Quilt Market #14, more quilts!!

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Plaid Portico

Nearing the end of Quilt Market Houston 2012 coverage, and there are a few more posts to go. Here are more quilts from different categories that caught my eye because they are just amazing for a variety of reasons. I’m sure you won’t need me to tell you why, so take a gander and enjoy!

Dear Friends by Michiko Yanagihara and 8 friends, Gotemba, Shizuoka, Japan

details of Dear Friends by Michiko Yanagihara

Super Star by Marilyn Badger

detail of Super Star by Marilyn Badger

Syzygy by Rochelle Stibb

detail of Syzygy by Rochelle Stibb

Prometheus by Ferret

detail of Prometheus by Ferret

Once Upon a Time by Sharon Schamber

detail of Once Upon a Time by Sharon Schamber

Tangled Up by Ruth Anne Yax

No Direction Home by Barbara Oliver Hartman

Windmill on Bluebonnet Hill by Kay Marburger

Departure by Kiyomi Takayanagi

Green Message by Naoko Takeshita

detail of Green Message by Naoko Takeshita

Tree of Life by Allison Lockwood

Quilt Market #13: Carolyn Friedlander

Posted on November 27, 2012 by Plaid Portico

Carolyn Friedlander Quilt Market Houston 2012

The other designer whose booth and work I was incredibly attracted to at Quilt Market Houston 2012 was Carolyn Friedlander. Her quilt patterns, wonderful on their own, were a fantastic vehicle to showcase her fabrics from her first collection with Robert Kaufman, Architextures. Check it out!

Carolyn Friedlander

Stripes by Carolyn Friedlander

detail of Stripes by Carolyn Friedlander

Quilt Market #12: Alison Glass

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Plaid Portico

Well, amongst all the visual stimulation at Quilt Market one does stumble upon certain things that stand out. For me this year there were a couple designers out with their first fabric collections that I was very attracted to. One was Alison Glass with Andover Fabrics, Inc.

I saw projects made out of her new collection “Lucky Penny” at an Andover meeting before Quilt Market even started and I made a beeline right over there. I was entranced. It was different, with a unique palette and quality of linework. Totally appealing. Then I had the pleasure of meeting her and was delighted. By the end of Quilt Market, it still stood out for me, and so here are some shots of some projects using Lucky Penny by Alison Glass with Andover Fabrics, Inc.

: Lucky Penny by Alison Glass for Andover Fabrics

: Lucky Penny by Alison Glass for Andover Fabrics

: Lucky Penny by Alison Glass for Andover Fabrics

: Lucky Penny by Alison Glass for Andover Fabrics; Oh, and then there was …”the quilt”. Alison designed the quilt and Lisa Sipes did the machine quilting. Amazing! It made its way all over market. We all got a close look at it at the Andover sales meeting.

Lucky Penny by Alison Glass for Andover Fabrics, quilted by Lisa Sipes

Quilt Market #11: More Quilts

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Plaid Portico

And continuing our Quilt Market Houston 2012 coverage, more of my selections from the quilt exhibitions:

Alexandra’s Quilt by Tara Faughnan

Diamond Quilt by Tara Faughnan

Dream Fields by Janet Steadman

Jet Trails #10 by Marcia DeCamp

Crazy for Plaid by Allison Aller

My Flower Plates by Candyce Grisham

La Torre de Babel by Celilia Koppmann

Pane Reflections by Timna Tarr

Broken by Janet Steadman

A World by Many Colors by Georgeta Grama

Quilt Market #9: Modern Quilt Relish

Posted on November 13, 2012 by Plaid Portico

One of my favorite quilt designer booths at Quilt Market Houston 2012 was Modern Quilt Relish. Fresh and modern, I love their design sense. A little bit about them…

Jill and Marny have been in business just about 3 years. Friends for 20 years, they worked together at the Quilting Connection in Ames, Iowa. When their sons, who are best friends, married sisters, they decided they would have to be nice to one another forever. They share the same design aesthetic and since they weren’t seeing many modern designs, they decided to create them. Their patterns were first introduced at the AQS/DesMoines show the fall of 2010 and since then they have exhibited at two spring and two fall markets.

They say this about their design process:

“Our designs our collaborative. One of us will explore an idea and then we’ll tweak the design to production together. Having helped many quilt shop customers, we feel we have the knowledge to write an accurate and understandable pattern. It’s always our goal to make our patterns easy, fun, gender-friendly with just a little taste of the unexpected!”

