Just a few more of my fave photos from market. International Quilt Festival happens just a few days after Quilt Market but we don’t always have time to stay, so thank goodness that they have exhibits set up during market. It’s great for a little bit of a rest and huge bit of inspiration.

Sometimes Mom & I share a brain. We both love tiny pieces in a quilt. The itty bits in this one just make me want to devour it!

"Kindergarten" by Tadako Nagasawa.

Japanese quilter Harumi Asada has become one of my idols. Her work is unbelievable and seeing it in person is always such a treat. This one was a birthday gift. Could you imagine being the recipient?!

close-up of "Happy Birthday" by Harumi Asada

How does she find the time…

"Harmony in Nature" by Harumi Asada

It’s the details and those tiny appliqued creatures that have me so enamored.

close-up of "Harmony in Nature" by Harumi Asada

There was an exhibit of quilts from the South Korean quilt guild, which I especially loved because of my fondness for the country since my visit there this summer. We don’t hear much about Korean quilters despite much of our quality fabrics being made there. What a relief to know quilting is going strong in Korea!

"Opening the Window" by Young Kyu Ko

And again with the shared brain thing. The favorite quilt from all of market for both Mom & me was “Stairway to Heaven” by Hong Joo Kim. Ta da!

"Stairway to Heaven" by Hong Joo Kim

Not sure what the story is with the shape of the quilt, think it might be a traditional Korean quilt design. What a great idea for a new way to do a log cabin though.

close-up of "Stairyway to Heaven" by Hong Joo Kim

See more quilts from the exhibits on our Flickr. Oh the quilts make me so happy I just wanna eat them or something. Can’t wait to get to more sewing.

It’s been 4 days since we got back from market and I don’t know if we’ve recovered from the excitement and the exhaustion yet! Things are more inspiring than ever in the quilt industry though. The community is growing and there are so many new great things at our fingertips. We wanted to share a bit of we saw that will be coming into the shop.

I’ve been yearning for neon fabrics for a while (It must be that I’m a child of the 80′s) and we found Robert Kaufman’s upcoming Stockholm line for a neon fix. We expect it to arrive in January, a perfect bright pick me up for Winter.

Also arriving in January is a new Dr. Seuss collection, the Lorax! We know how much you guys love the Dr. Seuss stuff, and we spotted this especially darling Lorax quilt in the Robert Kaufman booth.

You might find this hard to believe, but it’s hard to find just the right “pretty” fabrics. But we found a winner in Moda’s Papillon collection by 3 Sisters that will be arriving in February. It was inspired by the fabrics on the back of an antique quilt, which you can see here with the new quilt made of the collection.

Anna Maria Horner’s booth is always one of the most vibrant and breathtaking at market. This time she had her new velveteens (arriving next month) and embroidery on display. Supergorge.

Butterflies seemed to be really popular at Market, and embroidery is still going strong too–as it should! This particular piece is from Anna Maria also.

One of our favorite voices in quilting is Australian author Sarah Fielke, of Material Obsession fame. She’s got a new book, Quilting from Little Things, and we got to see some of the quilts from the book on display in her booth.

Love her hand quilting. And check out those cute tabs around the border.

The buzz started before market about new Moda designer Lucie Summers and her upcoming (April) collection, Summersville. Her perspective is so fresh and happy, and of course we picked up her entire collection! We’ll even have kits of this string quilt in the shop.

I couldn’t get enough of this Summersville quilt. The reverse applique is so darling!

I hope you get a bit of a sense for the thrilling things that are happening in quilting. That’s really just the tip of the iceberg.  You can see many more photos in our Flickr Market photo album, and we’ll keep bringing you more good stuff.

Well, it’s taken about a week to recover from Quilt Market.  During that recovery we chatter a lot about the trends we see at market.  There was the first market to showcase organic fabrics, the market we saw SO many owl prints, and this time we predicted lots of butterfly prints (which we did see).  But best of all we noticed that hand-stitching is really taking over!

Last market Lizzy House debuted embroidery patterns to coordinate with her Castle Peeps line. And now there’s the increasing success of embroidery artists Aneela Hoey of Comfort Stitching & Alissa Thomas of Penguin & Fish, who both showed new embroidery & fabric lines at market.

Penguin & Fish "Golden" hand embroidery pattern

Then there’s the debut of new artists at quilt market, like Sarah Jane (who we mentioned in previous posts). Her charming embroidery patterns are the perfect complement to her new fabric line Children at Play, really emphasizing the innocence and joy of childhood. (Watch for them here in a month or so!)

Sarah Jane "3 Little Birds" hand embroidery pattern

And of course there’s Anna Maria Horner’s new foray into needleworks, with a range of embroidery floss, Aida cloth, embroidery patterns, and cross-stitch inspired prints coming out this Fall.  I covert this dress we posted previously, that has a stunning cross-stitched belt and hand-quilted bodice.

