The New Handmade

Whew! I’ve been trying to write a post for a few days now, but between working in the Martingale booth and talking to as many people as I can, and trying to visit the rest of the vendors it’s been a busy few days!

Friday was Schoolhouse, where vendors (authors, designers, product inventors, etc) give little presentations to shop owners about their new product or book or fabric line. I was nervous for mine, but it ended up going great. The presentation is only 15 minutes long, so I figured I could get through that all right. We brought almost all of my projects to Schoolhouse and everyone loved seeing the bright colors and the variety of projects. I had a full room, which was really exciting! We also gave away most of the wrist cuffs, which proved to be more popular than I’d imagined.

Yesterday was the first day of Market, and I had a demo at Martingale in the morning and then a book signing at Checker in the afternoon. The demo was great, I just sat at the booth and enticed folks over with projects, the got to chat with them about class ideas, or my goals for the book. It was nice to talk one-on-one with different kinds of customers and shop owners. The Dinner Party Grocery Bag and the Bird-Watcher Messenger Bag are popular! I made a new Bird-Watcher in chartreuse Echino fabrics, and made sure to show it to the folks at Seven Islands (who distribute Etsuko Furuya’s Echino lines).

Today I didn’t have anything scheduled, so I visited several booths over at Westminster and Free Spirit. I had a chance to show my book to Liza Lucy, Kaffe Fassett’s frequent design partner and co-author. She was so nice and loved the book. I also met the charming Tina Givens, Anna Maria Horner, and a new designer, Melissa Averinos (who is completely adorable!)

And for Project Runway fans, Jay McCarroll has a new fabric line out with Free Spirit and I met him! He’s awesome. Surprisingly enough, considering I know him from a reality show, he’s just as I expected. Super friendly, gregarious, and down-to-earth. His booth was great, his fabric is awesome. I can’t wait to design more projects and play with it! In fact, his sister gave me some kits for a cute bag project they designed together. When I have a few more readers, I’ll have a little giveaway!