The New Handmade

Tonight I had the honor of speaking (rambling?) for the Stray Threads Quilt Guild in Woodinville, Washington. I talked about the book and showed a bunch of different projects. Several of my lovely Martingale coworkers are members, so having them in the audience helped, though I was still a bit nervous! It was fun, though; everyone was so welcoming and enthusiastic. It was a wonderful group of women and I had a great time.

Shameless plug time! If you picked up a book at the meeting tonight, make sure to take photos of your projects and add them to The New Handmade Flickr Group. It’s very easy to set up an account, even easier if you already have a Yahoo! account (Flickr is part of Yahoo). Even if you don’t have project images, check out the group and see projects made by others.

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.

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!