My First Market!!!

Can I just start with saying that I loved Quilt Market!!!  It is crazy busy, crazy fast, crazy nonstop, and a total blast!!!!  So . . here's the rundown of Market from my little corner of the world:)

I started packing about an hour before I had to leave.  Yup, major procrastination!!  I put the quilt that I was showing at Schoolhouse in my suitcase and my makeup and suddenly there wasn't much room left for anything else :)  But luckily, I only needed a few changes of clothes for the weekend so I was able to zip it up without to much difficulty.  (The way home was a little different :)  

We had some crazy major stress at the airport but managed to still arrive in Houston Thursday night.    Friday morning dawned and we picked out our classes for Schoolhouse.  For those that haven't been, Schoolhouse is crazy fun and crazy tiring!!  You pick 16 sessions to attend during the day that run about 30 minutes and you just go from one to the next to the next.

My highlights of schoolhouse including meeting Angela Walters as she promoted her new book, which I happened to win a copy of.  Squeal!!!!

I also got to hold Angela's quilts during her presentation!!  Getting to see her quilting up close was awesome!!  That gal is super talented!!

The very last schoolhouse was the Moda Sweet Celebrations one.  I was so super nervous I was shaking like a leaf.  Luckily, you can't tell so much in the picture. Here's me giving my little 2 minute speech on my project.  

And here is me relieved to be done!!  And this is probably the first shot I have shown of my other project in the Sweet Celebrations book :)  

And here are some of the amazing group of ladies that are part of the Sweet Celebrations book!!  It was so fun to get to meet them in person!!  From left  to right is Angela Yosten, April Rosenthal, Sherri McConnell, Aneela Hoey, me, Jane Davidson, and Natalia Bonner.  Yup, an amazing group of ladies!!!

That night was sample spree.  And to tell the truth, it wasn't as bad as I was anticipating.  We did go in toward the rear to avoid the pushing and shoving, but all in all, not to bad.  And I got some fun little fabric treats, which is always makes things happy!!

Saturday morning came bright and ealry and we were so eager to hit the show floor.  It was enormous!!!  Talk about inspiration at every turn!!!  Now I am sure you have already seen tons of booth pictues so I will just share some of my faves.  (At least the favorites that I remember to take a picture of the whole booth.  I realized when I got home that I have lots of quilt photos and not near as many booth ones, oops :)  

I loved this booth by Bari J for Art Gallery Fabrics.  Isn't that bedspread just divine!!  And by this point my feet hurt and I really just wanted to climb under it and take a nap!

I also loved this stunning booth by Lisa Tueller for Riley Blake.  What a great idea to design a booth around a dress, which I will add is stunning as well.   I just loved those giant flowers!!

And this last shot is a little blurry but I added it anyways because I just love the rainbow of paint sticks hanging from the Moda booth!!  The entire paint theme throughout the booth really was fun and creative!!

And although I loved wandering from booth to booth seeing all of the amazing quilting goodness, my favorite part of Saturday was the people!!!   I got to meet (in person) so many wonderful, friendly, people!!  Some I felt like I had already known forever through emails and we just introduced ourselves with a hug, others I met for the first time and quickly became fast friends.  This industry is just filled with the nicest people!!  

Emily Herrick  from Crazy Old Ladies.  And this Lady is anything but crazy, she is a sweetheart!!!

Allison from Cluck Cluck Sew.  I got to meet her husband as well, they are just the sweetest couple!!

 Kate Spain.  My Mother-in-Law (huge thanks goes out to my MIL for coming along with me, it was so fun to have her along!!) is a big time fan of Kate so we were both super excited to get to meet her!

And I was super excited to meet Joel Dewberry!!  I think he is such an amazing example of balancing family with the industry.   And he liked my bag :)

I got to meet so many other friends that I am now kicking myself for not taking pictures of.  (But this post is getting a little long, probably time to wrap it up :)  Oh, But I do want to mention that I got to meet Kimberly Jolley from Fat Quarter Shop, Leah from Burgundy Buttons, and Julie from The Intrepid Thread.  I can't begin to say how wonderful it was to get to finally meet these amazing ladies in person.  They are such a huge support of Happy Quilting and to get to just sit and chat with them in person vs over email was a great treat!!!  And of course, I was so excited to sit and chat with them I forgot to take pictures ;)  

And one last thing which was a huge highlight for me and that was the Sweet Celebrations book signing!!  We did one on Saturday and one on Sunday and I tell you what, it was so much fun!!  First, everyone is so excited to get a copy of the book and you just can't help but get excited along with them.  Second, these group of ladies are so fun to hang out with!!  Once again, It's the people!!!  Quilters are the best!!!

Stefanie Roman and Mary Brown are the new ladies in this picture from the Schoolhouse one :)

And with that, I will sign off ending this little chapter on Quilt Market.   Here's is hoping I can post another one next spring ;)