Quilt Market 2017

The decision to be a vendor at the largest quilting trade show was an easy one to make this year.  My Mini Mosaic Quilts have been so popular at quilt shows and quilt guild meetings, so I knew I had to share them with shop owners.  I had a feeling that the pros (exposure and orders) would outweigh the cons (travel and booth expenses).  

My plan was to keep my booth simple so that I wouldn't need a lot of decorative elements.  I felt my quilts would speak for themselves.  I was able to pack everything in 3 suitcases, each pushing the limit at 50 LBS, including a step stool and 4 foot table!

I loved the way my booth turned out including my interactive mosaic.

and my wall of the pattern covers:

There are several opportunities to share your wares.  I figure - in for a penny, in for a pound - so I try and do them all.  Schoolhouse is a series of presentations that occur the day before Market begins. There are multiple presentations taking place at once. I chose to do a 15 minute presentation and that flew by.  Thank goodness I had some helpers, including my buddy, Joyce Hughes.

I was excited to see this sign outside my room:

And here's a long view:

That night, I was a vendor at Sample Spree.  It's a crazy 2 hour frenzy where shop owners/teachers/designers can purchase items at wholesale prices. This used to be the only place where items can be purchased  individually, but that has changed.  I chose to sell 4 of my kits, so that shops would have easy access to create a sample for their shop.  (It also helps to defray the cost of my booth.) I sold out before it was over! That also gave me some time to shop.

The show starts the next day and I spent 3 days in my booth sharing and taking orders.  It was a whirlwind.  Shopowners, distributors, book and magazine publishers stopped by.  They come in waves and then there is a bit of time to catch your breath, but never enough time for lunch. 3 days flew by.

One morning before the show opened, I did a walking tour video of just a small part of the show.  The video is a bit long, but you will see a glimpse of what you will see in the quilt shops come spring.

Breakdown stakes a fraction of the time of set-up.  We were done in 30 minutes.  Kind of like the preparation that goes into a meal which disappears in no time, with the satisfaction of a job well done.

The next blog post, I'll share my view of Market trends.

 

The Results

So many of you have been following my blog or FB posts as I experienced Quilt Market. I've hear that you enjoyed the behind the scenes tour and many of you have cheered me on. I appreciate all of the support. It really means so much to me.

First I want to share 3 quilts that were on exhibit that made me think of Curvalicious. One is old:

One was from Japan

And one was contemporary

Now about Market:

Friday was Schoolhouse and Sample Spree. Market officially started on Saturday and ran through Monday. There were lots of fabric company booths, pattern companies, sewing machine companies, notion companies, distributors, jewelry and clothing booths and die cut companies. I know I'm missing some. Pins and candy were abundant. It was easy to walk down an aisle and snag one or the other. Lots of attendees wore the collected pins on their lanyards.

It was such a happy feeling walking the floor, as they say. Seeing all the new fabric and quilting supplies and feeling the excitement and energy was wonderful. The biggest trend that I noticed was the amount of young women, both vending as designers and shopping. They are our future and it's great to see that quilting will not only survive, but it will thrive.

Lots of quilting celebrities were there too. Some of them I have met before, but I was star struck. I chatted with Pat Sloan who had visited our guild in July. I'll be on her radio show on Monday. It was booked a while ago. It airs live at 4:00 EST. Here's the LINK. Also Victoria Findley Wolfe, who will be visiting my guild on Wednesday, stopped at my booth to watch a demo!

So how did I do? Market exceeded even my wildest dreams. Curvalicious and patterns are on their way to Austria, shops in France and lots more shops in the States, even Hawaii. My quilts will be heading to Louisiana, Florida and California at the beginning of 2017.

I learned about distributors. They are companies that sell quilting supplies to shops. They have a huge variety of items and it's one stop shopping for shops, instead of having to contact many individual companies. 95% of the shops that stopped by my booth, asked if I sold through a distributor. The issue with being represented by a distributor is that they take a cut out of my pocket. I have come to learn that many designers/manufacturers price their items to take into account this deduction! Who knew?

It became evident to me that I needed to consider this option. The good news is that I was approached by a whole bunch of distributors, both stateside, Canada, England, Australia and South Africa. How cool is that? It's expensive to ship a single Curvalicious to a customer outside of the US, so a foreign distributor would be a good thing. I'm still considering my options. There are lots of "pros" and that one major "con".

