I can’t believe that it was only 1 week ago that I was standing in the Minneapolis Convention Center on the first day of the Spring 2010 International Quilt Market. The weekend flew by so fast, but now that I am home and rested again, it feels like it was a month ago, not a week ago!

I had a great Quilt Market (who doesn’t?) and have some great news to share with you.  Where to start???

Blank Quilting

Let’s start out with my new fabric line that I have been babbling about all over the Internet (and in person too, if you happened to get too close to me). As you probably know, it’s called And Sew It Goes… and is being produced by Blank Quilting. Here’s a picture of my Plantation Quilt (pattern literally just appeared on the QuiltWoman.com website with two more designs for this fabric) and my And Sew It Goes apron (pattern soon to be on the QuiltWoman.com website).

Plantation Quilt and "And Sew It Goes" Apron in the Blank Booth

The people at Blank also took some of this same fabric line and made a sewing machine cover to show off in their display.  What a great idea!

Sewing Machine Cover made with "And Sew It Goes..." fabric

Needlework Factory

Now this is exciting news!  I met with Sue Radzanowski of The Needlework Factory.  They are a company that specializes in digitized machine embroidery designs.  They are going to digitize the motifs from my two fabric lines (here I go again, talking up my fabric), The Ibiza Collection and And Sew It Goes..!  and create 2 complete Machine Embroidery Collections.  Wow!  My ever patient husband spent a whole evening this week getting the images together to send to Sue.  I’ll let you know when the designs are available!

The two Marks

I had the exciting opportunity to hang out with a couple of Marks;  Mark Lipinski and Mark Hordyszynski.  Mark H. and I were at the Blank Quilting Booth and spotted Mark L. across the way.  Mark H. had a Jeebers t-shirt to give Mark L.  Here’s Mark L. attempting to put the t-shirt on (I think).

Sue Radinowski form The Neeedlework Factory wearing her Jeebers t-shirt and Mark Lipinski getting ready to try his on.

You might be asking “What’s a Jeebers?”  Mark H. created a line a fabric for Blank Quilting called Jeepers Creepers. Sue digitized it into an Embroidery Collection and the rest of the story (named “The adventures of the Jeebers”) I’m going to save for another blog posting coming up shortly.

Anyway, with the 2 Marks in the vicinity, I just decided I wanted to be part of a Mark Sandwich.  Just call me Happy!

Mark Lipinski, ME! & Mark Hordyszynski

And Some Fun

Dolores Joshua, a Blank Sales rep who had been great to deal with, did a Schoolhouse session in conjunction with QuiltWoman.com.  What I want to point out in this picture are the SHOES!  We went shopping at the Mall of America and Dolores found more sneakers to add to her collection.  Let me just say the shoes match Dolores’ personality perfectly.  Yup, we had a great time.

Dolores Joshua presenting at Schoolhouse

I think Dolores’ shoes deserved their own Schoolhouse session!

A lot more happened at Quilt Market, but that’s all I can talk about right now.  (That’s a tease…stay tuned for some nifty stuff coming up.)

Finally, I have to acknowledge my husband, Grant.  He is unfailingly supportive of my quilting ventures and travels with me when I attend all these events.  But what is a husband to do while I’m schmoozing with the celebrities of the quilting world?  Take a look.  This is Grant watching the CBS television series The Unit on our DVD player.  I don’t think he missed me a bit during the day.  I’d come in the room bursting with news and say “Can we talk?” to which he would reply “Just a minute, it’s almost over.”  Oh well, at least he was entertained!

Grant and "The Unit"!!!

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!  I’m going to split mine between my sewing studio and my garden!