May

31

May 31, 2009

Was I really in Pittsburgh?

Filed Under Books, Designers, Patterns 

It seems so dreamlike now. Whose idea was it to go on a five-day trip to the east coast and then immediately go on a five-day trip just as far the other direction? After 8 plane flights in 13 days, a total 6-hour time-zone shift, and the red-eye flight home, my eyeballs were rolling in different directions by the time we got back on Tuesday morning.

After a nap I plunged headfirst into an appliqué project, because while I was at Market I was lucky enough to pick up a magazine assignment, and the deadline is way soon. So I’ve been head down, face first in hand appliqué for four days. I just finished the hand stitching, so I feel like I can take a breath.

Okay, my pictures from Market. Other bloggers did way better than me at documenting the beautiful sights, colors, and textures of all of the beautiful booths. Check out Bunny Tales, Blue Moon River, and Lizzy B Cre8ive for wonderful accounts of Spring Market. But I did get few a cool things on my camera.

The day before I left for Pittsburgh, I went to the post office to pick up a mystery package. Turned out it was from my friend Kim Jamieson-Hirst in Calgary. She send me a custom made bag, just for Market! In fact, it’s called Kay’s Market Bag. How sweet! She photo-transferred the cover of my book onto the front, and on the back is the Quilt Puppy. This bag is the perfect size to hold my postcards, so I festooned ‘the beast” with it and then not only was my book cover on display as I dragged the beast with me wherever I went, my postcards were very handy when I needed one. Thank you Kim! I treasure this. Kim tells me that the pattern for this bag will be available soon!

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My Schoolhouse presentation wasn’t until 4:45 p.m. on the day before the floor opened, so I had lots of time to watch the exhibits going up. It’s amazing the beehive of activity that goes on at these venues. It looks all pretty and perfect when the doors open, but during setup, what a tangled mess! It’s so exciting to be there and watch it all come together.

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Amazingly, they lay the carpet individually for each event. Those are rolls of carpet against the back wall that will eventually cover every bit of walking area.

The first day, one of my missions was to find the Maywood Studio booth and take pictures of my friend Janet Locey‘s quilts.

When I say find Maywood Studio, I meant hunt.

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I couldn’t resist zooming in with my camera on this side, since my quilt ‘Blooms in Red and Yellow’ from Easy Appliqué Blocks was hung in the Martingale booth so that it had perfect viewing from the skywalk. Can you see it, right in the middle?

Fortunately the aisles are numbered with huge overhead signs. There’s just so much packed into that huge room that without the signs you could never find anything you were looking for. But, armed with a directory, I searched out Maywood and found Janet’s quilts, which she made especially for Spring Market using Maywood’s new Paisley fabric.

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This quilt is called ‘Across the Pond’ and it has turtle pincushions with it. Maywood did such a cute job of draping the quilt over a trunk and placing the turtles on top of it and on a log in front.

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The wonderful quilt behind the Maywood Studio sales table is Janet’s pattern ‘The Birds & the Bees’. Janet fussy-cut the bird wings from the paisley shape.

Friday and Saturday went by in a happy blur. On Friday I did a book signing at the Checker Distributors booth and it was so much fun! One of the gals said that it was the best-attended signing they’d had all day. The books went fast and so did the time. I heard that one of the Martingale staff was taking pictures but I didn’t even notice, If they send me any, I’ll put one up here.

I visited several times with Maria Peagler, who was at Market introducing shop owners to her fabulous book Color Mastery. I also talked quite a bit with the Lizzie B Cre8ive gals, Beth and Liz.

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Their booth was like a square plot of fairlyland plopped down in the convention center. I managed to get my picture with both of their backs turned. That’s Beth on the left and Liz on the right. They’re sisters-in-law who share the exact same name and one of the cutest pattern companies ever. They’ve won the award for Most Creative Booth two Markets running. There are great pix on their blog.

Beth and Liz just came out with their first book, Whimsyland, from the Kansas City Star. Be sure to go take a look at it on the Lizzie B website!

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While I was at their booth one time, Liz said, “Allow me to introduce you to Terry.” Terry is the woman sitting down at the little table. Then Liz said, “Terry, show Kay your name tag, because you’re a very famous person.” Terry showed me her name tag and wow, it was Terry Clothier Thompson. Just like that, I met Terry Clothier Thompson. That’s the kind of thing that happens at Market.

A lot of other cool things happened too, and I’ll write more about them when their times come. I also picked up some samples of new products that I’m itching to try out for appliqué and I’ll let you know how that goes. And, I have a few designers and pattern companies to add to the blogroll lists.

Coming up… my visit to the Kapaia Stitchery on Kauai!

Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs

Comments

One Response to “Was I really in Pittsburgh?”

  1. Beth on June 1st, 2009 8:53 pm

    Loved your post Kay! Always fun to see market from someone else’s perspective. It was great to see you there:)
    Thanks so much for your great pics of our booth and all the NICE NICE things you had to say about us and our little Whimsyland world. And I think YOU are the only one who actually got a pic of our fabulous editor KENT (talking to me in the photo with my back turned…) he was elusive and we did not even get a pic with him! So thanks for posting that :)
    Can’t wait to hear about Kauai…I’m going there in a couple of weeks so hurry and post all your fun details!! —Beth