New Products from Spring Market

So I got to do a little shopping!
I am always on the prowl for new tools to use in the sewing room and I found some fun ones at Spring Market...so have a look...

The first one requires a little backstory. One of my houseguests, Tracy Kincheloe (a teacher of sane quilting from L.A.) had told us about an early business of hers. She was "The Quilt Whisperer" and cut out the quilts for sewers with arthritis and such. Ladies who wanted to make quilts but could no longer do the cutting would hire Tracy to do it for them.
Well, my other house guest, Holly Casey, had brought me a lovely palette of neutral cottons as a hostess gift, so I asked the Whisperer if she would cut out a nine patch quilt for me out of them.
It took her all of about 20 minutes, I swear, including binding. But she thought the state of my rulers was appalling.

So she got me the Omnigrip 8 1/2" X 24" that you can see here, along with Tracy's strips and business card and my pathetic old ruler. The 8 1/2" width is going to be so great for cutting out fabric sheets for the printer. Thank you, Quilt Whisperer!

Other goodies I found at the show...

I bought the stencil on the left from a company new to the States--they're from Scotland--called Stewart Gill USA. They provide "Professional textile paints and accessories for seriously demanding multimedia artists".

Here's another page from their info sheet, showing all their different paints. I am no seriously demanding multimedia artist and couldn't begin to appreciate all the doors these paints open...but I felt the fabrics they were painted on and the hand was soft and they are washable.
I can tell these products are "next generation" in their capabilities.....Stewart Gill has a fabulous book that explains how all this stuff is used too.
They have a new distributer in the USA named Sally Richards, who can be reached at 877/843-7801. She'll be back from Market at the end of May and would love to hear from you with any questions.

Moving right along...

What beader and embroiderer isn't always looking for new and great needles? These supposedly are long beading needles that do not bend. They take beads as small as #11s.

This one could be cool...it is the "Big Eye Beading Needle". It really is two wires joined at top and bottom...so you can fit yarn in there and then bead onto it. (How could you fit yarn through a regular beading needle?) They might be a little fragile, so I bought three of them. I think these open up some neat possibilities.

This is the Grip-n-Grip rubbery sheet that you use as a work surface. Say you are writing on fabric...it will grip your fabric and keep it smoothly in place while you write on it, or draw with fabric crayons, or whatever. No longer do you have to iron your fabric to freezer paper to stabilize it, or tape it into place. I tested out some silk chiffon on it and it really didn't move! I left this photo big so if you click on it you can read the information on the sheet. This is washable, you can heat set on it, and it seems like it could be very useful....

...like for when you are using the foiling pen here. This is like having a ball point pen write in glue. You lay out your fabric on your Grip-n-Grip and then write on it with the pen. After 3 minutes the glue becomes tacky and transparent, and will stay that way indefinitely, until you either rub glitter into it or a mylar foil sheet over it.

Here's a little demo, with the little packet of foil sheets I got. I thought this would be a great way to add some veins on leaves, for example.
Of course, the lady who ran the booth had foiled all over her shoes. You know those gals...
Her name was Betty Blais, and she owns Embellishment Village, where all these products came from, and where you can get them, too.

Alas, I found no evidence of crazy quilting except for a template from EZ Quilting for making a 5 sided center for piecing a block. Lame, in my opinion. Crazy quilting is just not big business in the quilt world.
But we stitch on, regardless.....!!!!

Spring Quilt Market

My friend Tracey Brookshier is having her first booth at Quilt Market, and things are going well! The two friends she brought to help--all three of them are staying with me--are delightful and we have been having a swell time together. I think Tracey has appreciated having a very supportive posse, too.

Tracey and Holly Casey have just begun booth set-up here on Thursday. That is Tracey's famous "Bento Box" pattern directly behind them, along with a new Scotty pattern, the Interweave pattern, and you can just see the LavaLamps quilt on the right.

Less than 24 hours later they are hard at it selling patterns, taking orders, giving out promotional info, answering questions....and doing plenty of schmoozing.

As we were there to work the booth, I haven't been out prowling the aisles like the last time I went to Market....but the river brought nice and interesting people to our little shore there at booth #2304.

Here is Kathy Mack, of PinkbyPost.com and also PinkChalkStudio.
She is holding her "Mail Sack" bag and also her "Note Taker" notebook, which she has developed patterns for and is marketing this week-end. I really like the Note Taker, and wanted to link to the pattern because I'll bet some of you will like it too....so look here. As an independent pattern designer she is at the beginnings of what I know will be a very successful professional career. She and Tracey were comparing notes on the process of getting that ball rolling...


Here is the front of the Note Taker....

And here is the inside. Very slick. Best of luck to Kathy!!!

I was able to just wander our little quadrant of the show and came across two people I've admired for a long time, so I stopped to say hello.

Paul Kreinik, a sharp businessman and funny guy. His company in West Virginia employs 20 people, and they bring us the wonderful Kreinik threads that we CQers (and others) love so much.
He was mostly pushing their new metallic thread designed for longarm machines. Says it does NOT break......Yes, the trend of the year is long arm quilting, no doubt about that....

And here is Penny McMorris, author of the highly collectible Crazy Quilts, long out of print. (The link takes you to Amazon where they have several used copied available!)
I just had to introduce myself, shake her hand, and thank her for her wonderful book...she is a gracious, lovely lady. She was there with her current company, the Electric Quilt, maker of the famous quilt software program.
I asked her to wave to all the crazy quilters out here in Blogland, so here is Penny greeting you and saying hi!

I'll be back at the show tomorrow, working Tracey's booth and helping to tear it down at the end of the afternoon. I hope I'll get to do a little more scouting of the show while I'm there.

There was absolutely no evidence of crazy quilting in any of the booths I saw. This is causing me to growl a bit, I confess. Maybe I'll find some of our select, kindred spirits there tomorrow...