Fall Quilt Market 2013 part one

Well, I have officially been home for a few days now, the suitcase is unpacked, the laundry done, new sewing stuff carefully stored in my studio, pictures downloaded- and now there is nothing left to do but share what an amazing time I had at Fall Quilt Market in Houston Texas.  I had a 4 day bender of fun and giggling with my girlfriends, as well as making amazing business connections and meeting new people- peppered with a few great parties and some really yummy food- and it was a perfect trip! 
One of the big things I was there to do was to help Angela Walters out with her booth again.  I have the very good fortune of counting her as one of my closest friends- and she is kind enough to keep hiring me to help her make samples and run the booth.  I also had the good fortune of having an extra helper this time as both Angela and I had meetings to attend- my quilt market roommate and dear dear friend Mandy Leins of Mandalei Quilts.  This time Angela's theme (named after her new fabric line for Art Gallery Fabrics) was Drift.  She took a trip to the beach and spent her time "drifting away" thus this collection had a very beachy vibe.  We played that up with a beach umbrella, fabric covered beach chairs, beach towels, a beach bag- you name it!  I got to make the beach bag as well as a cute beach ball pillow.  What I am most proud of was the beach umbrella I recovered though!  That umbrella was no small feat- anyone who tells you it is easy to recover an umbrella in quilting cotton needs to have their nose measured for instant growth- because it isn't!  What added to the challenge was that I only had a fat quarter of each of the prints I used (oh the joys of working with strikeoffs) - but you know what- I am a girl who LOVES a challenge!  I rolled my sleeves up and got her done.  I am so proud of how it came out, and with some Thermoweb Peel N Stick Fabric Fuse tape I was able to jazz up the finial and the handle too- gotta love that stuff!  The umbrella and bag were both big hits, but the break out star was that beach ball which ended up flying across the booth isle on many occasion when things got slow.  Gotta love those impromptu beach volleyball games at Quilt Market. 
I had so much fun helping Angela out- her booth is always a great place to hang out, all the fun people make their way over and I always meet lots of new friends and see old ones.  I helped out another fabric designer as well and will tell you about what I did for them in the next post so stay tuned... Hint- she also designs fabric for Art Gallery... (anyone got any guesses?)