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SPRING QUILT MARKET NEWS
Market was in Portland, OR this year. What a beautiful city with Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens in the background. It doesn’t rain nearly as much as everyone thinks! As a matter of fact, it didn’t rain at all during market, but, we had record breaking heat of 96 degrees! Now that was tough, especially coming back to 50 degrees here. It sure makes me dread the hot days of summer that are sure to come (someday!). I’ll stay inside and quilt! Market is always a lively, inspiring place with so much to see your eyes are literally buggin’ out at the end of the day. I did manage to spot a few treasures. Some are here and some will be arriving soon (and maybe some cool new fabric, too). A highlight for me was chatting with Mark Lipinski, editor of Quilters Home magazine. A tell-it-like-it-is quilt magazine! I especially like his “posse”, quilters like you and me who test out new (and old) notions and tell us what’s hot and what’s not. Look for it on sale at Quilting Family soon (as soon as it gets here). Let us know if you want to reserve your own copy.
Cool market stuff that’s here now:
- The Bias Tool – a 2-1/2” ruler to make 280” of bias binding from a half yard of fabric. It’s especially good when making binding using stripes (which we love). No waste and the cool part is it folds in half, making it easy to take to retreats & classes.
- Add-Enough by CM Designs. For all you paper-pieced lovers out there, here’s a nifty tool to measure what size fabric swatch to cut. No more cutting too big or, worse, too small! No wasting those precious fabric scraps!
- 6 quilt patterns from Mary’s Cottage Quilts. Loved them & had to bring them to you.
- New patterns from one of our favorite table runner designers – Lehmann Quilting. (and one cool “man” quilt pattern).
- Two new books from Atkinson’s Designs – Time Out Quilts with 7 new quilt patterns and Let’s Do Lunch – patterns for tote bags and table runners (we all want to make every single one!). We think Atkinson’s directions are super-duper and love that they come in multiple finished sizes.
- Eleanor Burns newest book, Victory Quilts and her companion Mini Ruler Set. She’s done it again. You have to love her spirit! Lots of fun new blocks! Make a sampler or pick out your favorite block. It’s got a neat banner border, too. Her instructions are fabulous as always!
- Are you always laying your glasses down while quilting? You know, they’re on the ironing board when you’re at the machine or they’re at the machine when you’re at the cutting table? I understand. That’s why I got myself a Lapel Pin Pal. It’s a clever metal circle that the stem of your glasses slips right through. The Lapel Pin is attached to your shirt with a beautiful quilt pin. Now you can have one, too!
Cool market stuff that’s coming:
Some of the cool new tools we are testing out ourselves to make sure they will work for you just like they’re supposed to! Look for demos coming in June to showcase a few of them.
- Guidelines4Quilting – makers of several new must-haves. A ruler that’s non-breakable with a cutting guide for perfect non-slip straight-line cutting every time. Attach the nifty guides for squares, half-squares or quarter-squares and the seam allowance is built in – no math required! Finish up with the Prep Tool (I know, a funny name) and every piece fits together perfectly. This is really ideal for you who don’t want to follow a pattern, but make your blocks fit perfectly. Hard to explain, but we’ll show you soon! (This was voted my favorite new notion!)
- The X-Block ruler from Quilt Queen lets you make difficult-looking quilts without the difficulty. It’s all in the tool, you know. Let’s you make them fast, too!
- From Prairie Sky Quilts, Fast, Fun & Done – quilt-as-you-go patterns utilizing their special tool to cut perfect size blocks and batting. The backing becomes your sashing and binding, too! No hand sewing whatsoever! That means the binding, too!
And from the same company - Triple Expresso patterns. Take 3 fabrics, make 3 blocks and make 3 different quilt designs (or more!).
- From Happy Hollow Designs – Expresso ornaments. Choose Santa, Snowman, Caroler or Wreath. Each ornament comes complete in an expresso cup with embellishments, too!
These are adorable. Look for them during “Christmas in July”.
- Who didn’t love the Mother Earth & Her Children book? Now from the author comes a CD with the upper & lower case alphabet, in color & with the darling curly-cues & all. Just print out the letters you want onto fabric sheets and add names, initials, sayings, etc. to any quilt. Perfect for labels, too! From Breckling Press.
Hope this has you excited and anxious to start some new projects!
(P.S. Only 1 kit left of our Wizard of Oz Picnic Quilt featured in our window!) |