There were offers of video/reviews/ interviews about Curvalicious, both here and abroad.

And finally, merchandise! Several fabric companies offered me fabric! All I have to do is send an email with which fabric I want and how much. The fabric at the show is not yet available in the shops. Most of it will arrive in a few months. There is a limited amount available to make samples. Since I'll be doing retail quilt shows, if they have enough, it's mine. The same with thread and I was handed a roll of the newest paper backed fusible web to try.

To celebrate my awesome fortune, I'm doing a giveaway, open to everyone. It's some of my goodies and I want to share. There's a foldaway tote bag, lots of pins magnets, Tula Pink hexagons, Grunge squares, Crimson Tate sticker and a few other things. Leave a comment either on my blog or like my Facebook page AND sign up for my monthly newsletter HERE. The more you do, the more entries you'll have. If you share my FB post, I'll give you another chance. That would be 3 all together. I'll choose the winner on Wednesday, after VFW's lecture at my guild. (www.CalicoCutters.com)

There is another giveaway on Instagram. To participate, visit: @oyveyquilts

And there is yet another exciting quilty bit of news that was publicized at the show. IQA is doing a fundraising cruise after Quilt Festival in 2017. I am one if the teachers! Click on this link for more info. This would be a perfect excuse to go to Festival and then come cruise and quilt with me!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Quilt Market 2016 Recap

This is what the floor of the George Brown Convention Center in Houston looked like when we arrived. This is serious business and companies spend a lot of money for their presentations, especially the fabric companies. The show is open to the trade only. Lookie Loos are not allowed.

I had a single booth and it was in a very nice location.

I had 3 great helpers for set up. You're not allowed to pin anything to the drapes, so we had to hang everythiNg from the top pipes or pin it to another quilt.

This is what my booth looked like all set up. I was very pleased. I love my new demo table. It breaks down into two bags. I made a felt background, and hung felt fish and turtles that I made from the Fishalicious pattern.

When I made the choice to go to Quilt Market, I decided to take advantage of every opportunity to share Curvalicious. There was "Sneak Peak", which was a glass display case right before you entered the convention floor. Curvalicious was in section C1.

Don had suggested using a silk Skinny quilt and it truly glowed in the light. It brought lots of people to the booth.

Friday morning, I had a 1/2 hour presentation, called Schoolhouse.

I was so afraid there would only be 3 people in the audience, but 36 people showed up, including a couple of my friends as supporters.

The Curvalicious girls were ready for the presentation. I had 2 Vannas!

This is the quick Curvalicious, Baby!

Next up was Sample Spree. This is an evening event, but we saw people lining up at lunchtime. It's an opportunity for attendees to purchase lesser quantities of items at wholesale prices. The fabric companies have lots of fat quarter bundles with fabric that will not be in the quilt shops for a few more months. We had a table and were selling a Curvalicious combo that included the ruler, Beachalicious, Fishalicious and the Tote Bag pattern.

The presentation was very eye catching and it certainly did the trick. We sold out!!

We fell into bed exhausted after all we did on Friday. The actual show started the next day, Saturday. This is what the show floor looked like Saturday morning.

It was quite a transformation.

Here's a photo of me with my first customers! The shop is located in Lowell, NC and it's called Sew Much Fun!

And here are some booth and quilt photos.

Carrie Bloomstons fabric for Windham. I love the bee.

Here's the Relax and Recharge Lounge for charging phones and confabbing.

The Relax and Recharge Loungs

Here's a quilt in the lounge apropos for Halloween.

Quilter's Dream batting

Stephanie and me with Tula Pink.

She is sewing the butterflies on by hand.

 

Sew Kind of Wonderful

 

Cotton and Steel now has cotton thread made by Sulky.

This display shows off the very cool ends of the spools.

The Moda fabric booth. Shops make appointments to order the newest fabric.

We sampled the local restaurants. The first night we had Tex Mex at Chuy's

And the second, we couldn't resist the House of Pies. Yum.

The show exceeded my wildest expectations. We met so many shop owners and industry people. There was truly a buzz going about Curvalicious and I'm coming home with no rulers. Someone even bought my demo! Color me HAPPY!!!

