Quilt Market Part II

Well, it’s all over. A bit sad but I had a great time. I tried to write earlier when I was at the airport but the Internet would not connect. I don’t really know where to start because I saw so much and talked to so many great people. The booth at AH was great, I had a great time with everybody there and loved catching up with all of them, hopefully I will see them again soon in
Pittsburgh for Spring Market.

I guess I will start by just going through some of my pictures and let you know what I saw. I stopped by Anna Maria Horner’s booth. It was so cute, I talked to her for a bit and bought her new book Seams To Me and had her sign it. She is really nice and easy to talk to. She let us know that she is expecting her 6th child this Spring. Congrats to Anna! I don’t know how she does it but she does and the new book is great, lots of inspiring projects and pictures. She also won an award for her booth!

I stopped by Amy Butler’s booth and it looked great, as usual. She was at lunch when I stopped by so I didn’t get to say hi but I saw her later on at the hotel and then we were on the same flight home. She is always great to talk to and super nice. She had great, inspiring projects all over her booth and some great photos.

Kim from True up was at the AH booth and I got to talk to her. She writes a blog that is all about fabric. I haven’t had a chance to really check it out yet but from what I have seen so far it looks pretty cool, I can’t wait to sit down and look through all the pictures. She has some great pics from Quilt Market too.

If you have never seen the patterns and stuffed animals from Melly & Me you need to head over to their website right now because they are some of the cutest things I have ever seen. They are an Australian company and have some really fun stuff. I bought two purse patterns from them and I have a few more patterns that I bought last year.

Another company with tons of great patterns is Indygo Junction. Their booth was really cute with lots of their projects made up. I talked to one of the designers later at AH and helped her pick out some fabrics that they might use in some of their future samples. They have a lot of great stuff, some cute accessories too like this necklace made out of buttons.

I walked around a lot, collected some business cards and saw a lot of great quilts, patterns and project ideas. If nothing else I always leave quilt market very inspired. You see so many people who have followed their dreams and worked their way to Quilt Market. All the people there with their little booths that they have been planning for months to get it just right. It makes me feel like it is not too far away, that maybe within the next five years I could be there with my own booth and my own patterns getting sold to the quilt stores around the country.

This is the aftermath of Quilt Market, after everyone has left for the day. It was a little after 8 when we were all done packing up our booth. It was a great weekend and I hope I can do it again in May!

Live from Quilt Market

Well, it has been a busy day but, of course, I have been having lots of fun. I got into Houston yesterday evening and went to dinner with everyone from the Alexander Henry Studio. It was fun to be able to catch up with them.


The show opened at 9:30 this morning. I was over at the AH booth around 9 to get all the information on their newest line and the sneak peak of next seasons line. It all looks amazing, did anyone really doubt them? I have several new favorites from their line a few of which I want a just to hang on my walls because they are so wonderful. They did a "White Autumn" scene in the wondershop this season and it looks great. This is a fun tree with fabric leaves at the Blank Quilting booth:
At my lunch hour I grabbed a quick snack and walked around for the rest of the time just admiring the booths and picking up brochures and magazines along the way. I talked to a few people here and there but mostly I just walked and looked at booths. I plan to try to talk to everyone tomorrow. I have seen a few people that I recognize from the blogging world walking around which is fun. I think it's funny how some of the fabric designers become kinda like celebrities at these events.

I did discover something very exciting....Timtex is back! A few months back the company announced that they were no longer making the heavyweight interfacing that is great for lots of purses and other crafts. But I was walking by the C&T Publishing booth and noticed a few little samples of it and talked to one of the employees. They have their own blog and you can get the whole Timtex story here.

Cool booth with lots of buttons an trims:

One of my favorite pattern designers, Indygo Junction:
A booth with cool vintage fabric and buttons:

Those are just a few pictures from some of the booths I saw. I will take more pictures tomorrow, I will try to post all my pictures on my picassa site tomorrow so you can see a little bit of Quilt Market for yourself. Let me know if you have any questions or booths you want to see pictures of. Talk to you soon!

It's Here!

It just arrived yesterday! All four books in the series in a nice little box from Amazon.

I got the twilight saga in the mail yesterday and I can't wait to start the first book. I have heard so much good feedback about these books. I must admit I am a bit skeptical because this is not really the type of book I usually read but I am going to give it a try. I figured it would give me something to do while traveling to market this weekend and in the hotel at night. From what I have heard I won't be able to put it down so it should make for a short flight. Don't tell me what happens!

