I just returned from International Quilt Market in Houston. Even after 10 years attending the show with C&T Publishing, I’m always amazed at the creativity, beauty, and sense of camaraderie exhibited by this industry. I managed to get on the plane to fly to Houston with a cold, ingesting cold medicine and declining to shake hands; I was determined to keep my nasty germs to myself. Instead of working on the plane, I slept, especially after I stayed up til after midnight finishing my daughter’s Halloween costume—that would be the one she let me know she needed on Sunday night, when she was returning to college on Tuesday afternoon. Jasmin the princess and her boyfriend’s Alladin costume were both finished just prior to getting on the plane. The last button was sewn on, and I was ready to take a muchly needed nap on the plane.
At the show, C&T did a whirlwind 12 schoolhouses for many of our new release titles. (We’ll post images and video next week!)
Some of the show highlights for me were in the Special Exhibit area. There were two mosaic quilts by Diana Bracy that blew me away. One was of Obama and the other of McCain. It doesn’t matter who you support. Both of their portraits were incredibly-created in mosiacs of fabric scraps. A quilter’s creativity never ceases to amaze me!
Gorgeous quilts by Diana Bracy
I got lots of inspiration for holiday presents at the show. But first I have to finish daughter #2’s Halloween costume!
Everyone has heard the idiom “the calm before the storm.” It always pops into my head when Quilt Market is right around the corner which always makes me laugh. If there is a “calm” before the storm that is Quilt Market, I have yet to experience it. But I am not in too much of a rush to do so. Sounds kind of eerie to me…
When I mentioned how there was never a calm before the “storm” of Quilt Market to one of my contacts at Quilts Inc, she laughed and cheerfully reminded me that the storm had come and gone and “it’s now safe to go to the show!” I guess you really learn how to streamline things when your endure 10 days without access to your office (or electricity for that matter) only a month before show time. Quilts, Inc did an amazing job pulling things together after Hurricane Ike almost took Houston out completely. I was totally captivated when I read Quilt Market founder and director Karey Bresenhan’s blog entry about Ike’s aftermath.
Warehouse Assistants Arnold and Rodel with Big Boy (the crate)
One of the more intimidating pre-trade show tasks is that of getting every single thing we’ll need for the show—from inventory racks to altoids— gathered and packed up into our shipping crate in a way that makes sense. I am almost sure that our trade show shipping crate is the largest of it’s kind. The people that custom built it for us must have thought we had the hugest ego. The first truck that came to pick it up had a lift gate but the crate was just a little too tall to fit inside. The superstar forklifting skills of Warehouse Assistants Arnold and Rodel actually drew in a small crowd.
Megan and I being silly during set-up
Megan Wisniewski and I met up with the crate again a week ago in Houston, TX. The first day of booth set-up is lots of hard physical work. Our goal was to set up as much as we possibly could in the time we had. I am always amazed at how much we do get done that first day. When you make it as fun as possible like we did, it’s actually hard for me to take breaks for rest. When you become still all you hear is the sound of hundreds of other people working away. So sitting there just doesn’t feel right.
On Set-up Day #2 CEO Todd Hensley stopped by to help for awhile. It’s awesome when people stop in and just can’t help getting their hands dirty right along with me.
CEO Todd Hensley helping me out in the booth
Here are some photos I took right before the show opened on Saturday. The booth in final form…
Our newest titles
I am the editor that Gailen referred to in her Car Projects and Other Small Commitments post… I received her handmade wee folk on top of my surprise wedding cake at my surprise reception that was thrown by C&T for my husband and I. (We eloped, so, not being able to join in the festivities, C&T had their own surprise party for us. How rad is that?!)
Because it was a surprise, I didn’t know to tell Gailen that my sweetie had grown a beard since the last time she’d seen him, so the wee groom was clean shaven.
Clean-shaven groom
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Those who know me well understand why an organization like Scrap Pink is close to my heart. When one of our very talented design team members, Daniela Costa, approached me about partnering with her at a Scrap Pink event in our area, I was pretty excited to do something to help support this cause. For those of you not familiar, Scrap Pink is a way for scrapbookers to raise money for breast cancer research.
