an exhausting day of running from class to class, and lugging a bag (getting heavier and heavier with freebies :sob:), we quickly ran to the car to stow all our loot, then headed to the Hilton lobby restaurant for a quick dinner before the quilter's version of the running of the bulls called Sample Spree. Didn't drop as much dough as I have in year's past, but that was only because I limited myself to cash only - no credit cards, no checks. I kept to my budget, and I got everything I wanted (almost), but it wasn't nearly as much fun as last year, when I went kinda nuts. Picked up some good deals from the Woolly Lady, Robert Kaufman, Electric Quilt, Bareroots patterns, etc.

With Schoolhouse and Sample Spree behind us, we limped out to the car like a bunch of 3-legged dogs, and headed back to the Cabin Too for a final glass of wine and a good night's sleep. Then up at the crack and back downtown for the opening of Market and more shopping - and don't forget the freebies! Here's some of my haul - 

And now, for the annual (mainly) Footwear Fashion Show!

These boots (and the wearer) came all the way from Paris. Not Paris, Texas - Paris, France!

Guess what this girl's mom does for a living?

She's a professional longarm quilter - and she made these for her daughter! Awesome!

Ebony Love! Author of The Big Little Book of Fabric Die Cutting Tips - a must have for anyone interested in buying one, or getting the most out of their die cutting machine. And check out Ebony's custom-made dress - how cute is that?!

And speaking of dresses...

Thomas Knauer, designer for Andover, is wearing the skirt he made of his own fabric, and modeling the bag his mom made for him.

This is Richard, of Akonye Kena - another man secure enough in his own masculinity, that he's not above wearing a skirt in public.

And speaking of not wearing enough in public

Please God - don't let them bring leggings back...especially not lacey, stretched-beyond-the laws-of-physics, see-through ones. Please. No.

I need a palate cleanser...how 'bout this quilt hanging in the Marcus Brothers booth?

And how about this? Peggy, of Connect the Blocks is trying to decide which Anthology fabrics to stock. I voted for all of them, but Peggy still wanted to be able to afford her trip home. Pansy.

Incidentally, Peggy's going to be offering this shoe quilt as a Block of the Month soon. 

So, so cute!

Cute...cute...that reminds me...

Timeless Treasures had a bunch of hunky beach boys handing out Halloween candy. Oh. Yeah. And the girl had shoes. Or something.

And since it was Halloween, lots of vendors and shoppers were in costume - or maybe that's the way they always dress!

 This leather coat with applique and quilting took two whole cowhides to make. I asked.

Kathi Eubank, editor of On Track magazine, and Cara Gulati , talented quilt designer and author

And the last two pairs of shoes were seen in the Hilton lobby bar

I'm pretty sure they weren't quilters. I'm thinking they were working girls.

One more thing before I put Market/Festival to bed. Some of the booths were really imaginative:

And one of my favorite vendors with her products. I have at least 100 of them in my studio!

DeNiece's Fabric Organizers

Wait. Don't go. I forgot. I found two quilts that I'd quilted for customers - one in a booth, and one in the show.

This one's featured in the Moda Bake Shop's new book, "Sweet Celebrations."

And this quilt was designed and pieced by quilt designer and author, RaNae Merrill

That's about it for the 2012 Sensible vs Sexy Shoe Battle. Hope you enjoyed it!

November Desktop Calendar

Another log cabin variation!
Click on the calendar to expand the image to full size, then right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background. To really jazz up your desktop, right-click on your background and choose a color that coordinates with the calendar - or do like I do, and set your background color to black. It goes with everything and really makes the colors pop! And when your friends say, "Where did you get that?" Send them to see me!

October Desktop Calendar

Click on the calendar to expand the image to full size, then right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background. To really jazz up your desktop, right-click on your background and choose a color that coordinates with the calendar - or do like I do, and set your background color to black. It goes with everything and really makes the colors pop! And when your friends say, "Where did you get that?" Send them to see me!

September 2012 Desktop Calendar

Well August suddenly turned into a hectic month...I won't bore you with the details, but suffice it to say that our 2 steps forward resulted in 10 steps back. Bleh.

My daughter pointed out that I must be just a tad depressed as evidenced by almost all my quilts and designs as of late - I'm definitely in my Brown Period. Won't be as lucrative as Picasso's Blue Period, though. I've got 4 quilts sooooo close to the finish line and 3 of the 4 are predominantly brown. And two of them are baby quilts. Maybe I need to up my meds.
But at least the calendar background isn't brown...just the quilt.

Click on the calendar to expand the image to full size, then right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background. To really jazz up your desktop, right-click on your background and choose a color that coordinates with the calendar - or do like I do, and set your background color to black. It goes with everything and really makes the colors pop! And when your friends say, "Where did you get that?" Send them to see me!
Here's to September being a better month than August!

August 2012 Desktop Calendar

So about a week ago, Marija Vujcic, a fellow-EQ7-user posted that she'd designed a couple of wreath blocks in EQ and put them on her blog, Marija's Fabric Creations. I'm nosey, so I checked it out. Loved the wreath she made with them. And the other alternate design ideas were cute too. Then I noticed that they were basically log cabin-variations.

Ding-ding. Lightbulb moment! I could save myself some time and effort if I stole - I mean borrowed Marija's wreath quilt to use as my desktop calendar. Not that I mind the time it takes to work up my desktop calendar every month, and not that you're not worth the effort, but really, it's so much easier when someone else does the work!

So I emailed Marija and asked if it would be ok to use her design on the August calendar, and she graciously said yes. So here it is! I changed it up a little so I could at least pretend that I had some input. Yes, I may be prone to slackerhood, but I'm not a total slacker...

Click on the calendar to expand the image to full size, then right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background. To really jazz up your desktop, right-click on your background and choose a color that coordinates with the calendar - or do like I do, and set your background color to black. It goes with everything and really makes the colors pop! And when your friends say, "Where did you get that?" Send them to see me!

And a big thank you to Marija and Marija's Fabric Creations!

Thanks to Y'all...I Won!

About a week ago, Michele over at The Quilting Gallery had a Memory Quilts contest, and I entered one of my quilts, "Sean's Medallion." It was a special quilt, made for the family of a very special man killed on 9-11. You can see the story of how his quilt came to be in the previous post. Anyway, thanks to all of you, my quilt won! And today I received this in the mail:

"Hmm...wonder what that could be?" she thought. "I don't know anyone in Canada...I don't think I've ordered anything. Hmph. Weird." What's weird is that I can remember my best friend from 2nd grade's birthday (haven't even heard from her since 1968), but the fact that, less than 10 days ago, I won a contest sponsored by a Canadian online quilt shop was completely gone from the file cabinet of my brain. More like a sieve, but anyway... This is what I won: 2 gorgeous quilting magazines!

The first one, Quilter's Connection is a Canadian magazine with lots of beautiful projects.

The second one, Vignette is from Australia and has full size applique and embroidery patterns and recipes!

Yeah. I probably won't try any of the handwork, but that Quilter's Cake has a pretty good chance of showing up at my bee this Thursday! Especially if I can get Gillian to do the honors. My thanks to the sponsor of the contest, Valerie Moss, of Pastimes Online.

Check out her website - I'm ordering the Quilter's Tea to go with my Quilter's Cake. Her Sewing Machines BOM is kinda calling to me, but I know me: not gonna happen unless I can strongarm someone else into making it for me. Anyway - many thanks to Michele at The Quilting Gallery, Valerie from Pastimes Online, and especially, you for voting for Sean's quilt.