In this episode I'm recapping my trip to International Quilt Market 2023 in Houston, TX.
Quilt on the wall: Brightly- 60x72
Designer: Cluck cluck sew
Fabric: Happy Days by Sheri and Chelsi
Layer cake friendly
So I thought I’d recap the new things I saw, products that I’m really excited about, fabric lines that I’m drooling over, and some really gorgeous quilts that were on display in the show.
Wonderfil- Spool holder and thread organization
Free Spirit Katrinka- Eco Printing
Color Block Quilt Making- Elizabeth Chappell
Quilt Coat- Quilt Smart
Kaffe Fassett
Tula Pink- Everglow
Project bags (moon garden)- I will update with links when they are available, that's how new this stuff is!
Queen of Diamonds
Star Cluster Quilt
Stained Glass Quilt
Sparkler Quilt
In this episode I'm recapping my trip to International Quilt Market 2023 in Houston, TX.
Quilt on the wall: Brightly- 60x72
Designer: Cluck cluck sew
Fabric: Happy Days by Sheri and Chelsi
Layer cake friendly
So I thought I’d recap the new things I saw, products that I’m really excited about, fabric lines that I’m drooling over, and some really gorgeous quilts that were on display in the show.
Wonderfil- Spool holder and thread organization
Free Spirit Katrinka- Eco Printing
Color Block Quilt Making- Elizabeth Chappell
Quilt Coat- Quilt Smart
Kaffe Fassett
Tula Pink- Everglow
Project bags (moon garden)- I will update with links when they are available, that's how new this stuff is!
Queen of Diamonds
Star Cluster Quilt
Stained Glass Quilt
Sparkler Quilt
Hey folks, I'm Nicole Gilbert and this is the stop scrolling start sewing podcast. Each Wednesday, join me as I share the ins and outs that quote life if you don't have a sewing machine, or you can bust out or pretty fly YCM or you're just interested in the latest quilting news, this is the podcast for you. Hey, folks, I'm Nicole Gilbert, and this is season three, Episode Eight of the stop scrolling, start selling podcast. Whether you're listening on your way to work or watching on YouTube, I am beyond thrilled that you chose to spend part of your day with me. Okay, so you guys, I just got back from quote market. I'm a little exhausted. But it was so much fun. I was able to meet up with some of my quilty friends, make new friends and make some really good, just overall connections. And it was, it was a great weekend, tiring, but a great weekend. So I decided this episode, I am going to kind of break down market. For those of you who are unfamiliar with market I'll touch on like what market is how it's kind of laid out. And then I wanted to share some of the amazing things coming in the next six months to the quilting world, which I'm sure all of you will be super excited about. But first, let's talk about the quilt on the wall. So this pattern is called brightly. And it's designed by cluck, cluck. So I'll have the links to like all of this information in the description. So don't worry if you don't have a pen. That's okay. It is it finishes at 60 by 70 inches. And it features kind of an alternative chain look at with highlighted sawtooth stars. This is a super beginner friendly quilt. It goes together very, very fast. And even better, it is layer cake friendly. And when I say layer cake friendly, it's a layer cake and background fabric. That's all you need to make this quilt, which is so fun. I can't I don't know, did I tell you what size it finishes at just in case I didn't. It finishes at 60 inches by 72. So it's a really comfortable size throw. And it's just gorgeous. I love it. It's one of my favorite quilt patterns that I've done recently. And I actually already have plans to make another one in a different fabric mine. Because I just think that it's just a lot of fun. As far as the fabrics in this particular quilt, this is actually happy days by Sheree and Chelsea for moda. And this is a great fabric line, just because so unfortunately it is an older fabric line. Sometimes I hold on to my pre cuts way too long. So I you know, finding it in a cold shot, maybe hit or miss because it came out about this time a year maybe updating myself like I'm showing how much my brain doesn't work pandemic timeline doesn't make sense, maybe a year maybe two years ago. So it might be a little difficult to find if you walk into your local fabric shop, but I know you can still find it on Etsy. So it's still out there. It's still in the cruelty universe. It's just not as prevalent as it once was. But this fabric line is great. It's got awesome soft corals. It's got really bright and bold reds and navies. A beautiful yellow that's not quite bright, not quite mustard, so I'm kind of obsessed with that yellow like I look at it and I'm like, oh, that's mine yellow. And the other thing I love is that it has bias stripes. So something that has gotten super popular in the industry just kind of across the board is bias strike binding. So that great tent pole stripes in like the barber shop spinny pole design. And what's great is that most of them are printed, you know, parallel or perpendicular to the selvedge. This one is actually printed on the bias meaning you don't actually have to make bias tape. You could use green tape to finish your quote with this which is