I’m proud to say that C&T Publishing generously donated many materials that Daniela used in her workshop. Just before the event, she brought in a sample of her Halloween Mini Shadowbox project—along with a favorite homemade treat, chocolate chip cookies. Here’s a shot of the fun little project she created.
Halloween Mini Shadowbox
In addition to some of her own custom-designed papers and embellishments (that you can check out on her Etsy site), the project used one of our newest Ready-to-Go! blank board products, the Mini Shadowboxes.
According to Daniela,
The event was such a success, and my make-and-take was the most popular with a waiting list all day until almost EVERY single person made it. Your support of the event was phenomenal and everyone heard about C&T. They all loved, loved, loved the boxes.
Designers like Daniela make me totally happy to be a part of this amazing industry filled with such thoughtful, selfless, and super-talented folks. Way to go, Daniela… and C&T!
Car projects are always hot for me. I have two toddlers and a temporary house (we moved in a year and a half ago and won’t finish building our new home for another year and a half… can a three-year house really count as temporary?) so I don’t have the time and space for my usual quilting.
A great portable roadtrip project
I have wool appliqué quilt blocks (from a Quiltmaker magazine project) that I started on the way to a Las Vegas tradeshow and worked on heading south en route to the grandparents in Los Angeles and north to my brother’s house in Chico. That counts as quilting, although I don’t intend to sew them together (I ended up not being wowed by my felt color selections).
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My 5-year-old princess was going to a friend’s birthday party. I wanted her gift to be something fun and unique, not the same old Barbie doll. My daughter Alivia and I love to make crafts together, so I figured her friend likes to, also. I thought the Ready-to-Go! Indie File Box would be the perfect size box to fill with craft goodies.
I then discovered that the Ready-to-Go! 1 1/2″ blocks fit perfectly inside the file box and are a great surface for kids crafts. They’re also a great deal at $8.95 for 9 blocks! Alivia likes to draw pictures on each side of the block with pens. (I have to admit that I like to do this, too.)
The file box includes tab dividers, so we included several sheets of stickers and fancy paper. There was even enough room for a cute paper punch and some glittery pens!
To finish off the crafty gift, we wrapped it in beautiful pink fabric and topped it with a big ribbon!
My daughter was so proud to give this gift, a personalized present that she put so much thought into, like picking out the perfect stickers that she knew her friend would like, and decorating one of the blocks. It was really sweet.
From the book, Color From the Heart
by Gai Perry
Once upon a time in America, way before how-to books and design classes were available, women somehow managed to make quilts of remarkable beauty and color. Because it was necessary to use tiny leftover scraps and secondhand fabrics, they unknowingly employed two important rules for successfully combining unrelated fabric prints:
Rule #1: Most fabrics will blend in a pleasing manner if the size of the individual pattern pieces are small (2″ or less).
Rule #2: It is easier to combine 50 different fabrics in a quilt than it is to choose 5 fabrics that look perfect together.
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The C&T Publishing “Green Team” rolled out a supply of eco-friendly cleaners for the office. We removed bleach, ammonia, and petroleum-based cleaning ingredients from the C&T stash, substituting them with bio-friendly materials like vinegar and baking soda. This ensures a green clean, with rinse water that is safe to go down the drains and into water supplies.
Our green goal was to turn away from unfriendly cleaning chemicals, for a greener, cleaner C&T Publishing and we were easily able to meet that goal. Please use our greener cleaner recipes to mix yourself up a batch… the planet will love you!
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We always knew Laura was a winner, and now it’s official! Her new quilt, “Housing Department #7,” has just won a prize in the Miniature Art Quilt category at International Quilt Festival. If you’re going to Festival, be sure to stop by Laura’s Booth #1225, and say hello. She’ll no doubt be selling her latest book, Fuse-and-Tell Journal Quilts and her new DVD, Laura Wasilowski Teaches You to Create Fused Art Quilts.
Side Note: Laura recently started a blog, so if you’re a fan of hers like we are, go check it out!
The All-in-One Quilter’s Reference Tool, for one. The November/December issue of Quilter’s Home recommends keeping our handy tool on your shelf to answer those tricky technical questions that always seem to come up when you’re quilting. The tool is packed with tips from top quilters like Harriet Hargrave, Sharyn Craig, and Alex Anderson.
