Schoolhouse & Sample Spree

I'm tired and my head is so full it might just burst like an over-blown balloon. If it does, be sure to pick up all the pieces of new quilts and information that will be lying around! Today was Schoolhouse at Quilt Market 2009 (the 30th anniversary of Quilt Market!). What is Schoolhouse? There were 15 sessions from 10 am till 6 pm. Some were only 15 minutes long and some a half hour. It goes like this: At 9 am they pass out a booklet that lists every class that is held each session.....Each session has about 15-20 classes listed. No repeats! So you have an hour to peruse the booklet and make your choices.....Over 1,200 people were there taking these classes all offered by fabric designers, pattern companies, book publishers, distributors. Here's Heather Baily showing off her newest fabric and patterns. She has to convince the shop owners to buy her fabric and patterns and quilt teachers to teach the projects. We're going to order many of these fabrics tomorrow or Sunday.





In another class Karen Combes shows off a cute way to display fabrics...as eggs in an egg carton. This class was about marketing, display and creativity.











We took a class with Ricky Timms and Alex Anderson touting the new GO! Cutter from AccuCut. This is a home system for die cutting fabric.....We'll have these ordered tomorrow. They had the quilting banter down pat.....they produce a quilting show on-line together and it was just announced this past week that they will be putting out a new magazine called, "The Quilt Life."

So I saw Pat Sloan, Jo Morton, Karen Montgomery, Karen Snyder, Amy Butler, Eleanor Burns and so very, very more notable quilters. I saw presentations for new 30's fabrics, batiks, bears, frogs, princesses and monsters on fabric.

I learned new ways to use rulers, adhesives, needles, coloring, texture magic and more. I chatted with old friends, new friends...FaceBook friends and the like. Mr. Scottie Dog, Liz & I ate lunch at some point and parted again for more informational classes. My head hurts just thinking about it all. I can't wait to share.





At 6 pm we regrouped and walked a few blocks to a Chinese Restaurant we'd been to last year. Ah....quiet for a bit. Then we waited for Sample Spree to start. The stampede began lining up at 6 pm but we just waited until they'd all gone in and walked into this.....Here I am with only about 1/4 of the Ballroom's worth of crowd! But we got some fat quarter towers and more. We'll be able to bring these home for show and tells.


It's late...I'll sign off for now and back to the Sales Floor tomorrow at 9:30 am!