pretty great if if I do say so myself. But that is the quote on the wall. It is a a quilt pattern by kliklak. So called brightly, the link is in the description. And the fabric that I used was happy days by Sherry and Chelsea. Okay. So now let's get into the Quilt Market of it all. So first of all, Quilt Market is something that is supposed to happen annually or even semi annually, unfortunately, the pandemic has kind of put a halt to the last few markets. And so the last market that was actually held was into that in person was in 2019, there have been virtual quote markets, but they're a little bit different. But 2019 was the last in person one, there is one big show in Houston, every late October. And then there's also a spring market which kind of travels around, it'll be in different cities across the country. And you can go to koat.com. To kind of find out when when festival is, which is the big show where there's vendors and a beautiful quilts like hundreds of quilts on display. I think its largest in America, second only to the Japanese festival, in terms of size in the world. So it's a really big show. Now, the week prior to festival is market, and market is just for industry. Professionals, meaning you're a shop owner, you're a designer, you're a long arm quilter you're working in the industry. And at Quilt Market. It's where we learn what's going to happen in the next six months or six months plus out in the industry. So we find out what fabric collections are coming, what new notions are going to hit the market like rulers or, you know, thread Tamers or you know, what have you any notions that are coming out software that's coming out machines that are coming out. This is the time that all of these different companies come out and share that information. So that then shop owners and instructors can kind of take it and then share it with the world. So it's a lot of fun, you learn a lot. And you also get to network and meet people in the industry, which is always so much fun. So how is cold market kind of broken up? So cold market the very first day, it's kind of like the pre day, they technically say that market doesn't open until the vendor floor opens. But the day before it is what's called the schoolhouse series. And in the schoolhouse series, all of these different brands and companies have half hour slots, where they can do deep dives to an classroom or auditorium full of people about what's coming. And so there's so many school houses, you can't get to them all, because there's like, between eight and 15, booked for every time slot, so you just physically can't be in multiple places at once. So you will miss out on stuff, which is a bummer. But they did something cool this year for that. But you learn a lot, you learn a lot. This year, they actually did something called the library at the end where you could go back up to this specific room and get all of the literature and photos and information that you would need for the events that you didn't get to go to, which was really nice. It kind of helped fill in some of the gaps. But that's the that's the day prior, then once, quote, market technically officially begins when the vendor floor opens. It is just it's breathtaking. And it was fun this year because it was a little smaller, it was a little calmer, you were able to have really good conversations with people, which I think is invaluable, especially in this industry where we are all you know, this is this is a passion. It's a craft. It's a hobby and something that we genuinely love. And being able to make those personal connections to something that people are, you know, it's the people are making is just, it's second to none. It truly is. But I can wax philosophical about all these things, but that's not what you're interested in. You're interested to know what's happening in the next six months what's coming out. So I I ended up kind of catching up and you'll see me scrolling a little bit so I want to make sure I don't miss a thing. So I ended up going to a ton of different to events, I learned a ton. You know, there's also business seminars and things like that. Great. What I learned about what's coming now is super exciting. So one of the schoolhouse series that I went to was for one to three wonderfil threads, which I absolutely adore. I personally use two brands of threads, I use Madeira. And I use wonderfil. Those are my two personal favorite brands of thread. For Madeira, I use Katana, and in wonderfil, I use confetti, and that's confetti with a que Those are both 50 weight cotton threads. At the wonderfil seminar, though, when we were talking, their threads are amazing, like I just said, but they're coming out with two different products, which I think is going to be really great for people. So what has happened over the over the years is that we're getting into and I'm pulling this right off of my sewing machine. Right now, we're getting into using these big ol cones of thread, which is great. I have, I can't even count how many of these gigantic cones have wonderful confetti, pale gray thread, it's what I do my piecing with, it's what I do a lot of my quilting with when I'm like doing a Bayani bag, because I do