Houston Quilt Market- Fall 2015 Recap

Hi all! This recap post is a little overdue… my apologies! I hosted my #epicquiltretreat as soon as I got back from Market so I haven’t had a chance to blog. If you ever want to see or know what I’m up to I recommend following my accounts on Facebook and Instagram. I post regularly on those platforms so you can see exactly what I’m up to whether it relates to my crafts, family or farm adventures!

Now let’s get into this recap of Quilt Market! Quilt Market is not open to the public. This is the industry-wide trade show where we get to see what’s new and what all the companies in this game are up to. The main shoppers at Market are quilt shop owners placing orders of all the new fabrics, gadgets, notions, etc.

Let me just tell you that I took over 100 pictures and there is no way I could include them all here so I will do my best to paint the picture of Market with the ones I decide to include in this blog post. I hope you likey!

On my first day in Houston I attended my friend, Mary Fons’ schoolhouse session to learn more about her new fabric collection! It’s called Small Wonders and it’s put out by Springs Creative. They are all small prints, which I love!! The prints are lumped together by different regions of the world. For more details on it you can read Mary’s own blog post here.  You can see below some pictures of the fabrics and projects made up with them. So cute! {Last I heard Missouri Star Quilt Co. will be carrying her fabrics but they aren’t out yet. So stay tuned for that!}

Mary Fons and I at Fall 2015 Quilt Market after her Schoolhouse.

Small Wonders by Mary Fons for Springs Creative.

Mary’s booth won the Best Merchandising Award at Quilt Market! Well deserved!

Gorgeous display of Mary Fons’ new fabric line, Small Wonders. She also has a line of independent sewing patterns to accompany the line. So cute!

Such cute prints!!

Later that afternoon I attended another friend’s Schoolhouse to learn about her monthly machine embroidery club.  Sue O’Very of Sealed With A Stitch is another Florida girl (like me!) I see often at shows and she was telling shop owners about her In the Hoop Club. After seeing all the cute little projects she made in the embroidery hoop I was really starting to wonder if I should give machine embroidery another try. Hmmm… {If you’re into machine embroidery and in the hoop projects check out Sue’s Craftsy class HERE.}

Sue and I at Quilt market 2015!

Then I worked my way to the Cotton + Steel Schoolhouse which had a line around the corner! Everyone was dying to see the new collection! I was quickly mistaken for being Rashida Coleman-Hale (one of the designers for Cotton + Steel, see her in pics below) which was a first for me! I’m usually mistaken for being Ebony Love. Which I find very weird since we all look NOTHING alike! Well, I take that back. We all have different shades of brown skin. So, yeah. In case anyone was wondering, there IS more than one brown quilter in the industry.

Cotton + Steel Schoolhouse at Fall 2015 Quilt Market in Houston, TX.

Cat Lady by Sarah Watts for Cotton + Steel.

Close-up of a gorgeous quilt made up in the new Cotton + Steel fabrics.

Clover by Alexia Abegg for Cotton + Steel.

Macrame by Rashida Coleman-Hale for Cotton + Steel.

That was the first day at market for me- Friday. Everyone is setting up their booth that day. The first official day to walk the floor was Saturday. Doors opened at 9:30am and off I went to visit my friend, Australian fabric designer and graphic artist, Kim Andersson at her adorable booth. She was showing off her new fabric line called Good Hair Day for Windham Fabrics. I fell in love with it and even left with a fat quarter bundle so you may see it used in a future project! I love the colors and cute prints!

Kim Andersson at her booth. So cute!

I also couldn’t leave without snapping a fun selfie in the vintage hair dryer she had at her booth! Gotta have some fun at Market!

Being silly at Quilt Market!

While at the Windham Fabrics area I made sure to stop by Heather Givans of Crimson Tate‘s booth also! She had the cutest Succulent fabric prints last year and I just loved her new collection, too! It’s called Paper Obsessed and I need to get my hands on some of this when it comes out.

Heather Givans at her booth with her new fabric line called Paper Obsessed for Windham Fabrics.

How cute are these paper inspired prints?!

I love the lined paper prints!

As the day went on I had 9 appointments so I didn’t have much time to walk the floor and check out all the booths. But I still had a few more days to go! My appointments all went really well and I’m excited to reveal some new projects I have in the works when the time comes. So stay tuned!

