Spring Quilt Market - Kansas City

Once again I had the privilege of representing my DIL's fabric and design company, Tuft Love, at Spring Quilt Market.  I really enjoyed Schoolhouse held on Thursday, May 17, prior to the opening of the vendor floor on  Friday.  It is always so hard to choose which presentations to attend as there are 15 sessions offered with about 20 choices each session.  I tried to mix it up a bit, but will admit that some choices were made based on location as the two groups of classrooms were some distance apart in the Kansas City Convention Center.  Here is a quick rundown of the sessions I attended.

Gudrun Erla presented quilts from her new book, Big Blocks with Big Style.  They are Scandinavian inspired quilts made with big blocks and basic piecing techniques.

There were bright colors. . .

as well as subdued palates.

The large blocks were very graphic.

She included a decorative panel for the end of the bed, rather than a full bed quilt.

I liked this pieced block version of a flower.

Gudrun is from Iceland and this quilt was inspired by an Icelandic hand knitted sweater.

Edie McGinnis of Kansas City Star Quilts has a great sense of humor and was the most entertaining presenter of the day.  She presented her book, A Bag of Scraps, and described the quilts made in the Midwest from scraps from the very busy garment district that used to be a part of  Kansas City.  It was known as The Paris of the Plains in the fashion industry.  She also shared her quest for feedsacks from the time when the printed fabric was used to make quilts once emptied. She shared several quilts from her collection.

Riley Blake Designs of Salt Lake City had several presentations.  I chose this one.

Lila Tueller introduced her spring collection "Bohemian Festival" and several projects.

A cute rain jacket from laminates.

Bags from laminates. . .

inside and out.

Another style . . .

with Riley Blake's new Chevron line on the inside.

This is an idea for a quick quilt.

Layer backing, batting, and muslin; then arrange fabric squares on top pinning into place.  Then carefully stitch in long straight lines catching the edges of each square.  Pieced and quilted in one step!

These ladies collaborated on Sunday Morning Quilts - Modern Scrap Projects.  They believe in organizing your scraps by color and then using up all of your fabric.

One can use the narrowest pieces to knit a rug.

Each made the same quilt pattern using a different colorway of scraps.

Darlene Zimmerman showed her newest fabrics from Robert Kaufman.  They include panels.  This one had floral baskets which can also be embroidered. . .

and then used as blocks with pieced blocks.

This quilt was made from panel fabric of nursery rhymes.

She also had a red work version of the floral baskets.

Jo Morton of Andover Fabrics presented quite the trunk show.  The following is just a small representation of the quilts she showed.

I noticed at the vendor fair that there seemed to be more brown and dark color combination quilts in general than at the Salt Lake City Market last year.  Must be a Midwest thing.  The other big thing in Kansas City was wool.  There were quilts with wool applique as well as many wool applique patterns.

I first became aware of Sarah Jane Wright and her designs for Michael Miller Fabrics in Salt Lake City.  I was anxious to see her new line of fabrics.  Thursday was a bit stressful for Sarah Jane and her husband.  They had to reconfigure their booth after discovering that they were on a different facing corner than they had planned.  It involved some sawing and reconstructing. Sarah Jane dashed upstairs in her work clothes to give her presentation.  Their booth was adorable and won Best Creative Design.

The fabric is called "Out to Sea."  I loved how the fabric designs go across the width of the fabric.

This allows one to to assemble the quilt in rows, like this section with a map of the world. . .

and the ships at sea.

Here is another quilt of rows.

She also presented new embroidery designs.

And new children's clothing ideas.  I love her website.

Nancy Rink presented her new book, Away From Home: Quilts Inspired by the Lowell Factory Girls.  I loved the applique on this quilt.

She shared other quilts from the book as well.

Jackie Robinson of Benartex Fabrics shared her new line of tulip inspired fabric.

She explained her block of the month quilt and showed different colorways.

Carolyn Forster shared her beautiful English accent as well as her big stitch and utility quilting techniques.

I was excited to see Barbara Brackman in person.  I pieced through her online block of the week program last year in honor of the Civil War.

It was exciting to see in person the quilt made from the blocks that were shared on line each week.  These blocks were set on point.  My quilt was a bit simpler.

She shared other quilts including this beauty made by a close friend.  It has won several quilt shows.  Barbara is known for her reproduction lines of fabric.  She is also a quilt historian.

I purchased my first Buggy Barn pattern book last month.  The Buggy Barn ladies were presenting some of their newest quilt designs as well as introducing their latest fabric line from Henry Glass Fabrics.

Their piecing method is unique and fun.

Jinny Beyer is a quilting icon.  She demonstrated how to use her border prints from RJR Fabrics.

She showed table runners with a fabric medallion in the center,

how to have perfect mitered corners using her border fabric,

and making unique blocks.

It's amazing what a few triangle cuts of border fabric can produce.

Moda Fabrics had a quick introduction of all 22 of their designers.  It was a packed room and I didn't have the best seat, but I loved this quilt made from "Marmalade" designed by mother/daughter team Bonnie & Camille.  That is Camille at the podium and her quilt design.

I also liked this scattering of stars by another Moda designer.

I didn't take pictures of the booths at the vendor fair the next day except for these two.  They specifically stated that you must ask the permission of each vendor.  There were over 1000 and it took most the day to just walk by all of them.  I did buy one book, Anna's Quilt.

I liked the dainty applique and that the pattern was based on a quilt created in the 30's by the author's ancestor.  For booth pictures, go here and here and here.

Quilt Market truly was international with vendors from Japan and Australia to England and Norway.  There was so much to see and absorb that the mind can hardly keep up. What creativity!

I was glad that my sister lived just across the river in Leavenworth, Kansas and that I could stay with her for the week.  We had many other adventures that I still need to share!