most of my quilting on my Walmart now. But it's this is what I use. And so we've got these giant cones. Now, this particular brand is cross woven, meaning that it's wrapped around going in different directions. Now some are straight wrapped, you know. So there's there's no crossing, it's just straight wound around the spool. Now what can happen though, is that your machines may only have one way that it pulls the thread off of meaning. Like in a perfect world, every machine has both a horizontal and a vertical spool pin. So that that way, you can put the thread on whichever one it pulls off of more neatly. But that doesn't necessarily happen. And so wonderfil created this spool stand, and I'm using spool stand for lack of a better word, but it's actually something that you would put on your, your, your pin, and you would put your thread on it. And there's like a little guide. And you slide your thread through that guide before you thread your machine. However, that may be via, you know, a thread tree or just straight through the race however it may be. But that little guide actually pulls the thread off. And then it changes the direction of how the thread is getting pulled off. Now why would you want this, it's going to severely limit the amount of tangling curling, and breaking that your thread does. So if you're finding that you have a thread brand that you love, but your machine doesn't love it, there's a very good chance this thread Stan that wonderful is coming out with is going to change your life. And it's like super inexpensive, like it's the kind of thing that it's going to be on the counter near your near the checkout kind of a deal. super inexpensive, but I think will make a huge difference for you. So that was the one that I was like the most impressed with the other item that they're coming out with, which I think is really cool. And I'm kind of interested in it. But I also have a ton of threat. So I don't know if it will work for somebody like me who has like hundreds of schools. But it looks their little racks. And what they remind me of a little bit is like do you know those spice racks that you put the spices on the little shelves and they slide in and they slide out and then you could turn them and see all your spices. It's that but for thread and so the the slots are made to hold big spools of thread, little spools of thread like there's a specific way to do it. Each one each package comes with two of those little racks, there's a place to label it so you could have like all your blue thread on one all your red thread on another and so on and so forth. And they fit together so that you could have like a flush shelf, on your on your like in your shelving units. You can have a flush shelf just full of them, which is great because it's keeping your thread out of the light which will keep it from getting dried out and bring it all out It is organizing them. Because while we all love, like I'm gonna pull this back. So you can see on my wall, I've got one of those pretty, you know, things with the pins so that you can see all the beautiful colors and my colors are in order. But you know what it kind of ceases to be pretty once I'm actually using the thread because there's tails hanging down. And it's, in theory, it's just, in theory, it's beautiful. In actuality, it's kind of a mess. And so this could be a really good organizer, I just spent a lot of time telling you about wonderfil. So the next schoolhouse session that I went to, was from free spirit fabrics, the designer KATRINKA, which I had personally never heard of her. I afterwards, I was blown away. And I'm like, ashamed that I had never heard of her because she is phenomenal. She does something called Eco printing. And so what she does is she uses leaves, to, essentially, and there's like this whole process, and she walked us through the entire process. But in a nutshell, it's kind of like tea leaf dyeing. But she's actually keeping the leaves on the fabric. So that once the leaves get pulled off, you actually see the imprints of the leaves on the fabric. And then she is colorizing that because most of them are coming out in greens and browns, but she's colorizing that. And it is it's beautiful. It gives kind of a batik, or ice dye, kind of look to the fabric. They're beautiful. They could be beautiful blenders. They are stunning enough to stand on their own. And I'm just like super, super impressed by it. And I was impressed by her. I really liked what she was doing. And spoiler alert, I actually got a fun little pattern and charm pack, that is going to be a giveaway. So if you're interested in being a part of that giveaway, go ahead, make sure you're subscribed to the YouTube channel. And you follow me on instagram so that you don't miss the announcement. Okay, so go ahead and do that because it's awesome. I'm going to be sharing all about that fabric. It's really cool. After that, I headed over to Elizabeth chapels schoolhouse, which I couldn't miss. I love Elizabeth. We had a great time this weekend. And so she was doing a schoolhouse to share about her new book, which is colorblocking and it's published by Fox Chapel, you're going to be able to find it everywhere, I'm