Anna Maria Horner's french knots

Anna Maria Horner's hand embroidery

There is something so appealing about the texture of hand-stitching, and the time and care it takes adds to the lure and impressiveness of each piece.  I’m so excited to see a surge in the popularity of hand embroidery, and you can bet you’ll keep seeing more about it here. In the mean time, if you’ve got the urge to stitch something check out our Poppies Embroidery Project.

Just a quick HELLO! from International Quilt Market. We are all afrenzied here in Houston, picking out amazing fabrics and goodies for the shop and meeting some amazing people. We want to give you a taste of what’s going on here until we have a moment to sit down, catch our breath, and tell you more.  Take a peek…

an original from the legendary quilters of Gee's Bend

Liesl Gibson of Oliver+S shows off upcoming patterns

You can hear all about our quilt market adventures and get a look at the state-of-the-industry this Thursday at the Suppose Creative Guild meeting where Kathy & I will be sharing photos and talking about what new & exciting things are happening in the world of fabric and sewing. If you’re not a member of the guild, just come (6pm at Suppose)–it’s a snap to join and you can get in on the action. It’s so worth it!

We’ll also be sharing the latest on-trend news as it relates to fabric selection in our Choosing the Perfect Fabrics Seminar this Friday. This will be a great one, (plus, it’s a steal) so don’t miss it!

As we were leaving quilt market yesterday, we realized we hadn’t taken a single photo of ourselves during the trip. But really, aren’t we just interested in the fabric?  A lot of great things are happening in the fabric world. Here is just a bit of upcoming awesomeness we saw at market.

More and more patterns are becoming available from Australia, including designs from Don’t Look Now! This is a close-up of the Lilly Pilly quilt. We’ll have this pattern and more available soon.

Some of the best fabric we saw at market was City Weekend, the upcoming line from Oliver+S for Moda, available in September. The prints are on the softest cotton, and there will be some lovely interlock knits in the collection too! Here, Oliver+S have their children’s clothing patterns made up in the new collection. Plus, new patterns coming this fall, including some great designs for knits. Boy oh boy.

Here’s a closer look at the prints, in a sweet quilt that we will have available in kits.

The new Ice Cream Dress pattern made up in the new fabric.  Don’t you want one in your size?

There was a lot of talk at market about Liberty of London. Lots of fabric coming out made to have a similar hand to Liberty’s smooth & drapey Tana Lawn. Like Alexander Henry’s cotton lawns, of which we can hardly wait for the arrival.  And of course, there are the classic Liberty prints in new colors by Kaffe Fasset, on quilting weight cotton.  Always love Kaffe’s edgy color combinations made up in classic quilt patterns.  We’ll have these prints in soon!

And of course, we are always excited to see what Anna Maria Horner’s been up to. Her new book, Handmade Beginnings, is just out and it has so many fun things to make!

Here Anna Maria shows of lots of fun projects in the book, and some upcoming patterns–stay tuned for news on that.

This one makes me want to get embroidering.  And another exciting thing to look forward to: new fabric from Anna Maria later this year! (No sneak peeks yet. Can’t hardly stand it.)

That was just a tiny smidgen of what we saw, but don’t worry, there’s always more to come.

It’s that time of year again: International Quilt Market and its frenzy of fabric where we choose the coolest, most super duper stuff to bring into Suppose for the rest of the year.  This time around we’re here in Minneapolis.  But before all that work starts, we have to have just a little time for shopping, right?

During our explorations we found this amazing antique shop, Hunt & Gather,  that we got lost in forever.  We ran into Joanna Figueroa of Fig Tree Quilts there, scouting for her booth (hers are always amazingly put together).  We later regretted not getting a photo of me with her (Joanna & Joanna!).

I could have stayed in the vintage toy room forever.  And just when we thought we were done, there was a basement. With secret treasures like a fish tank full of dolly bits. (Did you know Kathy once made a lovely bouquet of old doll arms? It was amazing.)

Coming up, more Quilt Market goodness.

One change we noticed at market this year was the increased prevalence of Japanese fabric companies and we give a big woo! for that.  It wouldn’t be right without the talent and aesthetic of the master Japanese quilters.  We saw some exquisite taupe quilts.  (The Japanese taupe movement, associated with Daiwabo and Kinkame fabrics, among others, is a look of muted color saturation with hues and motifs from nature.  )  Just a corner of this quilt was breathtaking.  This is “Nantucket Basket” by Yoko Saito, a Lecien fabric designer.

Check out the detail of the intricate hand quilting, hand applique, and hand embroidery.  All those french knots! Amazing and delicious.  We are looking forward to getting Yoko Saito’s new prints into the shop but whatever we make with it will never compare to this.

Speaking of applique, Piece O’ Cake’s new book Applique Outside the Lines is an inspiration and seeing their quilts close up is a treat.

But which quilt to make first?

By the last hour of market, we forced ourselves to quit working and wander the exhibits.  Among the antique quilts on display, I mostly ended up with photos of intricate log cabin quilts.  I must want to make one.

This one is particularly lovely in silk.

