Spring Quilt Market 2010

I have officially returned from my very first quilt market, and it was a blast! I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised.


We arrived in Minneapolis on Wednesday afternoon. After dropping off our luggage at the hotel (we stayed at the Residence Inn, which I highly recommend if you're traveling with someone you will be with all day long for four straight days. I love my mother, but having your own room and bathroom is a blessing at the end of a long day), we spent the rest of the day exploring downtown. Minneapolis is such a beautiful city! I didn't take many pictures, so I took some pictures from the internet that I think give you a pretty good idea of what it looks like. My favorite part was the Mary Tyler Moore statue : ) After eating a great dinner at a local restaurant, we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep. We had to rest up for schoolhouse the next day!

(Convention Center)

So on Thursday morning, we headed down to the convention center for a long day full of mini presentations, put on by fabric and pattern designers and fabric companies. We went to 13 schoolhouses and they were all great! We got to see Monique Dillard demonstrate her flying geese ruler and her beautiful new fabric line (which I'm pretty sure we will be carrying), Shannon Fabric reps taught us some cool new ways to work with minky, and our friend Renee Plains from http://www.liberty-star.com/ entertained us while showing off adorable projects from her great new book, A Bird in Hand. Those were some of our favorites, but they were all really interesting and fun!



The next day market officially began! It was so overwhelming. There were hundreds of booths! Some of them were just amazing. I was going to take pictures of some of our favorites, but right as I got my camera out to take the first picture, a lady next to me got scolded by a booth owner. I was too chicken to try and take one after that, but some of the designers got some great pictures you should check out. I know Mary Andra Holmes from Sisters' Quilting Trunk and Ann Sutton of Bunny Hill both have some on their blogs and I'm sure the others will get some up soon. It was so much fun to meet new people like Amy Butler and Jo Morton and to catch up with people we already know. We also got some great ideas that we can't wait to implement in the Shoppe. I think my favorite part of the day, however, was dinner. We were lucky enough to be invited out by our pal Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. Being the famous person that she is (she likes when we point that out to her ; )), she naturally hangs out with other famous people from the quilting world. We were joined by Monique Dillard, who I mentioned above, Bonnie Sullivan and Kathy Schmitz, both designers for Moda, some of their friends and family, and Judy Adams, a friend of Carrie's and one of our customers. It was so much fun getting to know these ladies. They are all very talented and very nice people.






Saturday was our last day, so we went back to our favorite booths, visited some that we had missed, and said goodbye to some of our friends. We got back home Saturday night and we were exhausted! I had so much fun and can't wait until next year in Salt Lake City.


We are still trying to get caught up from being gone, but I will be blogging again in the next couple of days about some of the new fabric that came while we were away, so stay tuned.



Until next time...

Market

I am currently sitting in a hotel room in Minneapolis awaiting the start of quilt market! Hopefully I'll have pictures and details for you next week! If you visit the Shoppe during the next few days, say hi to Lin, Cheryl and Kiri. They're taking care of the store for us while we're gone. They're the best!

Until next time...

New Projects

My computer says that it is currently 97 degrees outside right now. Ugh! It is waaaay too early for it to be that hot!! However, the warm weather does mean one good thing - we all have an excuse to stay inside and quilt (not that you really needed an excuse for that, but it's a good one if you do need it)!

If you're looking for a new project to work on, we have you covered. We have just spent the last week or so cutting a bunch of new kits. I have posted some pictures below of some of the quilts we now have kits for (the fabrics in the pictures are most likely not the same as they are in the kits).
Monkey Quilt from the book Quilting for Baby by Jeanne Stauffer

Pinwheels in My Garden pattern from Kansas Troubles


Hat Trick pattern by Carrie Nelson



Chain Reaction pattern by Pam McMahon



Birdseye pattern by Carrie Nelson

Over the Border pattern by Pam McMahon


Cracked Pots pattern by Carrie Nelson

These are not all of the kits we have, but a nice representation of the ones we offer.
We have also decided to jump on the Twitter bandwagon. You can now follow us at OldeWorldQuilts. It's a good way to receive quick headlines about what is going on at The Shoppe from day to day.
Please come by and say hi and maybe even pick yourself up a new summer project!
Until next time...