probably going to carry it myself. So keep an eye out for it. It is a wonderful compilation of modern quilts using like a colorblock solids technique that I think it's going to be beginner friendly. And also, there's a really wide variety of types of projects, everything from like wall art, to pillows to quilts. And so I think there's a there's a lot of uses in this book. And I was really, really excited about it. And I can't believe right now I don't have my copy with me because I do have a copy of the book. It's amazing. If I can figure it out, I'll pop up a picture of it in the video, but there will for sure be a link to it in the description for you. After that, you know I went to a quilt coat class which was which was great. It was held by quilt smart and they are fantastic because they use this really interesting. Kind of it's, I want to call it batting but it's also kind of stabilizer but it's printed. And so it's kind of like foundation paper piecing meat stabilizer. I know it's a little odd, but really cool. And just like a genius idea to make some really and it helps you make some really intricate quilts. But this was interesting because they were using this product and using it to make quilt coats. And the ones that they had were just phenomenal. So I will include links to that as well so you could see it. It's just, it's really, really cool. I also got the chance and I have so much of this stuff. And I'm looking around me and I'm like why don't I have all this stuff here because I have so much of it. But I then went to Andover fabrics was launching a new fabric line by an eye candy quilts, and it's called astrological. And I was fortunate enough to get a fat quarter bundle. And it's cool guys. It's super cool. It's blacks and pinks and yellows and turquoises and it's just it's fun. And, and it's Jazzy. And if you know anything about eye candy quilts, she's fun and she's doing jazzy. So it's just, it was wonderful. It was a great half an hour that we got to spend with her. And she's doing wonderful things. So there will be, like I said, I keep on saying there'll be links, there will be a ton of links. So anything that I'm talking about, you will be able to check out in depth via the links in the show notes. You may have just heard something I've delivered on Amazon. So there's that. Then I finished my day, or rather, my schoolhouse day, with the amazing to the pink, because I mean, you guys know, you guys know. But anyway, she debuted ever glow, which she has been doing something called Tula Tuesdays for might even be two years now she's been doing it for a while. But every Tuesday, she releases a video on her social media platforms. And it could be anything from releasing fabric lines, to what she's currently working on two techniques to the design process. I mean, they're really cool. They're just like little glimpses into her brain. They're about like, usually about 20 minutes long or so. But they're really awesome. She had done the Everglades release a week or two ago, on her social media. So I knew about this fabric line. But she shared so much more at her school house. I had the pleasure of meeting her and having a few conversations with her. And she's as delightful in person as you think she is. So there's also that isn't it wonderful when people you love are actually like worth it. I love that she's worth it. But ever glow is this fan tastic line of Neons. And it's kind of like a two parter collection. There are eight focal prints featuring four different animals. So there's two colorways for each animal. It's a lion, a hippo and elephant and a giraffe. And they're in two colorways each. They're amazing. The I mean, and this is kind of for Hallmark. But her attention to detail in these illustrations is just it's it's Barna, it's just phenomenal. And the colors are so punchy and bright, but they're not painful. And they're not gratuitous. Like sometimes things are bright. And you're just like girl, you could have done that with like Forest Green, like not a big deal. This felt right. They're gorgeous. Going along with that is a collection of tent stripes, theory flakes. And there's one other, it's escaping me at the moment. But these are going to be going into her true colors collection. And they're all in those neon colors as well. But they're going into true colors. So I am super excited about it. It's one of those things where like, I didn't realize I didn't I needed a neon until she told me I needed a neon and I was like oh my gosh, you're so great. I needed neon. So there's that. It's a beautiful collection. And I'm super excited, it's gonna roll out this spring in conjunction with this fabric collection. She also has a series of embroidery files that are being released by Scissortail. Which if you aren't embroider, run, don't walk to get these things. They come in both downloadable format as well as on drives. And so if you like can't wait, you can just head on over to Scissortail and download that right now to put it onto your machine. There are going to be some limitations depending on the hoop size that you have for your embroidery machine because some of these images are large. I want to say that the lion she