The New Handmade

After I met Jay McCarroll at Quilt Market, I kicked myself for not getting a picture. I was already feeling like such a a fangirl, and he had plenty of people to talk to besides me. But afterwards I realized I didn’t care. So I had a mission to accomplish before the end of Monday.

I tried to nail him down all day, but he was in meetings or at lunch or out seeing other booths. Finally, with 15 minutes to go at Market, I gave up and went back to the Martingale booth. Luckily I went down the main aisle, because I ran into him on the way back! I’d signed a copy of my book for him (because Jay really needs to know how to make a tote bag, right?) so I intercepted him, gave him the book, and had his sister Janet take our picture. Woo-hoo!

And with that…Quilt Market was over! I’ll probably write another post about it all, but suffice to say it was exciting and exhausting and went very well. It’s always fun to see new fabric and patterns and trends, to meet new people, and to just be surrounded by all that creativity. It really gets me excited to go home and get back to work on new projects! For the time being, though, I’m taking a vacation (well, as much of a vacation as one can have while still going to work…)

I’ll finish up with a picture for you all to drool over. This is the “Echino corner” of the Seven Islands booth. Not only does Etsuko Furyuya design killer fabric, but she now has coordinating notions and patterns! Seeing stuff like this is like a kick in the pants to get back to designing new projects.