Cupcakes

So besides sewing another one of my favorite activities is making cupcakes. I don't cook, I wouldn't really even say I bake. But I love to make and decorate cupcakes. I have a few books with different recipes and flavors but for know I usually just use the cake mixes from a box (that's why I say that I don't really bake). I decided a few months ago that I needed something to be "my thing" that I can bring to potlucks or parties. So I decided on cupcakes.

One of my new favorite cupcake ideas is the cupcake cake. I know this is nothing new but I made one for a fourth of July party:

And I just made one for a potluck at work:

Cupcakes are just so much fun! I think I will need one of these next so I can make all sorts of fun cakes. I found these Pink Lemonade Cupcakes on this really cute blog and I may just have to try those next, they look delicious.

Only three days until market!

Countdown!

I have started my countdown to Quilt Market. One week from today I will be on my way to Houston. Unfortunately I will not have my own booth at market but I will be working for Alexander Henry Fabrics, my favorite fabric company. I have been lucky enough to work these shows with them since I worked in the studio a few years ago. I love going to market each year, I always look forward to it. Like many crafters trying to make it in this industry I have a "day job" to make money until my crafting job can become my full time work. Working as hard as we do can sometimes make it hard to keep up the enthusiasm for my work and the creativity to keep going. Each time I go to market or any other industry show it renews my enthusiasm for what I do. There are so many great people that you meet, not to mention all the most amazing, new fabrics.

I think one of my favorite parts about Quilt Market is the booths. There are over 500 vendors and no two booths are the same. The big companies always do a great job and have beautiful booths but I love to see the small ones the most. You know when you walk by these booths that the owners/designers are there working the whole show to get their patterns and work out there for everybody to see. I can only imagine the work they put into each and every detail of their display to make sure it looks just right. I hope to one day have a booth at market so I love walking around to get inspiration for what my booth will look like.

This is my first market since I have become more serious about my design business so I hope to take LOTS of pictures and meet as many people as I can. I know I still have a lot of work to do before I get to that point but it can't hurt to get started now. I have printed off the list of all the exhibitors and I plan to narrow down the list to all the booths that I want to hit while I am there. This can be tricky since I am technically working while I am there. I have to fit my wandering around into my lunch hour and the little bit of time before and after the show is open. So I am working on a plan to get as much accomplished in the short time that I can.

Here is a pretty dorky picture of me in the Alexander Henry booth two years ago at market, with my cute skirt that I made out of Mocca by AH. Are you going to market? Have you ever been in the past? Let me know!

My new "store"

This week I opened my own "store." Ok, it's not really a store but I have my own booth at a local craft mall. I have my own little spot that is about 5 feet high, 4 feet wide and about 3 feet deep. I pay a monthly rent and then they take care of all the rest. It's open 7 days a week and all I have to do is keep it stocked. Each night their sales are downloaded to a website so I can track my sales and see what I need to add to the booth. I signed a six month lease so we will see how it goes over the holiday season. I haven't done any craft shows yet so I think this is a good way to see what sells and what doesn't. Here are a few pictures of my booth, let me know what you think about my setup, any advice is always welcome.

I am thinking about moving the light to a lower shelf so that it actually lights up the booth rather than just sits at the top. Its only been a few days so I will just have to see how it goes.

I am off to watch the season finale of "Project Runway." I am so excited, I like all three of the finalists so it's hard for me to decide who I want to win it all, but I'm excited to see all the lines. I know everyone thinks Kenly is rude but I really like her. I spent the last two weeks getting inventory together for this little booth, and that gave me stress. I can't imagine designing a whole line to show at Bryant Park, I don't think I will ever need that kind of stress in my life. I think my goals of having my own booth at Quilt Market will give me enough stress.

Just getting started

I have been reading blogs for a while now and I keep telling myself that I should start my own. After waiting and procrastinating for months now I decided to just start one. I don't know all the ins and outs of blogging yet but I guess I will learn along the way.

I am living in Columbus, Ohio and starting my own business. I love to sew and create beautiful things from the fabric I have collected over the years. I hope to use this blog as a way to showcase what I have made and what I am working on. I will also be talking about what I am doing to start my business. I am at the very beginning stages of this adventure so hopefully you will come along for the ride. I look forward to talking with lots of you out there and learning from what you can teach me about this new area of my adventures!

And since my favorite part of blogs is the pictures I have given you another picture of my "glamorous ella phants"

I can't wait to hear from all of you, please leave comments to let me know any advice you may have for me!

Welcome to Mallory Hill Designs

Welcome to Mallory Hill Designs!

Please take a look around the site, and don't forget to check out what's for sale in our Etsy shop!