If you need one, you can always go to my Etsy shop.

My next post will include some photos of the quilt exhibit.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Wednesday's Wanderings #21 - Quilt Market

 

The highlight of my week was definitely my trip to Spring Quilt Market in Kansas City.  And the vision that is burned in my memory and still brings a smile to my face, is Michael Miller's circus themed booth.

I still wonder how those elephants made the trip.

I really enjoy making these little blocks.  I giggle to myself when I add 3-dimensional details like the elephants' collars and ears.

You can really see the stitching.  I do like using the blanket stitch to stitch down fusible appliques.  Rayon thread adds a nice sheen.  The 30 wt Sulky thread is my preference.  It's a little thicker than the traditional Sulky.  (The lower the number, the thicker the thread.)

For pieces that will not be laundered, I found a great assortment of foam letters at the crafts store.  I use them to add letters or words.  They have a sticky back which is perfect for holding them in place while being stitched down.

I added the M for Michael Miller. 

They really do make wonderful fabric.

 

Spring Quilt Market and Some Free Stuff

I promised to share my experience at the Spring Quilt Market. I have to apologize for the length of this post, but I hope you'll think it's worth it if you make it to the end.  The show is open only to the trade and it is overwhelming. I flew out to Kansas City to help Martingale promote my book at the Kansas City Convention Center.

 

My first visit to the convention center was during set-up.

Martingale

Riley Blake

Wonderfil Threads

Clothworks  (Fabric)

Michael Miller Fabrics

It is amazing to see the effort and expense that the companies, especially those selling fabrics, put into their booths.

This is Michael Miller's booth after the show opened.  Can you see the circus themed backdrop?  I just love the elephants but after seeing them all  set up, I wonder how they shipped them.

It is really surreal and a pinch yourself moment, to see your name on the cover of a book.  Martingale aka That Patchwork Place has been so supportive and wonderful to work with.  Look at the end cap with my book projects!!!

And here's the banner that was hanging during my demo.It is 3 feet wide!  I got to bring it home :) 

 Where shall I hang it?  Hmmmm

 Everyone was very nice and so friendly.  I was star struck. 

Karen Combs and me in front of her new fabric, Midnight Blue.

Marcia Derse and her gorgeous fabric based on her hand dyed fabric.  I tried to get a sample.  Visit her website for a better look at that fabric:  www.marciaderse.com or visit your local quilt shop. 

Do I look like a shrimp or what?  Who knew Amy Butler was so tall?

I do love Susan Cleveland. She was generous in both her professional advice to me and she also gave me one of her Prairie Pointers. When I told her that I renamed this folded piece of fabric a crown in my book, she loved it. But I don't think she'll jump on the bandwagon.  I will definitely experiment with it.  If you want one of your own, visit her website:

www.piecesbewithyou.com

I expected to see lots of pattern companies.  I loved this company.  Do you think it was because they had a bicycle in their booth?

www.HemmaDesign.com

 

A few companies gave me some freebies that I want to send to one of you, my blog readers. 

It includes a 1 yard package of Trans Web, one of my favorite fusible web products, made by HTC Handler. They were at the show.  I shared with them my consternation that I can only find their product on-line at Jo-Anns.  So they gave me some so I would go away(LOL)!

I do love this pattern from Hemma  for a carrier for a bag to hang on the handlebars of your bicycle.  I really want to make one for myself, but I promised to give it away.

 Do you think I can fit Bailey in it?

I went to a talk about life in Bali supported by the fabric company, Kaufmann.  It was fascinating plus they gave me a fat quarter of one of their artisanal batiks.

There's also a fabric tote from Andover Fabrics made from one of their latest fabric lines, some jumbo rick rack, a clear tote from Eleanor Burns, a plexi neon ruler and a few other goodies.

All of these items are going to be given to one lucky winner.  Leave a comment and become a follower if you are not already.  Make sure if you are a "no-comment blogger" that you leave me your e-mail.  I'll be picking a winner on Friday.

I don't know how many miles I walked going up and down all the aisles,

 but my feet are happy that I'm home.  And I want to send a big thank you to Susan Brubaker Knapp from www.bluemoonriver.com who gave me lots of tips for maximizing my visit.