Amazing people to meet!

Saturday at quilt market was a wonderful day! I swear my cup is running over and over from all the kind compliments we’ve received over the last two days. Earlier this year James brought home a book called “Can I fill your bucket?” and I swear I’ve never had my bucket so full!

First on the list for Saturday was to take another fun class in the morning before the show started. I jumped at the chance to take a class on a Nouveau Wedding Ring taught by Eleanor Burns from Quilt in a Day.

Not only was it a super fun class, but Eleanor knew who I was! Whoa! I’m glowing!

The class was super fun and I love the way this Double Wedding Ring method comes together. It’s a bit more applique than piecing, but that makes the method quicker and easier, particularly on a limited time budget. Here’s a few versions Eleanor had ready to share:

This was the little block we worked on in class. More than just learning the technique, I loved seeing how Eleanor taught the class. She’s fun, funny, excellent at demonstrating techniques, and exhibited total grace under pressure. Some students had issues, but Eleanor opened more kits, supplied us with what we needed, and made sure everyone left class happy and prepared to make or teach this pattern ourselves.

I managed to get my arcs turned and pressed and triangles stitched in the corners. Is it perfect??? NO! But it’s my the first double wedding ring block that I’ve ever considered pursuing past the first block.

Hmm…I don’t think I have an excuse not to make my long overdue double wedding ring. Definitely check your local quilt shop for Eleanor’s new pattern and the template set which makes the process even easier.

Next we hit the booth with new energy ready for another day of connecting with shop owners from around the world.

This is Enjoli Strait and Angelyn Anderson, twins from Anchorage, Alaska who run Seams Like Home quilt shop. They’re super fun, high energy and, while I’ve never visited their shop myself, I really WANT to now! Maybe an Alaska cruise could be in my future…

This is Ann Parsons Holte, the creator of a special diamond template – the Lancaster Diamond. It’s a unique diamond shape – not for Tumbling Blocks or Lone Star, but a shape unique to a small township in Lancaster County, PA. I’m definitely intrigued by the possibilities of this neat little template.

This is Judy Gula and her husband from Artisan Artifacts, an art quilt shop in Alexandria, VA. She not only has unique, beautiful tjaps and batik panels, she also has these gorgeous bead mixes for embellishing your quilts.

This is Moya Hu, the owner of Moya’s Workshop, a distributor of quilting and patchwork supplies for Taiwan. Not only is she super nice, multi-lingual, and a rock star business owner, she’s also published this beautiful book of bag patterns:

Of course, I’ve met HUNDREDS of people over the last two days, and while things are starting to blur together a bit, I make sure to stop and jot down some notes after I meet someone interesting. It will be a fun challenging to decipher all my little scribbles when we get home on Monday.

I already mentioned yesterday that we elected not to take orders at this first booth, which was a great decision. Instead we brought two cases of Free Motion Quilting from Flames to Feathers and I signed and gave away all the books starting at 11 am on Saturday.

Well, quilters started showing up at 10:25 and by 10:55, we had a line stretching around our booth and down the aisle!

Josh and Mary were SO helpful during this time, answering questions, shooting photos, and keeping everyone happy and entertained. The line drew a lot of attention, and many quilters who had never heard of the Free Motion Quilting Project looked up and took notice. Eleanor Burns was even in line for a book!

If you go to market and decide to do something like this, make sure you have a flyer to advertise the giveaway. Many quilters kept the flyer to remind them of the time. An even better idea that other companies were using was to give quilters a pin to wear. So many times over the day I though I was speaking to reps of that company and it was really just their pin to wear for that company’s giveaway.

So that was another day of market, and an amazing experience all around. Just one more day left!

Let’s go quilt,

Leah