Quilt Market Recap with Sheri Cilfaldi Morrill, Episode #35
You can also watch the podcast and see the things I talk about in the introduction here:
Sheri is an awesome quilter and wonderful pattern designer. Make sure to check out her website right here.
Now a bit about Quilt Market – this is an industry trade show where quilt shop owners come to buy fabrics, tools, quilt patterns, and supplies to carry in their shops. It’s only open to industry professionals because this is a place where everyone is buying wholesale – without tax and at a reduced price so then products can be resold for retail prices.
So this is the place to go if you’re wanting to buy fabric, tools, machines, and supplies for a quilt shop. It’s also good to go as a designer to see the popular trends and new fabrics available and find companies to work with. It’s a great place to network and talk about running a quilting business.
Sheri has also been blogging for Craftsy and shared an excellent post with lots of pretty photos from Quilt Market right here.
A few days after fall Quilt Market closes, International Quilt Festival opens. This is a massive show with hundreds (maybe thousands) of gorgeous quilts. The quilts are already hanging during Quilt Market so Sheri was able to check out her favorite collections. She shared a blog post with lots of beautiful pictures right here.
I was extremely happy to hear that rainbow quilts and bright colors are trending right now! Two of the quilts in my new book have bright rainbow colors and those two quilts were also picked for our 2018 Machine Quilting Party!
I think it’s interesting to know what’s popular and trending, but it’s not something I feel the need to chase after. It’s far more important to follow your inspiration and make what you want to make and if it happens to be on trend, that’s a wonderful bonus.
I did want to give you a heads up that our biggest sale of the year will begin on November 23rd – Thanksgiving Day. All of our downloadable quilting workshops, embroidery designs, patterns, and books (excluding the new book) will be on sale for 50% off! We’ll also have select tools and supplies on sale too so if you’re wanting to place an order you might want to wait a week to get the best deal during this sale. Click Here to check out the shop.
Whew! It’s been a crazy pants sort of week and I wasn’t kidding when I described it like labor transition. The final process is always stressful and difficult, but every time we go through this it gets a little easier.
I keep coming back to the simple truth that the more you do something, the better you get. I have so many more books I want to write and I refuse to give up just because the process is challenging. I’ve learned a lot in the last week and next time this will be even easier to manage from this experience.
Speaking of getting more experience, I’m getting back to machine embroidery and finally finishing a batch of designs I’ve had in progress for three years.
Both the landscape and tree design can be stitched as a motif, in-the-hoop coaster project, and in-the-hoop zippered pouch. I’m finally getting back to work on it and refusing to let my inner critic scare me off from machine embroidery again.
I love being able to hit a button and let the machine stitch out a perfect design. I also love having the embroidery machine running while I’m quilting something else nearby. My goal is to have the landscape project ready by Christmas so make sure to hold me to that!
Another project that needs work before the end of the year is the Eternal Love quilt pattern. Maybe I should turn this into a quilt along? It would certainly be wonderful to see many versions of this beautiful quilt stitched all over the world!
My goal is to create patterns of several more goddess quilts, but it’s tough to prioritize this when there is no deadline to meet. This is my Great Work, but it seems like it’s always ending up being the last projects on the list to work on. That needs to change.
Don’t forget you can find all of the podcasts linked up right here and hit play on the player and binge listen to many hours of quilting friends goodness!
You can also Click Here to find all the videos linked in one playlist too.
Let’s go quilt,
Leah Day
