Quilt Market Preview- Part 1

I am writing to you from Quilt Market in Houston, after my first day on the
show floor. As usual, even though this is my 15th Houston Market (and 30th
Quilt Market since we opened) I still get excited when I walk into the
convention center and start looking at all the creative new ideas that are
being shared on the show floor. We're so excited to meet part of the Downton
Abbey production team, who are here to launch the eponymous collection by Andover
Fabrics.

Last night we helped Quilting Treasures celebrate 206 years of business.
(descended from Cranston and VIP Fabrics) The company president explained to me
that the roller printer was invented in the 1700's in Scotland, Cranston
Fabrics took off shortly thereafter, and they grew exponentially during the
Civil War.

In the 1920's the Rockefeller family bought the company, and more recently it
became an employee-owned business. We met several of their staff whose fathers
also worked for the company. It reminded me that this industry is a family
business, populated by mom-and-pop retailers, and multi-generational family
manufacturing businesses. Let's hope it stays that way!

Although we've only completed one day out of the three-day show, we've compiled
a Sneak-Peek list of some favorite designers and collections so far, which will
ship over the next several months. As always, you can expect to see these
announced in our weekly newsletters, as they roll into our warehouse between
now and next Spring. Can you believe we are almost finished buying all the
fabrics for Christmas 2014? What a crazy business this is!

Quilt Market, Fall 2014 –

Big Bang Theory (Yes! Our fav geek TV show!)
North American Wildlife 2 by Jody Bergsma
Dazzle by Patrick Lose
Mission Space by Matthew Pridemore
Oz – 75 Years of Wickedness
Witches Brew Ha Ha by Roberta Morales
Draw Near by Janet Wecker-Frisch
Milan by Jinny Beyer
Spring Symphony by Dan Morris
Little Friends by Yuko Hasegawa
Vintage Mickey, Hello Kitty, Curious George, and Peter Rabbit
Globetrotter from Fabric Freedom
Northgate Manor from Maywood Studios
Hyakka Ryoran Cho-Cho from Quilt Gate
Gentle Flowers – Smokey Quartz
Fox and the Houndstooth by Andie Hanna
Botanics by Carolyn Friendlander

Tuesday night I'll be attending the big award ceremony, and telling you more
about the quilts and fabrics being shown here in Houston!

***********************************************

Quilters
love to load up their stash with tons of
COLOR, like a painter loves to load up a palette.

This week, as we are at Quilt Market in Houston (a trade show for retailers
like us) you can shop over 70
new contemporary blenders this week, to load up your color palette with
juicy hand- picked hues.

It is
also a great week for those hard-to-find
whispery pastel batiks, plus a great
new feather texture design.

If you
are an avid collector of novelty and conversational prints, you'll get a
kick out of this
week's Monopoly, Zombie, Cantina
and Wine designs. And Steampunk
fans will love Kaufman's
new 'Time Machine' collection.

Hoffman's
gorgeous Asuka collection has a subtle color story, glistening with silver
and gold metallic.

This week's smorgasbord
of inspiring books and fun
patterns will help you to harvest from your stash and get out that rotary cutter!