Their new book Picnic, (available mid December) shares their understanding of design principles and elements along with thirteen projects. They will be vending at the upcoming Quiltcon in Austin (February). McCall’s Quilting, America Makes Fast Quilts will publish a baby quilt at the beginning of the year and Martingale will publish Modern Baby this April, with one of our designs.

Quilt Market #8: More Booths

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Plaid Portico

Continuing coverage of Quilt Market Houston 2012, here we have some of the popular fabric designer’s booths. May I also mention that these are also incredibly nice and wonderful people. There is not a single designer that I met in the last few years at Quilt Market that wasn’t friendly, genuine and open. Make no bones about it though, they are also all very hardworking. Such is the creative community!

Amy Butler Booth, Quilt Market Houston 2012

Amy Butler Booth Quilt Market Houston 2012

Tula Pink booth, Quilt Market Houston 2012

Kaffe Fassett Booth, Quilt Market Houston 2012

Laura Gunn’s booth, Quilt Market Houston 2012

Anna Maria Horner’s booth, Quilt Market Houston 2012

David Butler, Quilt Market Houston 2012

Joel Dewberry, Quilt Market Houston 2012

Valori Wells, Quilt Market Houston 2012

10 more Quilts from Quilt Market 2012 Houston

Posted on November 7, 2012 by Plaid Portico

I’m learning about my own aesthetic in the quilting medium just by observing which quilts I am drawn to when I cover quilt exhibitions. I just go around and take photos of the ones that draw me in and that I want to see more of and look at more closely. Most of the time what attracts me is the composition as a strong piece of abstract art (my first love). Other times it is the sparkling that happens in more traditional quilts that as I get closer seems like peeling an onion revealing layers of artistry and intrigue.

Then there is COLOR of course, the use of which is a big part of all quilts, but sometimes just by itself it acts like a magnet (color junkie that I am). And texture. Quilts are displayed at shows as 2D art, but by their nature they are sculptural and textural. The quilts I actually use are not only beautiful, but there is the comfort factor including the touch on my skin, and intimacy of proximity and the views from underneath and close-up. There is also always a sense that these have been made over a period of time by someone’s hands. The quilt becomes an object that has been formed by thousands of stitches, artistic decisions, and is imbued with all history of the fabric and material chosen to be part of it as well as all the hands that sew, cut, piece and quilt. I experience it all as very rich, sometime overwhelmingly so, but mostly its inspiring and comforting.

And without further ado, more quilts from the Quilt Exhibition at Quilt Market 2012 in Houston.

Whispering Silence by Laura Stauffer, Speiz, Switzerland
From Hands All Around 2012, Sponsored by Quilter’s Newsletter

Close-up of Whispering Silence by Laura Stauffer

Viva Quilt by Noriko Nozawa, Chiba-City, Chiba
Hands All Around 2012 Sponsored by Quilter’s Newsletter

Viva Quilt by Noriko Nozawa, Chiba-City, Chiba

Rost by Claudia Helmer, Bad Soden, Hesse,Germany
Hands All Around 2012 Sponsored by Quilter’s Newsletter

close-up of Rost by Claudia Helmer

Tuning Fork #6 by Heather Pregger
Hands All Around 2012 Sponsored by Quilter’s Newsletter

Close-up of Tuning Fork #6 by Heather Pregger

Wrath by Diane Firth, Turner, Australia
Hands All Around 2012 Sponsored by Quilter’s Newsletter

close-up of Wrath by Dianne Firth, Turner, Australia

Lotus Blossom by Cory Allender, ST. George, UT

Rambler Rose by Yoshiko Kobayashi, Katano-City, Osaka, Japan
Hands All Around 2012, Sponsored by Quilter’s Newletter

Rambler Rose by Yoshiko Kobayashi

I Know where the summer goes by Cathie Ugrin, Winnipeg, Manitoba

I Know where the summer goes by Cathie Ugrin, Winnepeg, Manitoba

Blue Lagoon by Marianne Williamson, Miami, FL
Festival Gallery of Quilt Art: Memories of My Childhood sponsored by Aurifil

Close-up of Blue Lagoon by Marianne Williamson

Tumbling Blocks by Philippa Naylor, UK
Tin LIzzie 18 presents Innovative Pieced

Tumbling Blocks by Philippa Naylor, UK

close-up of Tumbling Blocks by Philippa Naylor

Quilt Market #7: more booths

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Plaid Portico

Ok, let’s start this week at a look at more booths from Quilt Market 2012 Houston. A word about the booths. Some are open, some are closed on one or multiple sides. The fabric companies and larger distributors have huge booths that allow them to configure them in a variety of ways. A huge surprise for me the second time I came to Quilt Market is that people did entirely new booth designs and had entirely different locations year to year, and so it was again this year. Makes it a lot more fun looking around.

