So… I went to Quilt Market a couple weekends ago. It was held in Pittsburgh (driving distance!) and my sewing pattern business qualified me to attend as an “Industry Professional.” I pretty much had to go and see what the hype was about. right?
I’m not a huge quilter, and I don’t own a fabric shop, and I have no plans for designing fabric or writing a book. Basically, I didn’t really have a solid business reason to attend, but I greatly enjoyed this fascinating peak into the industry.
(Cloud 9)
If I was the image grooming type I would have made sure to take pictures of me hanging with cool people, but whenever I attempt such things I usually look super awkward, like this…
(Heck yeah, that is Wonder Woman fabric behind me! by Camelot Fabrics)
So without any pictures to prove it, you will just have to trust that I did a small amount of elbow rubbing and therefore you should think I am super amazing. The best part of Quilt Market for me was that I got to finally meet and have lunch with Emily of The Boy Trifecta! And then I got to give Maddie Kertay from Bad Ass Quilter Society a hug, and watch as she purchased bolts of fabric for her lovely quilt shop!
One exciting trend worth mentioning is that lots and lots of companies are dipping their toes into garment fabrics.
(Art Gallery Voiles, super duper soft! They have lovely knits too)
Monaluna
(As an aside, I got to spend a good amount of time chatting with my girl Karen LePage and Jennifer Moore, owner of Monaluna. Thank you for letting me rest my sore legs in your booth, Jennifer!)
Anna Maria Horner Rayons and knits
(Hopefully, I don’t burn too many bridges saying this, but I was underwhelmed by the AMH knits, not a ton of stretch.)
Robert Kaufman jersey
The darlings of this show were Cotton+Steel ladies.
Yup, they were worth the hype.
Also, some (all?) of the Cotton+Steel designers can be found on Gelaskins. (Here is Rashida’s.)
My birthday is coming up….hint hint hint….
(bari j.)
(So that was my Quilt Market experience in a nutshell. I have to run and pick up my kids from their penultimate day of school. So, if you want to read more about what Quilt Market is all about, I recommend Abby Glassenberg’s excellent post.
I looked Abby’s post, just answered and asked all the wonderings I’ve had! However, your instagrams from market were by far the most useful of anyone’s I saw! So thank you, and maybe, can we send you every market!?
works for me! as long as every market is in pittsburgh. 😛
Nice to read someone’s honest opinion of something (anything?) in the online sewing sphere! And, generally speaking, I’m thrilled more companies are testing garment fabrics even if I probably will never buy any of them.
The more options for garment sewing the better, I say!
I’ve sewed a few garments with quilting cottons but am dismayed that most of them require ironing–not very practical for this Granny to make clothes for my grandgirls. Their mother works outside the home and even when she was a full timer at home, she didn’t have time to iron. I wish these fabrics had just a little touch of poly or SOMETHING to make them no-iron! Did you see any evidence of that at the market?
I didn’t check the content of the quilting “cottons”. Most quilters like 100% cotton, but as people start exploring with garment fabrics, I bet we will see more poly-blends.
Thanks for the tour Jodi! I’ve always wondered what Quilt market was! I’m not a quilter and usually only buy fabric in downtown LA so I don’t know about most of these fabrics except for trying a Mona Luna and some quilting cottons I got on Fabric dot com. Most of the prints are too busy for ladies clothes, IMO, but cute for kids stuff and crafty projects. I’d love to check it out sometime, too.