Quilt Market... there’s so much preparation (weeks & weeks . . . & weeks!) & then the actual weekend seems to just fly by! (& then sometimes it feels like it takes at least a week to recover... but maybe that’s just me!)
(Warning... this post is bit wordy!)
Spring Quilt Market was held in Salt Lake City a few weekends ago, & SLC certainly kept us on our toes! The whole area around SLC is beautiful & the Wasach Mountains greet you whether you arrive by air or land... & they are a stunning backdrop for a great city. The one thing I’ve learned is that you never know what to expect for weather when Spring Market is in SLC. THe last time I was here for Market - it snowed! (Well, flurries... but when that happens in May... I declare it to be full blown snow!) This time, it was the wind & thunder/lightning storms that made themselves known. The wind was predominant (I never knew it could be so windy in SLC!) & pretty much re-styled your hair every time you went outside. The lightning & thunder did their part on the first night of Market by taking out one of the areas main electrical power stations & all of downtown SLC & beyond (they reported over 83,000 customers) were thown into a complete blackout.
Salt Lake City - (actually you're looking at several big tall buildings!)
Thankfully it didn’t happen until later in the evening (about 10:45 pm) & most everone was already at least in their hotel rooms (or slept right though it!) I must say it was really interesting to see the whole city dark...! By morning... thankfully everything was back to normal. (On a funny note... one of my thoughts - as I was drifting off to sleep was ‘Oh!... I hope I’ll be able use my blowdryer in the morning...!... & then it really didn’t matter with all the wind!) :-)
Market was wonderful - although I didn’t get to walk around all that much. What I did see was - as always - so inspiring & encouraging to see this industry continue to grow & draw folks in. My little spot for Spring Market was in the Moda Designer ‘neighborhood’ (my favorite place to be!!) I was showing my next collection, called ‘Fleurs’. Fleurs is filled with softness & lots & lots of flowers! (...of course!) The colorways for Fleurs are very similar to those from my Ambleside line (with the addition of a little bit more reds & I also added a sweeet lavender to the mix) so, if you want to add some to your Ambleside stash - Fleurs is perfect! (Although - actually it will work well with any of my lines as well!)
By the way - the yardage of Fleurs will be shipping in October 2016 - bit if you just can’t wait - keep checking back to the website as we will have a very limited amount of precuts & some fun scrapbags of all my lines - including ‘Fleurs’ available soon!
I will post about the new patterns in the next week - but her you see peeks of the new designs - Snowflake Fleurs (center - on wall), Little Stitches (front left on quilt rack), Hopscotch (mini & large on wall right side), & hanging on one of the Moda pillars - Coventry. (All of the patterns are up on the website in paper & PDF format - click here to see all the new items.)
What was so great about the new set-up was that we were able to visit with each other so much more easily... it really was a little neighborhood of Moda designers! Here are some of the sweet designers (when I remembered to bring my phone & that I could catch in their booths!)
The final memory I have of Spring Market was that on the final night - we were evacuated from our hotel rooms at 3:00 in the morning! I learned all too well what going down 12 fights of hard concrete stairs will do to your calves in about 48 hours... (ouch!). Thankfully it wasn’t anything threatening (a hot water pipe had burst & the steam set off the fire alarm for the 12 - 15th floors... (& I was on the 12th floor... of course.) What I learned is that the LOUD alarm that sounds & the voice that sternly states, “Hotel emergency. Leave NOW!” makes you not want to question anything... but when it doesn’t repeat... call down to the front desk... just to be sure. (It’s better than going down 12+ flights of stairs - ending up outside on the sidewalk with a bunch of strangers - having to walk arund the corner to the hotel entrance - only to find there was really no need to evacuate (... go ahead... get a good mental picture of this... it’s good for a giggle!). (sigh...) At least we could all take the elevator back up to our floors!
So there’s the highlights of my Spring 2016 International Quilt Market! If you stopped my little spot in the Moda neighborhood - thank you! The people... that’s the best part of Quilt Market!
I'll bee back soon with the close ups of the new designs.
♥ Bren