The large booths are hard to show because it is a show to sell to shop owners after all, and so many booths were set up in such a way that you really would be taking pics of the sales floor with people doing business, and the booth design would just show as background. But I have a few snippets here and there. Besides Surtex, this is one of the more visual shows I’ve attended in the last several years and I have gone to a variety of them. In addition to all the fabric design on display there are quilt designs on display, the huge quilt exhibition, and fashion and home furnishings in prints print prints. And color color color.

Let’s take a wander down the aisle…

Emily Herrick, quilt designer, author of Geared for Guys, and fabric designer for Michael Miller Fabrics with her latest quilt designs using cotton couture solids by Michael Miller

Art Gallery Fabric’s Pat Bravo’s new collection Rock n’ Romance

A corner of the Blend Fabrics booth, with Josephine Kimberling and Sarah Watts latest collections

Westminster Fabrics’ Booth

Alexander Henry Booth

Sarah Watson’s booth with her collection Luxe in Bloom with Art Gallery Fabrics

Sarah Watson’s booth with drawings and inspiration for her collection Luxe in Bloom

Patty Sloniger for Michael Miller wit her new collection “Les Amis”

Laurie Wisbrun for Robert Kaufman

Booth for Kanvas, a branch of Benartex

Next up, more quilts from the Quilt Exhibition at Quilt Market Houston 2012

Quilt Market 2012 Report #3

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Plaid Portico

All right, I have so many photos it is going to take a long time to sort through them all, so I shall post in small groups at a time. So stay tuned, as we will have Quilt Market Houston 2012 content for at least a month here. First of all, let’s recap. Who attends Quilt Market? The intended buyer is the quilt store owner. The exhibitors therefore are anyone that wholesales to quilt stores including fabric companies, sewing equipment companies, notions and distributors, and pattern companies – of which there are many and varied!!

Some of the fabric designers from the fabric companies have a booth either on their own or connected with their company, and many of those also have their own pattern business. Many pattern companies later go on to design fabric. What is a pattern business? Someone who design original patterns for quilts, bags, apparel or anything that uses the fabrics that these store sells. So the pattern companies display projects made with their patterns, and the fabric companies display projects made with their fabric. So it all makes for a varied and colorful display all around.

First off is Green Bee Designs and Patterns out of Nashville with clean trendy booth design and very appealing, modern sewing patterns and fabric choices for quilts, clothes and bags. Alexia Marcelle Abegg is an artist, designer and seamstress, who also runs a sewing school. She is joined by Rob Bancroft who has his first fabric collection coming out with Cloud 9 fabrics in November, and Michelle Abegg, who has sewn since a child, and creates sewing patterns with Green Bee. They were super nice and I am in love with that quilt.

Green Bee Design & Patterns

Green Bee Designs and Patterns

Next up for today is Me and My Sister Designs. A corner booth with one of my favorite displays with mannequins wrapped in fabric, you can’t miss it and makes you look! Very friendly, just like their fun friendly patterns, these two sisters started by quilting, then bought a quilt shop, and then designed patterns, and also have designed fabrics for Moda. Phew! Take a peek…

Me and My Sister Designs

Modern Quilt Guild Exhibition at Quilt Market Houston 2012

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Plaid Portico

The Modern Quilt Guild Exhibition at Quilt Market 2012 in Houston

Yesterday I got a chance to look at the quilt exhibitions at Quilt Market 2012, and started out with the Modern Quilt Guild‘s exhibition. Gorgeous gorgeous, I took photos of the ones that really struck me, and since I take the photo first and then look and see who designed the quilt second, I got surprised a couple times to see I had chosen quilts people from my own East Bay Modern Guild. Hooray!

Without further ado, my picks and pics -keep in mind there are limitations photographing in this environment and there are at times things obstructing a view of the whole quilt, but enjoy anyway!