
It's that time of
year again! The one where I make my pilgrimage to an unknown city with my gal
pal, (aka Mom and Aunt Linda), and go to Quilt Market!! This year it was in
Kansas City, MO and it was my most favorite city so far. What a beautiful place!
I thought I'd document it more this time around so that when I'm 90 I can
remember this 'thing' I did when I was a young mom.
So the question I
get a lot is....drum roll please.....
What is
International Quilt Market?
International Quilt Market
is a trade show for the quilting and fabric industry. It is where the designers
/ manufacturers debut their new lines and where most quilt shops and store
owners place their orders for new lines of fabrics, patterns, notions, trims,
etc. Fabric is ordered by the bolt and most everything is sold at wholesale
pricing. The show is not open to the public and you need to present credentials
to get in. There are hundreds of booths showing off all things related to
fabrics and quilting. We go as designers and show store owners new products for their stores. It's also a great way to make contacts in the business and to get
your name out there to people who otherwise
wouldn't know you from Adam.
The place is HUGE with so much for your eyes to take in. My husband, Devin, jokes that it's what the world would look like if women ruled it. I'd have to agree.
Trying to sort through the mayhem. It gets overwhelming really fast. And really really HOT. With everyone loading and unloading on the docks, they turn off the A/C and it turns into a sauna. Every year they do this to us! By the end you're a hot sweaty mess.
I had this vision of a really fun booth that screamed "kids" as you walked by. I wanted people to not only see the product I'd created, but to see them on little kids and see them using them. So I created fake canvases and lots of buntings to make it feel sort of like a kid carnival.
Fat Quarter Shop
took this picture from the top of the escalators, and I even found my mom and I
chatting away amidst the chaos. And that line went back for MILES....thousands
of ladies!
Opening Day! All set up and ready to go. I can only liken this experience to being in a zoo, behind the glass. Shop owners stroll on by, slow and steady, taking in everything your booth has to offer. And you just stand there. Like a zebra on display. It's all very awkward.
My mom had her new book come out, A Perfect Cut, which I'm proud to say Devin named. He's our go to guy for ideas I swear! It went over sooo well!
We even revamped our logos this year-I think my moms looks so much better!
My Aunt Linda is one of my favorite people in the world. She does our money and checks everyone out. And then I hide behind her whenever people come in the booth because I HATE to small talk with strangers. Most of the time I get away with it, but if my mom catches me, she gives me her serious eyes and out of the corner I go.
.
The second day
Tara, our new amazing graphics gal came up to meet us for dinner. She just so happens
to live in Kansas City and we'd never met before; just had long conversations
over the phone. She was great fun and took us to this amazing BBQ place called
Jack Stack.
We even had fun
joking about how much she looks like my mom!
And how my Aunt Linda must be my real mom because we are SO much alike and even look more alike then me and the Dodster do.
We even like the same foods and we just had to order these ginormous onion rings and massive mushrooms. My mom isn't a foodie and doesn't like to try crazy foods like us.
After dinner we hoped on a carriage for a ride around the city. The driver gave us a history about the open air strip mall we'd come to know and love. It was amazingly beautiful!
We snuck out to see if I could find any of my stuff and see what others had to offer. Here's some of my patterns at the MODA booth.
In the corner is one of my Sweet Seats that we made out of this manufacturers fabrics. As a designer you can talk to fabric manufacturer's and get fabric from upcoming lines of fabric. Then we make them samples using that fabric that's to be displayed at market so everyone can see our pattern made up in their fabrics. It's a win win for both of us because quilt store owners can see things made up in the fabrics they are going to order and then they can order the pattern.
These were some of my favorite booths this year:
Here's some of my things that were in the Riley Blake booth-I love this manufacturer and they are so wonderful about sending fabric to me! Love that I get to work with them. This picture was on the front of the fatquartershop.com blog-so fun!
FYI-I'm making a 10x20 of this picture for both of them at Xmas!!
And yes, while in strange cities I rock the colored pants. Thanks Kansas-it was a blast!
Hope you loved the tour..Meg and Dodi
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