To Market, To Market!

I am fortunate enough to have a good friend who lives very close to Kansas City (the same friend who went on The Great Fart with me) so how could I possibly pass up going to market this spring?  Well, I couldn't pass it up.  I left on Tuesday morning and made a couple of stops along the way.  The first was in Albia, IA at a little quilt shop called Barefoot Quilting.  I've been wanting to go to this shop for over a year, but just never made it that far!  Next I was on my way to another quilt shop that I've heard great things about - it is in Cameron, MO and is called Crossroads Quilting.  I had a heck of a time finding it, as my trusty GPS told me to turn left after exiting the freeway.  After driving in circles for awhile, I finally pulled over, called the shop and learned that the correct thing to do was to turn RIGHT when exiting the freeway!  No wonder I couldn't find it!  But, it was definitely worth all of those U-turns.  It's a really great shop - you are greeted at the door and offered coffee and home made cookies.  And, there is soooo much to look at - great samples, a wool corner, lots of notions, plenty of fabric and now they have a great selection of my jewelry.  It was a great experience - I was there forever and enjoyed every second of it.  Kim's house is only about an hour beyond Cameron - so after leaving the shop, it wasn't long before I reached my destination.

Wednesday we went on a mini shop hop - there are lots of shops in the area, but if you only have a short amount of time, be sure to go to Quilter's Station, in Lee's Summit, MO.  It is a fabulous shop - huge and completely full of amazing things.  There are tons of samples and over 12,000 bolts of fabric.  The owner, Rita, dyes her own wool and it is yummy.  She's been a customer of mine for a couple of years, so it was great to finally get to see her shop in person and become one of her customers.  She'd been saving bags of scraps for me, and WOW, there's a bunch of them.  You all know how I love receiving scrap bags! 

On Thursday we went to numerous different Schoolhouse sessions at market.  Even though I don't have a physical retail store, I enjoy these sessions.  I have a total love affair (albeit one-sided) with Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts.  She makes such beautiful quilts, but if you ever have the chance to hear her speak...DO IT!  She is energetic and funny and I just love her to death!  We stayed for both of her sessions.  I will share a few pictures, but they aren't very good at all.  First off, she doesn't stay still long enough to get a good pic of her, and we weren't in the first row, so there are some heads in the pics!

Her quilts are all amazing when you see them in her books, but they are even better in person! 

We also enjoyed Moda's Schoolhouse, where their fabric designers each stood up and spoke briefly and showed quilts using their fabric lines.  Another fun session was with Barbara Brackman - she is so full of knowledge that it's just amazing.  Jo Morton is also always fun to see - she doesn't have a new book out just yet, but she is working on it and some of the samples that they showed were very cool.  And...have you heard about the new book, just hot off the press, called "Elegant Quilts, Country Charm" by The Quilted Crows?  This was on my list of things to check out at market and oh my!  The girls are absolutely wonderful, every single thing in their book is gorgeous!  Wow!  They do wonderful things with wool.  Their Schoolhouse was also great - they are very funny and who doesn't love that Australian accent?  They also purchased jewelry from me for their shop in Tasmania - I'm super-excited about!  I told them that I would happily hand deliver to them!

After a great day of Schoolhouse sessions, we stood in line for Sample Spree.  There were lots of people, but it really wasn't as crazy as I expected it to be.  Of course, there was a big  mob around Moda's tables, but we still managed to get our paws on a couple fat eighth bundles of Lisa Bongean's upcoming fabric line called Old Glory Gatherings.  Lisa had given me part of her strike-off fabrics this spring, so I already knew that I wanted more of this great line.  We walked around and checked everything out, but there really wasn't anything else that I couldn't live without!

I think I will end this post here, and share the rest of my market experience with you another day.  We met so many people over the next few days - I can't wait to tell you about it!

Have a great holiday weekend!