At the end of my day I got to meet up with the husband and wife team that is Quilty Box! Patrick and Ronnie Claytor were some of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. This was their first Quilt Market and they were enjoying it! I’m sure they were a little overwhelmed. I know I was when I first attended. {FYI- I am curating the November 2015 Quilty Box. They are sold out already but be on the lookout for a HUGE announcement from me regarding one of the items included in that November Quilty Box! If you are getting the November box consider yourself one of the lucky few!}

The next morning was finally my day to walk the Quilt Market floor and see what was new, visit with friends, check out new trends, etc. I first stopped by the Missouri Star Quilt Co. booth and ran into fellow YouTuber, Rob Appell of Man Sewing. It’s always a good time when you run into Rob! He is such a ball of energy and laughter!

Then I made my way around to Birch Fabrics booth. Birch is an organic cotton fabric manufacturer. Their fabric is produced from 100% organic cotton, and printed with low impact dyes. You all know I love the eco-friendly stuff! One thing I noticed this Quilt Market was that more fabric manufacturers were branching out of the usual quilting cottons. I saw a lot more knits, voiles, home decor weight and a lot of double gauze from several manufacturers!

Their photographer offered to take my pic and send it to me! Thanks, Patrick!

Birch organic fabrics booth at Fall 2015 Quilt Market.

Display of some of their double gauze fabrics. So light an airy and comes in such cute prints!

Is this not the cutest way to display the print options of their organic cotton knits?! I love it!

Then I continued to walk the floor trying to snap quick shots of pretty projects and any designers/authors I would spot. So here are a few pictures for you to see more of what it looks like at Quilt Market!

Patty Sloniger’s Into The Deep fabric line on display at her Michael Miller booth.

Wall display at the Aurifil booth.

Spotted Australian designer and author, Jen Kingwell at her booth. Didn’t get to meet her because she had a bunch of people waiting to chat with her. But so great to see her and her quilts in person!

Jen Kingwell’s quilts on display in her booth. Gorgeous!

I had to stop by and visit with my friends at Sulky Threads, of course. They had such a cute booth and showed me some different products and threads I am currently playing with. So, you may see them featured in future tutorials. You already know I love my Sulky Cotton Petites- 12 wt cotton thread for my big stitch hand quilting. The colors are feel are just dreamy!

The Sulky Threads booth where Kelly was in a meeting but I had to snap a pic of them sitting on those awesome thread spools!

Then I stopped by to say hi to my quilty buddy, Debbie Grifka of Esch House Quilts. I love her bold, modern quilt designs. If you want to snag some her patterns visit her website HERE. 

Snapping a quick pic for Instagram at Debbi’s booth.

Debbie Grifka of Esch House Quilts at her booth. Fall 2015 Quilt Market.

On my walk I spotted a display for Denyse Schmidt’s new fabric collection, Katie Jump Rope & Eastham for Free Spirit Fabrics.

Denyse Schmidt’s new collection for Free Spirit fabrics.

Some new Riley Blake fabrics.

This is what one of the main walkways looks like. The row numbers are hanging from above and it starts at 100. You can see I’m near the end of the room in this picture by row 2600. Tip #1: Wear comfy shoes!

Stopped to chat for a few minutes with an old college friend! This is Madeleine from Domestic Strata. She runs a modern quilt and bag pattern business. Side note: Madeleine and I went to college together (GO GATORS!) We were both Anthropology majors and attended an archaeology field school waaaay back in the summer of 2004. So crazy to see us both end up in the quilting industry so many years later! Check out her website and patterns HERE. 

Madeleine Roberg of Domestic Strata. Love how bold her designs are!

I also spotted Tula Pink at her booth busy autographing books! She also released a new collection of hardware! They are gorgeous. From what I saw there is a pair of shears, a surgical seam ripper and a pair of curved EZ snips. So cool!

Here is the Alison Glass Booth. Just stunning! Her fabrics are to die for, too. Such a great use of color.

And that’s it, folks! I apologize that all my pictures didn’t make the cut. But I hope you got a taste of what went down at Quilt Market this year. Let me know if you enjoyed this type of a recap post and I will try to do more in the future. Ciao!