We're back from the Festival!

We're back!

I can hardly believe that the show is over. Even though the show was 4 1/2 days, it went by really fast! We met so many wonderful happy sewers. We were able to put faces to names of many customers who order from the website ~ neat! Naturally we worked very hard and sold tons of merchandise. This was our forth year to exhibit at the Quilt Festival and by far our best show ever! We took two trucks to the show and only filled one to come home; and that was predominantly fixtures. Fantastic!

On my drive home I thought a lot about sewing and how it has brought me so much happiness. There is almost nothing that gives me as much pleasure to be at home creating a new "something". Years ago I sewed to make my own clothes, curtains, etc. because I just did not have the resources to buy them. Today, you can certainly buy things on sale for less than it costs to make them. Especially when everything is manufactured somewhere "far far away"! So, why do we sew? I believe that it has more to do with being creative as it allows us to express ourselves. Sewing is a stress reliever; it is intellectually stimulating as it challenges us to learn new skills and it is just plain fun!

What are your thoughts on sewing?

More than just Quilts here at the Festival!

For all of you who think that the Quilt Festival is just about quilts, I want to show you that its not! There are antiques, vintage linens, baskets from Africa, luxury yarn, knitting kits, hand crafted costume as well as fine jewelry and would you believe even sewing machines!

 

Ah, one of my favorite booths with all of my Bernina friends! The only machine for me . . . or, well, maybe five machines in my studio!

Here is a pix of one of our very own local quilt shops:
The Cabbage Rose . . . 

And, did I mention classes? There a sooooo many to choose from here at the Festival. Here is a really fun place!

Make It University

        We are having a great time and working very hard! Our sales have been the highest ever. And, we have met so many wonderful people ~ customers that we have only communicated with via email, but now have a face to put with the name. 
         Two more days . . . I'll keep you posted!

From the Festival!

We spent all evening on Tuesday as well as half the day on Wednesday unloading the truck, unpacking boxes and setting up our booths. Yes, the rain had subsided by then, but the humidity was about 150%.  Just lovely! But, everything looked fabulous by the time we left for lunch and, like I said in an earlier email, it was truly an explosion of color!

The Festival opened Wednesday evening at 5pm with a private showing for the Houston Quilt Guild ~ until 7pm. After 7 the convention center opened to the general public for "preview night" ~ until 10pm! Yep, we were exhausted. There was a nice crowd of people for the opening, but not too many.

Today was a different story; the halls were so full you could hardly get to the restrooms! There is such an air of excitement with so many sewers all in one place! Needless to say our booths were swamped all day long ~ am I content or what! We even had to order more patterns by midday to be over-nighted; unbelievable. And, they say our economy is "not good". Well, you know how it is when you have a passion ~ you just save your money for special occasions and your hobbies.

Here are a few pictures of us setting up the booths that I thought you might want to see. Tomorrow I will get out of our little "store" and take pictures of the festival for all to "see".

On the way to the Houston Quilt Festival!

 I have arrived in Houston for the Houston Quilt Market !

          We loaded the truck on Saturday evening. Hooray, what a feeling to have that done! I left at dawn on Sunday and it rained the whole way to Houston. ~As you can see from my photo above the skyscrapers are doing just that.

 

But I finally made it to the Houston Convention Center.  Sure I was tired, but what can I say.  . . When you get to see all of the NEW fabrics for Spring from Michael Miller, Robert Kaufman, Moda,  Free Sprit ~ just to mention a few ~ you certainly perk up!  I spent several hours at the Market placing orders for fabrics & trims and searching for new pattern designers. Oh my, wait til you see what I  found! I'll keep everyone posted regarding new arrivals.

I visited with some of my favorite pattern designers; the ladies from Indygo Junction, Patty Young with Modkid Designs, Sandi Henderson of Portabellapixie patterns, Chelsea Anderson of Pink Fig Patterns, Susan Huberty of Sew Baby and Jackie Clark. That's Chelsea in the photo! She was so sweet and it was thrilling to see her new samples as well as her booth. She is a beautiful,  incredibly creative young woman! I took pictures of her booth as well as Patty Young's for all of you.

Isn't this booth adorable! 

This is Patty Young's Modkid Sewing Patterns.

All of her samples are made from her own fabric  line that she designs for Michael Miller Fabrics.

                             And, here is the Pink Fig booth! Awesome! Her samples were precious! She paid me a very nice compliment regarding my fabric combinations, trims, etc that I have chosen for her patterns when I sew up a kit. She always does put my new kit pictures on her flicker album.

And, let me share with everyone a fairly new designer: Katie Cupcake. Here is her cute booth. 

Yes, I did order all of hers!

But, there are others.

I'll let you know as soon as we get them stocked.

My coworkers will be arriving tomorrow with another "truck load". We will be at the convention center by afternoon setting up our two booths for the Quilt Festival. That is, if it is not storming!

My oh my, have I ever been sewing! In the past two weeks I have designed 7 New Kits! Five for children and two for ladies. In just the last week, I have sewn up all of them! Yes, the Houston International Quilt Festival is next week and we will be more than ready!

       I started with a new holiday themed dress, "Fa-la-la" ~ seen to your left. Isn't she cute!

followed that with "Fruit Loops" (dress to your right)
and then "Skipper"(a pants outfit) - picture coming soon.


I thought that I was done then with "Pebbles" (another dress ~ no picture yet as I decided to reverse the sleeves).

BUT, on Saturday, our new PINK FIG patterns arrived. They are sooooooo adorable!!!

So, I immediately started pulling down bolts of fabric to design a "Juliet Top" with a "Nie Nie Skirt" to match.
See!

Of course, they demanded a little blouse to pair with them, so I pulled out my "Olivia" pattern to sew one up. I just got that done this afternoon. After I made a knit top for myself and ripped out the sleeves on the new "Pebbles". They needed to be a different fabric!

           I'm not going to post this new skirt yet until I get a picture of the completed outfit. This little pix is just to peek your interest!

Ruffles ruffles everywhere!

Details to follow on how I sped up the ruffling process!

     Wow! I think that I have made 8, no make than 10 new garments in the last ten days! Yes, two of those are just for me to wear to the Festival. Ugh, you know, I think that I am tired! I did manage to get the laundry done and go out with the hubby a couple of times, but not a lot of cooking got done and NO house cleaning. How do I do it? Well, that's two answers. But, the husband has been out of town a lot and both kids are away at school :(

My best "friend", Mr. Bialetti, my cappucino maker helps out a lot!