Quilting Trade Shows
Quilt Market, Pittsburgh, 2009
Here are a few pictures of the International Quilt Market in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, some of the people I met and a few of my friends who helped me! Thanks to everyone.
The view from the balcony of the Market Floor. My booth is in the foreground.
And here it is with no one in it! Thankfully it wasn't like this very often.
I met Lynette Jensen of Thimbleberries, who designed the fabric with which I made my Northwinds Quilt.
A number of friends who helped me a lot!
We seemed to hang out in the lobby of the hotel a fair bit before striking off in all directions...
TrendTex Convention, Surrey B.C., 2008
While most of the West Coast Canadian Quilting world was recovering from their trip to Oregon in May, yours truly was recovering from that, and gall bladder surgery. But that didn't stop me from attending the Trendtex Quilting Convention in Surrey BC in June! Besides, now I could eat all the wonderful food that they had there.
I had a lot of fun, once again networking with people in the 'biz' and learning the ropes, one thread at a time. It's kind of unfortunate that Surrey was so cold and wet, weather-wise; but it kept people in the convention, and roughly half of the stores that showed up bought some of my designs. I got to speak with most of them, and collected a lot of business cards from people for my draw. I met with store owners from across the country.
Like most other designers, I had a couple of 'schoolhouse' talks, where store owners and employees could come in and listen to me speak about my patterns, and what makes mine different. I had a 15-minute talk that I called "Patterns Done Right" and perhaps 30 stores attended, half at one talk, half at the other.
Once again, its the people you meet that are most memorable - like Jean Boyd, of "Patterns by Jean Boyd" who had a booth of her creations nearby to mine. Jean has been designing and teaching quilting for over ten years, and she had a lot to teach me. In case you don't know, Jean has a lot of very interesting hanging quilts that incorporate photos and photo-transfers. Here's a link to her blog. Check it out, there are lots of links to her designs from this page!
Despite the rain and cold, we had a couple of hours of sunshine, and we walked to the nearby "Green Timbers Urban Forest." Thank goodness they had the foresight in 1930 to reforest this big chunk of land, and set it aside for everyone to enjoy.
It was literally a breath of fresh air to walk under the canopy of Douglas Fir and to listen to the birds in this fresh, green, mossy, ferny forest, smack in the middle of a sprawling metropolis. Let's hope that governments continue to honour the past commitment to keeping this forest growing!
Quilt Market, Oregon, 2008
I haven't been at this too long, so I still consider conventions fun! It is a way to show off what I have to offer to stores and to suppliers, and to network with people who have a similar passion to mine. What's not to like? Oh, I bet there are some people out there who consider this work - but I haven't reached that stage yet. I'm still having a blast!
Setting up my booth with my friend Shirley B. - This is rather like the whole business of quilting design, so far: first, you start with nothing. Then you add what you have. Then you display it to the world.
With any luck, the world notices.
Mind you, when you are as tiny as I am, in my little booth in the vast sea of convention-booths, and you think you are ready, and then the doors open and everyone rushes in: you feel a little like a breadcrumb at a seagull feeding frenzy when a donut truck has tipped over - you wonder if you'll be invisible, and sometimes you almost wish you were.
But its the people you meet that are most memorable - like Penel Jensen, of Pattern Peddlers, who was right next door to me. It's fun to finally put faces to the names!
But when it's time to pack up and go home, everyone is tired enough to just say, "Let's get the heck out of here!"