Quilt Market Update

Just back from the Spring 2009 Quilt Market trade show only two days and my feet have finally recovered! Wearing sensible shoes is a must to stand on cement with a layer of carpet and walk several miles. So much to see and so little time. Everyday we met many charming retail shops and our major distributors. Our schoolhouses were a huge success with the shops eager to plan classes from all the ideas that the authors provided.

Walking around the show I saw so many exciting new fabrics — jewel tones, bright fun florals, and the cutest animal focus prints everywhere. I loved two of the new notions from Simplicity that will make sewing easier for quilters. My favorite was the electric rotary cutter that cuts strips that can be used for piecing, bias tape and binding. The bias tape maker was so cool, it makes 12’ in 60 seconds! It folds and presses different sizes in one step. Simplicity also has a new Jelly Roll ruler from Kimberly Einmo. Shhhh! She happens to be working on a new book using the ruler for next year. A new quilting glove that was at market for the first time from GrabARoos is great for free-motion quilting. They have PVC dots on the finger tips and when they wear out you turn them over and there are dots there for more sewing! And they come in purple, a favorite color of mine.

The city of Pittsburgh was so welcoming, with friendly people everywhere we went. They were not only excited about the quilters in town — shuttling them around in Trolleys — but they also were the host for five baseball games and the Stanley Cup hockey playoffs. We went by the hockey arena after setting up the booth to see the many fans watching the game on big screens outside and celebrating their victory. Every evening we could see the baseball stadium across the river from the hotel room, and I think I could smell the hot dogs and peanuts, or maybe it was wishful thinking.




Thanks to all the shops that stopped by our booth to share with us what quilting projects they were working on and which AQS books they have in their stores.