Quilt Market Report—Schoolhouse Snippets

A quilt including fabrics from the Fab Fabric Four of Westminster Fabrics: Tula Pink, Valori Wells, Anna Maria Horner, and Amy Butler

Unless you’re blind (or your power is out) you’ve been seeing all the Facebook pics and postings from the Quilt Market floor in Houston from the online quilt community. Well, now we’re taking time to share a few thoughts and observations, hastily scribbled as we raced around. And baby, this just scratches the surface.

At the Schoolhouse marketing seminar series, shop owners get quick previews of new fabrics, products, books and techniques being introduced to the market. Sessions can be 15 to 30 minutes long, and you would be amazed how much info can be packed into those small segments. Oh, and there are at least 15 to 20 seminar topics for every time slot. (Can you say “clone?”)

Lisa Sipes (known to Facebook as McLisa Starfish Tangerine Sipes), fellow Q-Bie and professional longarm quilter, generously helped us cover some of the Schoolhouse sessions, and we’ll share her ideas soon. Meanwhile, here’s a tiny slice of what we heard:

• At Spring Market 2011, practically every other seminar title had the word “modern” in it, as companies tried to help shop owners entice the elusive and little-understood modern quilters into their not-so-modern shops. (A little like shaking the kitty treat box to get the stray in, don’t you think?) Not the case this time, and it just felt like modern quilters and sewists were being considered part of the gang, instead of the New Kid.
• Several companies presented seminars on the use of solids, including those who have always had solids as also-rans in their line-up.
• Therm O Web dropped a great tip during its seminar about adhesives and interfacings. Use its iron-on vinyl on the bottom of your squared-off fabric bags and totes. It doesn’t wreck the look, and it keeps it clean and beautiful.
• Modern Quilt Relish showed some delish new patterns
• 

  Some of the new colorstories from Michael Miller Fabrics

  Michael Miller Fabrics’ Kathy Miller enlarged upon her company’s color-trend family approach, and gave this great tip: If you want to know when a color trend has fully evolved into the consumer world, just have a look at the Rubbermaid section in Target. By the time it hits there, it’s fully developed.

• Navy and indigo are emerging as strong go-to colors for future collections
• Hand-quilting with Perle cottons of various sizes now has a new name: Big-Stitch quilting. And it is adding an easy dash of texture and color that is faster than  you think. (Landauer’s author, Carolyn Forster has some great new fast quilting techniques in her new Utility Quilting.)
• Thomas Knauer (of Thomas Knauer Sews) debuted his new Andover collection, Pear Tree, and waxed poetic about the design inspiration of the ‘70s a la Brady Bunch and the Partridge Family.
• Power couple Amy Butler and David Butler (with side-by-side booths…so sweet!), strutted their new stuff. Amy showed her new line, Lark, and David debuted his much-talked about label, Parson Gray.
• And here’s a line-up of epic proportion:  Valori Wells, Tula Pink, Amy Butler and a charming chica representing Anna Maria Horner (we were among the last cramming ourselves into a crowded room, so we did not hear her name) co-presented a seminar about non-traditional substrates such as velveteen, laminate and jersey knit, and giving fun ideas and usage tips.