Spring Quilt Market - Recap

I was so excited to attend my first International Quilt Market and have now fully recovered from the trip and catching up at my day job.

The spring quilt market was held in Kansas City this year which made it so easy for me to attend.
Add to that my friend Joyce just opened a quilt shop and was excited to check out market too.

International Quilt Market is a credentialed trade show and not open to the general public

although, most of the new fabrics and patterns seem to be shown on the internet before the market even starts so I don't really think anyone is missing out on the big reveals.

For me, quilt market was more about meeting internet friends and networking for future collaborations.

Before I set foot on the floor of the quilt market I met Tula Pink.

It didn't hurt that I had decided to wear my Moon Shine t-shirt that day.

I could have just dropped when she asked me if she could take an Instagram Street Spotting picture.

She was so sweet to let me take a picture too.

Her new fabric line Monkey Wrench made such a cute booth.

Our first day of International Quilt Market was Thursday and we attended the Schoolhouse Series.  It was a series of 15 - 30-minute presentations about what you could find in the booths in the upcoming days and educational classes about anything quilt related. 

 It really gave us a chance to see what to focus on at Quilt Market. 

One of my favorite Schoolhouse presentations was Kim's, from Go-Go Kim, social media class.  She joined the Island Batik team for several presentations and it was fun to meet the faces behind the names of all my Island Batik friends.

Island Batik has a new spring line by Kathy Engle called Freedom that is perfect for 

Quilts of Valor or any red, white, and blue quilt.

(I will have a quilt to show soon...)

 Later that day we attended Sample Spree.  I have to admit that Sample Spree was not my favorite thing we did.  It's a chance for buyers to purchase individual items from manufacturers.   I'm not a buyer and I do not like crowds or to stand in line for long periods of time.  I probably won't do that event again.  Although I did get to visit with a lot of like-minded people while I stood in line, I would rather do that over a cup of coffee.  lol

Friday was the first day the show floor opened

and

it was soooo overwhelming for a newbie.

My first stop was the Blend Fabrics booth to see my projects.

Through a partnership with Thermoweb, I made a few things for the Blend Fabrics booth.

These projects were for Anna Griffin's Lila fabric collection, the patterns for these projects are coming soon over at Thermoweb.

Thermoweb frequently partners with other industry companies for events and shows.

Michael Miller Fabrics has been super generous to the Thermoweb fabric project designers

and

I just had to visit their booth.

Rob Appell with Michael Miller conducted lots of interviews and it was fun to watch.

It was fun to meet Crystal in person too! 

She is the reason you will see a lot of my new projects for Thermoweb made with bright and fun Michael Miller Fabrics.

My first day of booth hopping finished with a visit to the Hobbs Batting booth and a visit with 

Steph and fellow Island Batik Ambassador, Jennifer - The Inquiring Quilter.

It was such a pleasure to meet both of these ladies and

I can't wait to share my May Island Batik Ambassador quilt for the Make it Modern with Hobbs Batting challenge. I tried a technique that was suggested by Steph and it worked brilliantly.Stay tuned for the reveal later this week.

Day 2 of booth hopping was quick and fun with meeting and connecting with more friends.

First stop - Riley Blake Designs to meet Cindy and connect with an old friend, J Wecker Frisch of Joy Studio.  Janet is the designer of the fabric, Handmaids, from one of the first blog hops I hosted, She Who Sews.  We had so much fun catching up and maybe some fun in the future too.  

Her booth was adorable.

Speaking of blog hops, I met another friend from years of blog hopping.

Doris from Cactus Queen Quilt Co. had a booth for her new endeavor, X-Blocks.

Another blog hop friend, Amanda of Amanda Murphy Design.

I finished my Quilt Market fun with a talk by Pat Sloan

and Quilt in a Day's, Eleanor Burns.

I heard more than once that this was a small quilt market but that the people attending were there to conduct business and it was a great success.

No matter what the outcome was for others, we had a blast and checked a lot of things off our lists.  It was fun to help my friend Joyce explore options for her quilt shop and I'm so excited to see the new things coming to 

 Birds of a Feather Quilt Shop.

And that's my first Quilt Market experience in a nutshell.

I don't know how it could get any better.