I am my mother’s daughter, I love the bitty pieces and the detail.

I mean really, where does the seam allowance go?

Well Market, you’ve overloaded our brains and filled up our project queues. Until next time. (7 months and counting…)

Ah the quilts!  I could stare at fabric all day. I mean, I do stare at fabric all day.  And I love it, but when they are put into a quilt they take on a whole new life.  The quilt I kept coming back to every day of market is this Denyse Schmidt quilt featuring her new fabric line, Hope Valley.  These colors are more muted than her previous collections, which is part of why I’m so drawn to this quilt.

I also love that askew cream diamond between the print and the off-white background.

This will probably end up being a free pattern from Free Spirit and there’s a good chance I’ll be making it as soon as the entire Hope Valley collection arrives here in a month or so.

Speaking of muted colors, one of the directions that fabric is going that I’m liking is the trend towards less saturated colors.  We love the brights at Suppose, but I also like the sophisticated look you can get with grayed down colors, like in the Japanese Taupe movement.  And in this Jean Wells quilt seen in her schoolhouse series presentation.  I wouldn’t call them pastels, but low-intensity hues.  Gorgey.

More quilts of new fabric lines… Here we have Amy Butler’s “Sexy Hexy” quilt showing off her new Love collection.  A free download of the pattern can be found here.  There are some gorgeous prints in this collection including laminates (like oilcloth) that we’re looking forward to.

This photo is unfortunate because it doesn’t give the true effect of the colors in this quilt.  The salmon and greens are so bright.  This quilt features the Botany fabric collection by Lauren and Jessi Jung, new fabric designers for Moda. They have a great website where you can get project ideas and preview the fabric, which will release this March. (And yes, we will carry every single print in the collection too!)

Getting excited about all these quilts is exhausting.  I’ll save the last few for next time…

There is so much to see at market it can be a bit overwhelming. With all the appointments and to-do’s there’s not a whole lot of time for leisurely checking things out, but we try.  How could you not stop when you see all these pretty trims sorted by color?

Of course we make time to visit the booths of our favorite designers and stroke all the pretty things like the little dresses in Little Folks at Anna Maria Horner’s booth.  The entire fabric collection will be arriving at Suppose in December and we’re nearly peeing our pants with anticipation.

Heather Bailey’s booth was homey and oh so happy.

This adorable dress she made shows fabric from her new line, Nicey Jane.   I couldn’t help but harass her to start making clothing patterns.  (It’s pretty hard to find cool, well-fitting adult clothing patterns for quilt shops. In the mean time, at least there’s Built by Wendy’s patterns.)  The Nicey Jane fabric will start arriving in the shop within weeks!

Whenever I was near the Moda booth and caught a glimpse of this homemade mannequin, I got a little freaked out.  The photo would have been better but I didn’t want to get any closer.  I can only imagine what my mannequin-phobic cousin would have done had she been there.

At least there was the Moda home booth to distract us with it’s giganto learn to sew cards.  Watch out for that sword-sized needle, Mom.

More to come about market including a certain quilt I’m now obsessed with.

Whether or not we have recovered from market yet is questionable, but we are ready to show you the awesomeness.

I love these patchwork looking installations in the park across from the convention center.  Quilt Market had it’s 35th anniversary this year, and is in Houston each fall along with International Quilt Festival, so we like to think they are in honor of quilting, but I have no actual knowledge of artist Margo Sawyer’s inspiration for creating them.

The day before the exhibition floor opens is Schoolhouse Series where we shuffle around crowded halls from mini-class to mini-presentation like 7th graders. Except with way cooler teachers.

Anna Maria Horner debuted her new fabric collection, Little Folks, which is printed on luscious voile and will make the softest quilts and cutest blouses and dresses. It will come in flannel too, which will make for the most sophisticated baby quilts ever. We still can’t stop freaking out about Little Folks.

Heather Bailey also debuted her new fabric line called Nicey Jane, after her husband’s grandma. It’s gorgeous stuff. You can see one print used in her Daily Spice apron here and we’ve some shots from her booth for later.  I also learned that Heather is a fellow BYU graduate. Go cougars!

One of our most anticipated schoolhouses is always from the Kaffe Fassett Collective. Westminster is putting out prints from the Liberty Art Fabric archives done in new colorways by Kaffe. Last market we heard rumors that Liberty of London would be putting out quilting weight cottons and now we know the details. There couldn’t be a better collaboration than Liberty and Kaffe. Here Kaffe shows a quilt made with his Liberty prints.

We got to see some glorious Kaffe quilts from Australian designer and applique queen Kim McLean.

And Brandon Mabley demonstrated what, as he said, he looks like in bed. Kaffe explained that for this quilt he chose fabrics that had circular motifs in them and kept the circle theme going with snowball blocks.

We left schoolhouse pretty anxious to get to the Westminster booth to do a bunch of ordering of all our fave designers. Stay tuned for more photos from market and details on when we’ll be getting in all these pretties.  If you want to cheat you can see all of our market photos on Flickr.