showed fully stitched out was like probably a 12 inch block. So kind of keep that in mind. You're you're gonna need a big hoop for some of these, but there's always a ton of smaller ones. So I would not say don't get this if you have smaller hoops. Just be aware that there's at least one that I know of that is a quite large stitch out. But oh my gosh, but nominal. I want to put that line on the back of a jacket. Shoe story. So there's that. So there's the embroidery files. Also going with that is Aurifil threads. She has three thread collections coming out Um, and they're essentially the same threads kind of in different ways. So there is one box of threads that specifically just forever glow. It has a giraffe on the front. And it has all of the and I'm using air quotes here, neutrals, because they're like, the neon color with a little gray added to it kind of a deal. It's got all the neutrals associated with the ever glow line, as well as neon thread. And this neon thread is the only cotton you heard me cotton, Mian thread. For those of you who do braid sewing, I do bright sewing, I love using bright threads on like my Bayani bags, and all Neons are rayon or polyester that's just it's just the name of the game. And it's like a printing issue, or a saturation issue for the dye in the thread to law. And the powers that be that helped to create what she creates, figured out how to do it with cotton. And so there are three neon cotton threads, which like, Oh, amazing. So then that's the first box. The second box is just the three neon threads. So that has three large pools of neon thread. Then there is another box that has the neutrals, as well as the Neons. But they're different sizes. So we've got the neutrals box, we've got the three Neons. And then we've got a box with both together. Phenomenal, amazing. In addition to that, there are some amazing quilt patterns and quilt kits coming your way. So I would definitely keep an eye out these are go you're going to see a lot of pre orders for them in the next couple of weeks. Because ordering for shops. And people like me instructors who lead so Long's is going to close at the end of November. And so I would love to hear if you're interested in any of these quotes, I'm going to put links to them in the in the description and please comments on the YouTube send me an email, whatever it may be. But I want to know if you're interested in them so that I can order. One is an EPP project and it's a block of the month. And it is phenomenal. It's called queen of diamonds. It has been organized by free spirit fabrics, pink door, and paper pieces. And all three of these have come together to make the instruction booklet, source the fabrics and make the paper pieces and the templates. And I really, really want to do it and looking at the construction of it. It is gorgeous to look at. But it is a great beginner EPP project. Also, it's going to be easy because it's going to be over a 12 month period of time. Which is huge. Because you're gonna then only have to make a block or two or three a month. So it's not something like sometimes you get an EPP project that I've been in this position myself. I've only been doing EPP for a few years now. And I get an EPP project and it's so overwhelming because you just have 1000s of paper pieces. And you're just like when how what how am I going to do all of this. This having it broken down this way is going to alleviate so much of those pain points. So I'm really interested in that. There's also several projects by Susan day, I want to say they're called one is called sparkling which is just I mean I just can't even or sparkler that's what it is. It's sparkler by Stacy day. Another one is called stained glass by Stacy de these are both beautiful quilt patterns. And I'm kind of interested in doing a so long with one or both of these. So again, if you are interested in any of these please in the comments or in my email box, tell me which one you're interested in. And if you would like to, if you would be interested in purchasing a quote kit, because I will be picking one or more of these two hosts so along with next year. So really excited about that. It was there was just so much good stuff. I saw If while I was there, his new fabric collection is just like, it's just amazing. It truly is. It's just amazing. I just, I can't say enough about all the cool things that I saw. And so that was that was schoolhouse day, you learn all of those stuff, you get those deep dives, you get to really see people and see what they're about in the schoolhouse series. One schoolhouse is over though, there's two other things that happen one there sampler spray, which in years past has been a little bit like crazy BestBuy, Black Friday kind of stuff going on, I would say this year was no exception. Except that because it was just a smaller market. Overall, it wasn't as stressful. I will say that there was still some elbows being thrown, not gonna lie. But at samplers free, what it does is it gives all of us the ability to go out and buy some of these product products that aren't going to be available to the market for six months. And so you can go in and it's kind of like what you see is