Return from Quilt Market

Well, another successful  Quilt Market is done and we are finally home and slowly trying to get back in the swing of things. As many of you already know, this year Spring Market was in the beautiful city of Portland, Oregon. A place with great food that we had the chance to partake in [our favorite was Toro Bravo for tapas], a charming river running through the middle of it [that we had the opportunity to take a dinner cruise on with our MODA colleagues] and my favorite bookstore in the whole country. Wow, it doesn't soundl like we did any work at all... but I can assure you that indeed we did and somehow we managed to get in a few of these wonderful moments listed above! In fact between setting up & breaking down, manning the booth, teaching workshops, breakfast meeting, dinner meetings, and the grand MODA Friday night party... there wasn't much time to do anything else. At least we got to work in wonderful places surrounded by great people!

Market itself was a fabulous whirlwind. Here are some shots of our booth which we were very happy with due largely to the delivery of lots of fabulous props from our home & studios by our favorite local quilt store owners, Joe & Roxie, and our piece de resistance... a wonderful slipcovered chair, made out of several of our favorite Fig & Plum fabrics. I was inspired by Camille & her wonderful red Dottie upholstered chair & thought, how hard could it be to make a slipcover? Well, given that I had never made one before... it was a bit tricky but actually easier than I anticipated when I set out to make the pattern. Alot of tracing paper later, some help from my friend Keiko and a bunch of strange shapes, voila a slipcover was born. Unfortunately, I think I might have created a monster and am seeing potential slipcovers everywhere I go... in the dining room, in the bedroom, in the kids rooms.... If I'm not careful, before this summer is done, we might just be completely slipcovered! 

As always, we were acrosss the aisle from the wonderful MODA booths [whom we affectionately like to refer to as the mothership] and I had occasion to take some shots of some of my favorite products over in MODA HOME. One of the things that they have is a whole array of wonderful things inspired by vintage milk caps... talk about Fresh Vintage! I have to tell you that when I first found out they were doing milk cap inspired products a few months ago I was crestfallen. Over the past few months I had managed to collect hundreds of those cute little things and was working on a way of incorporating them into my next collection. I thought it best to put a hold on that idea and see how the MODA products looked. But of course after seeing their charm and retro feel, I am inspired all over again to add them back into a group here or there.... we'll have to see the continued saga of the milk cap inspiration... they are just so charming. Here is a little tidbit about the MODA ones... the designers who worked on them have all managed to work their own last names into the designs... perhaps you can find them

Talk to you soon.

Comments

[melissa@yummygoods]

Hi Joanna,
I was so glad that I bumped into you at Quilt Market. Ahh, I am still trying to rest up from theb trip, but I am already excited for Houston!

[Camille]

Glad you made it home! Your booth really was beautiful, and your slipcover turned out fantastic! I've got some fun pictures over on my new blog in the Portland Quilt Market album- which reminds me... I'll get those pictures over to you today!

[Nanette]

I need to make some slipcovers for my house. But I am slighlty afraid. Oh well. I guess I need to get over it. Yours is lovely. Love all the pics. Love the idea of vintage milk bottle tops.

[Amy]

Your pictures are fabulous - glad you had a successful time at market =)

[josie]

Tres Magnifique!!
I have been patiently waiting for your spring market pics....and you didn't disappoint! Your booth is amazing!! Only one simple word says it all, "WOW"!!!!! Thanks for sharing!