Hey there! I'm back from Houston and Quilt Market where I debuted my
organic Stitch Collection for Robert Kaufman! It was a great trip and a wonderful experience.
Here's a photo taken first thing Saturday morning. We're all set up and ready to go. My husband came a long with me and was a great help making and putting up the embroidery hoop signage, talking to customers, taking photos, getting coffee and just about a million other things.
Me with the Robert Kaufman marketing team: Aurelia, Emmie and Kyle
The marketing folks at Robert Kaufman were responsible for the furniture, the sign on the left and having some of the samples made (ok...so mostly everything!). They are a dream to work with! We felt very lucky to be a little part of their team.
When we showed up late Thursday, this is how the booth looked. Everyone in the convention center was moving, lifting, schlepping, and making it all come together!
Then by Saturday morning...Ta Da! The booth looked amazing! But it's a little hard to see all of the detail in the photo so I took the liberty of labeling it for you. :)
Starting at the top left going clockwise:
•
Free "Ravel" Quilt pattern: The folded quilts hanging at the right and left of the booth will be available shortly on the
Robert Kaufman site. I designed the pattern,
Angela Walters quilted them and
Heidi Pridemore wrote up the pattern instructions. They turned out so fun, I love them!
• Our big hooped sign: This was a hit! We had a lot of people stop by and take photos of our sign. I designed and made the components of the sign and my husband engineered it. That baby was solid! All of the hoops were mounted on gator board, supported by back beams and hung from cable. It may not look big in the photo but it is 8 feet long!
• Tired Face: I really was happy to be there. I do look a little out of it in this photo...not enough coffee yet, maybe?
• A Missoni of my Owny: I wore my Missoni for Target dress the first day. You can never have too many chevrons, you know. :)
• Patterns: My new sewing patterns were displayed on the coffee table. We used cones of yarn (to tie into the Stitch theme) with alligator clips to hold them up. Cute!
• Fun Yarn Basket: In the center of the table was a big basket full of yarn balls and some fabric balls made with the knit stitch print. Then we added some super big knitting needles and crochet hooks!
• New Bags: Here are the large and small versions of my new Stitch-along Tote pattern. Full of yarn and needles to show how versatile they are for toting around your needle work projects. The back corners of the booth also have bags/patterns on display. More about those later this week!
•
Pleated Pillow: You saw this last week on the blog. This pillow got a lot of people to stop and take a second look! I plan on writing up a pattern for it and the
Hexagon pillow on the other chair soon.
• "Melly" Quilt: In the center of the booth is the Melly quilt designed and made by
Rachel Griffith. It uses all of the
Stitch prints from both colorways and it really helped pull the whole booth together!
Not all of my time was spent in that glorious booth. I did get to show off Stitch to shop owners during a Schoolhouse presentation on Friday afternoon. And Sunday I shot an internet TV segment with QNN,
Quilter's News Network with Dana Jones.
And of course connecting and re-connecting with people is a big part of the event. Charlotte Lyons (left) and Jules Davis (right) stopped by. They are both designing fabrics with Anna Griffin's new range,
Blend.
Here I am with the fabulous
Khristian Howell at the popular Fabric 2.0 party. She's always so full of energy and fun to talk to!
...and me with my longtime buddy,
Jan DiCintio of
Daisy Janie Fabrics. Jan gave an awesome Schoolhouse presentation (about an hour before this photo) on organic fabrics and GOTS certification. She knows her stuff!
There is so much more to Quilt Market and this post doesn't even scratch the surface of the enormous event. I'm sure this week the blogosphere will be full of market recaps if you'd like to read more. Kim Kight's blog
True Up is a great place to start!
When I got to work designing the Stitch-along Tote, I surveyed several of my knitting buddies (Susan and Laura and Heather, to name a few!). We decided that it should be a simple bag that stands on its own (check!), opens wide (done!), and has straps that stay out of the way (you got it!). There should be some large interior pockets, but not too many (I know, right?).
The base of the tote is a nice big rectangle that is stabilized and sits flat. The body of the bag is beefed up with a layer of cotton batting. The top of the bag folds down into a cuff, allowing wide open access to your yarn, tools, instructions and chocolate. When you're ready to dash, flip up the cuff, snap the magnetic snap and throw the straps over your shoulder.
Instructions include a large and small size, depending on your needlework needs. Working on socks or embroidery? The small Stitch-along would be prefect! The bags shown are made up in my very own Stitch organic cotton prints. Yay!
The Stitch-along Tote pattern is now shipping to shops and distributors nationwide and beyond! If you'd like to grab your own in PDF format, they are now available in my etsy shop!