what you get, and it's gone. And so I actually was able to pick up these two bundles, and I kind of now I'm regretting it, I should have bought more, I had the ability to buy more, I got there early enough that I could have like, you know, scooped a whole Lehmann and I should have done it. Because not only did I get fabric collections that are not coming out until I think the earliest one comes out in February of next year. This one I think doesn't even come out until May. So pretty exciting that I get to do this. And now new quilt patterns that have come out with, I'm gonna make them in these lines, it's going to be great, you're gonna see things. It's gonna be great. But so I got sunwashed by Corey Yoder, which is this Beautiful, just beautiful, very large collection of navies and periwinkles. And corals and pinks, and yellows and greens, very sunny, very happy. Lots of springtime vibes. And there are a ton of low volumes in this which I'm really excited about. Because I love a fun low volume. It's so they're just great. I'm thinking sashing maybe in its future, I'm excited, very excited by this. The other one I got was delivered with love by paper and cloth. And this has kind of similar colors a little brighter, um, a little brighter and a little bit more pastel than the sunwashed by courier shooter. This one also it's got blues, it's got turquoises yellows, and corals and tons of low volumes as well. The the thing with this is that also it's like kind of a baby line without being super baby, which I'm kind of excited about because this is this fabric collection, you can break it up, and you get nothing but soft stars and stripes and dots, and really gentle florals, which I love. Or you could focus on the baby and you've got some prints in here that have like storks and easter eggs and all of that kind of stuff. And so for me, it's it's like a double usage, color collection, which I'm really, really excited about. But that was sample scrape. And some people that sample samples free were able to get some of the products that I talked about earlier like the wonderfil, spool stands and thread holders and all of those things. Because you they have a limited amount that's there, but you can grab them, which is kind of awesome. And then the next day after sampler spree is over, the vendor floor opens up and on the vendor floor is like every brand you've ever known. And it's still it was smaller, is smaller than in years past but it was still a ton of fun. I got to make great connections with people. I got to order some really cool products. Oh my gosh, I almost forgot to pink also has new project bags. Her last set of punch bags came out with line work. And they were phenomenal and they're just even better this time. So I will have a selection of them available in the shop. But there is this like giant 22 inch project bag that has a zipper that wraps all the way around two sides. So you could really open this thing real wide. I get large blocks in there, which is great for like holding a whole quilt. I mean, it's gorgeous. And they're not, they're not expensive by any means we're talking like $20. And less, depending on the size of the project bags, but worth every penny penny of it, beautifully constructed, beautifully designed. I mean, every little element. I mean, if you know Tula, she does great work and has great craftsmanship to all of the products that she comes out with. They're pretty great. I'm also gonna have a selection of some of the hardware in the store as well. So I got to kind of do all of that kind of work while I was there. But it was just, it was a lot of fun. And then of course, even though it's Quilt Market, we still had access to the quilt display, which is kind of the big draw for festival, which is the consumer portion of this trade show. And, I mean, the work was just absolutely stunning. From foundation paper piecing to applique, to embellishments, I mean, the use of color and design, the traditional meaning the modern. That's one thing I love about the show, like particular for you guys at festival in Houston, versus like the quilt con show. The Quilt con show is also fantastic. If you go to my Instagram and scroll back to February, you'll see a ton of those quilts and they're phenomenal. But they're modern, as it should be. quilt con is a show for the Modern Quilt Guild. But International Festival is for all types. And so you can get some really super traditional and some really super modern, which is it's just so fun to see all the juxtaposition going on. But my weekend at Quilt Market was absolutely fantastic. If you have any questions, please put them in the comments in YouTube or send them to me via email if you are listening on your favorite podcast provider. I'm happy to help and I really am interested to hear which of those quilts you might be interested in creating yourself so that I can get the ball rolling and make sure that we are set to go for so long next year. Alright folks, you have completed yet another episode of the stop scrolling start sewing podcast. Thank you for spending a portion of your day with me. Be sure to hit subscribe wherever you listen or watch and I will see you next week. Bye for now