Fall Quilt Market Recap
It's taken me an entire week to really sit down and reflect on my first Fall Quilt Market trip. I'm glad this year was the anomaly of being a week later than normal. Because of the later dates, it ended up on the same weekend as Blizzcon! Blizzcon is the only vacation that my husband and I take that has nothing to do with our side hustles and where we can meet up with some of my friends that live in different states. After taking the red-eye after the end of Blizzcon Saturday night, I was able to catch Day 2 and Day 3 of Market!
I'm going to recap everything that I saw first then I'll give a summary of my thoughts at the bottom. I went and found all of the goodies that I created at Market this year. Frame It Up was hanging in the Island Batik Booth! I grabbed a copy of the catalog to keep since this is my first quilt with them!
I then went over to the Benartex booth to see Christa Watson and Cherry Guidry. Their booths were so much fun as well. I'm happy to have made such fun items for them!
I stopped by to see Elizabeth and her booth is so cute! This is the #boothgoals I have for if and when I end up with a booth at quilt market! She won single best booth and it's just so cute! Love the ribbon pinned on the gnome! The strawberry pattern will be a free pattern on the Robert Kaufman website in January*! (Don't quote me on that timeframe... I may be mistaken.) Also, do you see the gray mushroom at the bottom center of the photo with the cuckoo clocks? I adopted that mushroom and it's now in my quilt room! The brilliance of giving away the mushrooms cannot be overstated. TONS of people asked me about the mushroom as I was walking around on Day 3 and it was definitely free advertising for Elizabeth!
Next to Elizabeth's booth was Violet Craft's beautiful booth! I love the bright colors in this new collection and it looks like it'll coordinate well with her previous collections. Violet had to leave for a family emergency so I didn't have a chance to say hi this market.
I also ran into Karlee Porter! She is known for graffiti quilting, and I took a master's class from her earlier this year. I still need to finish the lessons and my piece but it was a great class! The Royal Huntress is her award-winning quilt shown at Quilt Festival this year. I am still on the fence on taking this class from her since I'll be out of town 2 of the 4 classes, but it's such a stunning quilt. I would love to make one for myself too.
The new designers for RJR's Cotton+Steel seem to be mainly Japanese designers and I really love the prints. I feel a little guilty because the original designers had to leave their beloved brand behind, but the new fabric is really cute. I didn't take photos of all the new stuff, just my favorite. I also saw that Victoria Findley Wolfe is now designing for RJR rather than Marcus Fabrics. Too many things to take photos of and I forgot to get a picture of her display.
It was very neat to see the Ruby Star Society booth, and it's pretty fun that they signed with Moda Fabrics!
Next stop, Tula Pink! Pinkerville is fun with unicorns and she even has fun frosted rulers that have the unicorns on them. Funny story of trying to get a photo of the ruler, I thought using a bigger ruler would be easier to take a photo. I was mistaken because it's easier to see the frosted part with the black ceiling, I almost dropped the ruler on my face trying to take the photo.
I stopped over at Valori Wells' booth just as she was doing some screenprinting demos. This beautifully screenprinted hummingbird is going to be a panel on a future tote of mine! How fun right?! Also, if you missed the move, Valori is now designing for Freespirit fabrics rather than Robert Kaufman.
I stopped by the Moda booth on Monday and got some selfies with some of my favorite Moda Designers, Corey Yoder and April Rosenthal! They both have new lines coming out this spring! April's new line, Orchard, is the fabric for Fat Quarter Shop's 2019 Designer Mystery Quilt!
My favorite part of Market is getting to meet up with friends that I see only a few times a year. I sadly forgot to get a photo with Pam of Serendipity Woods, but I remembered to snag a photo of Sophie! I love Sophie and all the adorable bunnies that Pam makes!
I also met up with Sarah Maxwell of Designs by Sarah J and Fearless with Fabric. I love her new line, Prettiful Posies! I have a new quilt pattern coming out soon that I designed for her new line!
The best new product that I found is the Oliso Mini! The mini does not have the raise and lower feature of the normal sized iron but it comes with a silicone mat shown on the right. The iron does not need to stand up as long as it's resting on the silicone. It's perfect to travel with and to keep next to the sewing machine. I can't wait to get mine when they come out!
Product update on Grippy! I talked to the Odif and Grippy will be shipping out to stores soon! Hopefully your local quilt shop ordered some because it seriously is the product you call and tell your best friend about. I did find out that I have one of the earlier versions and the smell should be reduced with the newer product. I will report back once I get my hands on a new can!
The project I had to have was Nancy Halverson's new Art to Heart: Home Grown book. I just love the messaging that comes with these blocks and I will be making some positive reminders for myself. You can order the book like I did off Nancy's website right now or wait for the other retailers to get her new book in stock!
My overall thoughts:
- I was under the assumption that Fall Market would be way busier than Spring Market. I found that it was a bit slow, but I'm not sure if that was just me or for certain booths.
- Having the Quilt Festival quilts in the halls next to market is pretty neat. I took some photos of my favorite quilts and I definitely have a style of quilt that I love. I will share these at a later time. This is something that Fall Market has that Spring does not.
- Booth placement is definitely key. There are certain booths that I kept passing by because they were in more common trunklines, but other booths I only walked by a few times.
- Fabric companies are definitely scaling back and it was very noticeable this time (excluding Moda).
- As much as I am inspired by all the creativity, I am equally anxious about the limited time I have to make all the projects I want to make in addition to my own items.
- Market is an investment to attend and I'm lucky enough to have been able to attend both Spring and Fall this year, however it really highlights that I need to figure out my own business goals and plan to get there.
- I am very excited about Spring Market in Kansas City.
Join me again on Friday for Friday Foto Fun and on Sunday for the #365DaysOfArtPBQChallenge! Link up and share your progress on your own projects!
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Thanks for sharing! I’ve been looking forward to hearing your recap! I am so excited for Kansas City in the spring!!
Great pics, Sherry! I’m loving seeing more and more of your work at Quilt Market as the years go by. Elizabeth’s booth was so phenomenal and her Cuckoo Clock quilt is my next project (and an eagerly anticipated kit for out shop!). I thought the same thing – we forgot to get a pic together! Especially, we should have gotten one with Sarah. I love that our growing friendship began with a BOM which holds very treasured memories for me. You gals are just the best 🙂
Great pics Sherry! #6 in your list is one that I need to stop and think about for myself as well. Esp. as I design and publish more of my own patterns.
Fantastic recap! I think I like your quilt show / trade show recaps are the best! They’re interesting, personal, and you have lots of pictures for me to enjoy, I love getting this view into the industry. Congratulations on having so many things in booths, and I didn’t know some Japanese designers joined FreeSpirit, that’s very exciting!
Thanks for sharing fun pics. I didn’t get a chance to walk the show so it’s fun to read everyone’s recaps 🙂
Thanks for sharing your recaps and thoughts. Market has been shrinking, and Abby Glassenberg has good data for many years showing the overall trend. It has never made sense for me financially to try to attend, but I keep thinking maybe one day.
I really enjoyed this post. The booths looked stunning! I’d love to get to quilt market one day but it’s a long old journey from Ireland.
Super fun, Sherry the reporter!!! I learned a lot from your recap. Thanks!