So begins Day Three, which is Day Two of the Market event.
Today we were dragging a little in the morning. What can I say? We had fun the nite before. Sometimes it's not all about work, all of the time. Needless to say, Mike had his Red Bull and I had my Rockstar. I'm sure Gina had her coffee. Caffeinated fools.
Thank you to Heather Schrimsher who made the gorgeous Anna Maria Horner Socialite Dress pattern with Amy Butler's Lark fabrics. I absolutely adore this dress!
Day Two of Market is what I refer to as my "Oh crap, I have to buy fabric and I have no idea what I'm doing but I suddenly feel a huge deadline to buy" Day. (too much?)
So, if you're keeping up with our fiber-buys, we've already purchased Liberty's calicos and Melody Miller's Ruby Star Vinyl. Oh yeah, when I was in the Kokko booth I also bought Echino's new line, called Decoro. It had little deers with RayBan Wayfarer's on their faces and a whole bunch of other fun prints, printed on beautiful linens. It's hard to find a lot of marketing on Echino online, I'm still trying to find y'all a great link and photo of their fabric. (Fun fact about Jessica Sloan: I usually edit each blog after reading it and will probably follow up with a photo.) Echino has a very elusive presence here in the states, but has a very large following in Japan. So elusive in the states that I don't even have an Echino rep.
So at this point, I'm panicking. I've spent most of my time thus far getting great gifts for our Post Market Soiree and selling bundles out of our booth.
So in about an hour, I ordered so much fabric it made my head spin.
*Amy Butler's Cameo-see, this is where I would throw in my awesome photo of me and Ames together, but I'm still waiting on a certain somebody to email it to me! Hurry up girl! : D So instead I'll leave you with a photo of me and Dave that I snapped sometime before the Modern Quilt Guild meet up. More to come on that.
Kaffe Fassett's latest prints-This is slated for release in our store in the fall. I know this is a terribly long wait-it is for me as well- but I believe that getting the full collection at once rather than letting it trickle in a bolt at a time is a better choice for my guests. It will most definitely be worth the wait...also sorry there are no photos from Market! Like I said, I was an animal!
*Anna Maria Horner's Field Study (It was that damn panther, I'm in love with it!)- it is so new that there is no marketing for it on Anna Maria's website! I'm sure she's insanely busy, and it makes me feel like a cool kid!
*Tula Pink's Birds and Bees...
Aaaaaaaaand Nightshade....
*Dear Stella's Maasai Mari - found a photo!!
So at this point I've spent damn near my whole budget. UGH and I still have about 87 more fabric lines that I NEED TO HAVE so I was in a pickle. Hrm. How do I make this happen?
These are the dilemmas I face these days. How many quilts do I have to quilt to buy my coveted collections? Life is tough when you're a grownup. Where went the days when I had zero responsibility? I remember those days though- I also had zero budget for fabric!! At least now I have the biggest stash I've ever dreamed of. It's a good tradeoff I think....
Something really really cool I did: I stood in line for Jacquie Gering's new book Quilting Modern that you can actually have a chance to *WIN* if you are in Austin, Texas on June 16th and attend our Post Market Soiree at our store from 7-10pm!!
I bought a really cool pattern from our friends at Maple Island Quilts. It's called Inversion. I love that you can really play with color value on this pattern- it could go from light to dark, or all light with an offset "L" of dark, or the outside blocks all dark and the inside all light...endlessly awesome.
We managed to squeak in some Michael Miller Cotton Couture solids as well before I put a fork in my buying and said to myself, "I'm done!" In my head I thought mischievously I'm done until I see my Moda rep in June...
Back to Market...
Mike and I were taking one last survey around the Convention Center before returning to the booth to let Mom have a break. While we were getting back to our aisle, I stumbled across Joel Dewberry's booth. I got a little geeked out! We've carried his fabric in Mom's old shop, and I'm now carrying it in mine, so it was a really cool thing! I managed to snap an awesome photo.
As I was walking back to the booth, I almost ran into Darth Vader- literally. There was a graphic art Convention going on at the same time- I assume he was lost?!
As I was sneaking back into the booth I caught Mom chatting with her good friends Karen and Deb. You may also know them as Fat Quarter Shop...
I went back in the cage, slinging fat quarter bundles at everyone while Mom browsed the floor. While she was gone Jason Yenter breezed by and told us how lovely our booth was! He made a collection a couple years back that I absolutely loved! It was really cool to see him in person. Sorry, I was a little fatigued so I forgot to snap a pic! (Womp womp.)
By this time I believe it was time to go. We also had a sweet party to attend for the Modern Quilt Guild. It was a chance for us to hang out with other MQG members from across the nation and win some cool raffle prizes ourselves! I, of course, love a great raffle. LURV it.
We got dressed, and he caught me a couple times on the kisser.
I love this guy. I can't believe he spent four days in Quiltlandia for me. A saint, I tell ya.
While we were crossing the bridge back over towards the Convention Center, I tried to snap a photo to show y'all the Foot Clan. There was this random purple foot spray painted onto the side of an overpass and it said The Foot Clan below the foot. I asked Gina, could we possibly become members of this foot clan? To which she replied without skipping a beat, we have feet. We're in.
And here we are at the Modern Meetup.
First faces we see- Melody and Greg Miller! So nice and so fun, I spent a great deal of time talking to Melody about modern quilting and her awesome graphics, where she's going directionally with her fabric...I can honestly say I wish I was Melody Miller. She is so freaking cool.
I really, really love Tina Givens so I was so pleased that she sat and chatted with me for a while. : D
I took a video of the room, but I'm afraid I was a bit tipsy when I made it, so I'll have to debut it at our cocktail soiree, so you're a little tipsy too when you see it. Ha ha!
Next blog I will tell you all about teardown, the drive to Oklahoma, and our awesome new tattoos. That's right, going to Market means getting new tattoos.
xoxo
Jess
(permanent member of the Foot Clan)
