Finally recovered from Houston. Let's review.

We met some amazing people, many of them some of our favorite fabric and pattern designers like Anna Maria Horner, Sandy Klop, and Liesl Gibson of Oliver + S. And Jay McCarroll. What? Yes, the winner of season 1 of Project Runway was at Market to show off his new lines of quilting fabric. Jay and I were maybe the youngest people at Market (quilters are on average like 30 years older than me) so I think we had a special bond. We had a chance to visit every day of the show and you'd better believe I will be sending him photos of what we concoct out of his fabric.

I'll save more details for our shop blog when our website is up and it's time for the fabric to come. But here's a peek at something he made to show off his fabrics.

I have to say, Jay is such a lovely person. Full of compliments and stories and quips. On the first day the booths were open, he was sitting at his booth watching some Japanese industry people wander around. Thinking his designs would appeal to the Japanese aesthetic (they totally would) he started shouting "kawaii! kawaii!" which of course we know means "cute" thanks to Gwen Stefani, in hopes they would hear and want to come over and see what was so cute and discover his fabric and want to buy it all. This wasn't just once, he kept at it, but I think the Japenese group just wandered away. I also got his opinion on recent PR winners: he likes Leann but not Christian. I could go on gushing but I'll spare you a recount of every single conversation.

I'm also really excited about Anna Maria's new line shown here in frames:

You'll be able to get all these things in our online shop when they come out, by the way. We were pretty much giddy and exhausted the entire trip. We picked out a bunch of new fabric for the shop that will come next year, saw Kings of Leon, the wildest fashion show, and some quite interesting accessorizing, and had a heyday picking out vintage trims and buttons from someone named Dusty.

The International Quilt Festival happened right after Market where there were endless exhibits of quilts. I quite liked this one.

There's more but I'm worn out all over again.

i'm in houston, ya'll

It's my first time:
to Texas
on a business trip
at International Quilt Market (THE trade show for the quilting industry--sorta Fashion Week for the cotton fabric and sewing market)

Met my second (and today maybe third) Project Runway winner.

Things are going just swimmingly. More than that even. Forgot my camera cable though. Be back this weekend.

amer i can: part zwei

My other recent traditional American-type adventure: quilt show in Ogden with Natali. I mean, what's more American than a John Deer/Ford truck quilt?

I took that specifically for Erica who's obsessed with tractors. I mostly like this one.

But I was especially obsessed with this one, made with found blocks from the 30s that ladies had embroidered their names on. What was the story with that? And those prints on the fabric are killer.

Speaking of quilts, here's the haps on my shop. My mom and I are opening a quilt shop, meaning we will carry cotton fabric used for quilting (or anything else), and other sewing notions and fabulous stuff. We'll also teach quilting, sewing, and project classes. We're both obsessed with cool fabric, she is an expert quilter, and I'm a control freak, so this should be awesome. The shop is called Suppose, and grand opening is tentatively planned for Black Friday. So anyone who's in the Cache Valley area for Thanksgiving, consider coming by for our big party the day after. We also have an amazing team creating our online shop which will launch the same day. More details on all that to come.