Just got home from International Quilt Market and Festival in Houston. Texas was a very welcoming and friendly place, like always. I didn’t get to many places as it was primarily a work trip, but I did make it to Phoenicia. Unfortunately, I never made it to Guadalajara’s for lunch with my quilty pals, Cathey and Leslie – maybe next year.
I am deliriously happy to be writing this post on my trusty desk top computer instead of the laptop I took with me to Houston, which fought me every step of the way. What a relief to type and actually see the words show up on on the screen one at a time instead of me typing and waiting and waiting some more before my words actually made it it onto the screen.
It’s always great to get home after being away for a while. You should have seen my pup, Bailly, when I walked in the front door. She was so excited she could hardly contain herself – her little backside was wiggling like crazy and her tail was doing circles! There’s just something so incredibly special to come home to a furry pal, even if you were only gone a few hours. The cats were also happy to see me and showed me in their much more reserved cat-like ways. It feels so good to be loved like that. Of course, I brought goodies home for each of the fur babies from my trip! And Bailly is wild about her new yellow squeaky dog shaped like a banana. LOL!
Before I jump into a bit about Quilt Festival, I want to share the NEW November Rose Card patterns with you, which came out while we were at Festival last week.
NEW November Rose Card Quilt Patterns
We’ve got 5 new throw-sized quilt patterns for this month from 5 different VRD designers.
I’m excited to finally show my new throw-sized pattern, 2M Junior. If you loved the original 2M pattern (see below), but maybe didn’t want to make a large bed-sized quilt, then 2M Junior is just for you. And I’m absolutely thrilled to tell you that I used Pat’s new Riley Blake fabric collection, Bedazzled, in 2M Junior. Bedazzled is shipping to shops in December and you’ll be able to pre-order it soon.
Get your 2M Junior print pattern HERE or your digital pattern HERE
Get your original 2M print pattern HERE or your digital pattern HERE
And we can’t forget this month’s table runner, Bespoke, and our new snack mat, Little ‘Shroom.
Get your print Bespoke HERE and your digital Bespoke HERE
Get your print Little ‘Shroom HERE or your digital Little ‘Shroom HERE
With 7 brand-new November patterns to choose from, which one will you make first???
International Quilt Festival’s 50th Anniversary
This year, 2024, International Quilt Festival celebrated its 50th Anniversary! How amazing is that??? There were something like 1100 quilts on display!
I spent some time exploring the quilt displays, but I definitely did not see all of the quilts this year. I did take lots of photos to share with you, however!
There was a special Red, White, and Blue quilt display hung from the ceiling in the quilt area. Oh my goodness! It was mind-boggling! So many gorgeous quilts from traditional to modern from small to large all in red, white, and blue.
Let me share some photos I took, although they cannot do justice to the display at all, but I hope you will enjoy them.
Inside the circle of quilts hanging from the ceiling was a mini quilt display.
There were also more red, white, and blue quilts all the way around the ceiling display, too. Here are 2 of my favorites by the amazing Combat Quilter, Andrew Lee.
Well, I guess that’s it for me today. I hope you enjoyed a peek at some of the quilts on display. Stop back next Thursday so I can tell you more about my trip to Houston for Quilt Market and Festival. And, yes, there will be more quilts, I promise.
Whew! What a crazy whirlwind the last few days here at Quilt Market have been! As I sit down to write this, Market is over and Festival is just beginning and I thought I’d share a little bit about my Market experience with you. So here goes.
Time to Travel
While Molly and Heidi were flying in from California and I was on my way from Pennsylvania last Thursday, Pat was already here in Houston. Pat spent the day hauling stuff from the van to the booth and running here and there to pick up shipments. Molly and Heidi’s plane was diverted which made them arrive a few hours late and my plane was early, so the three of us actually met at the airport.
Check out these really cool clouds I saw from the plane. I’ve never seen clouds quite like this before with strange finger-like projections on the top of the clouds. You might need to zoom in on the photos to see the weirdness.
DID YOU KNOW?????? Snack Mats are a great accessory for plane travel — they are just the right size for the seat trays. What a great way to brighten up your flight (and keep things clean) as you enjoy the onboard snack and beverage. I discovered this quite by accident when I was finishing a bit of binding and laid my mat down on the table. Huh! Happy accident! You can find ALL of our VRD Snack Mats so far to date HERE.
Up to this point, everything had seemed so easy for me – too easy, I guess – as there ended up being an issue with Molly’s rental car so the three of us went to 2 different rental companies until we were finally on our way to the house Pat had rented. We dropped our stuff off at the house and headed for Wal Mart to grab what we needed. Wouldn’t you know it, but the closest Wal Mart wasn’t even a real Superstore because it lacked sections such as dairy and produce, so we ended up having to go to Randal’s to pick up our food items. Yikes!
We finally made it back to the house so we could settle in. Sheesh, I was totally worn out! Travel days can be like like that, can’t they?
Behind the Scenes at Marketand SEW Much More!
We headed to the Conference Center the next morning on Friday to get the booth set up for Quilt Market. This is definitely no easy task, let me tell you! First, you have to get everything inside so you can set up your booth. Luckily Pat had spent Thursday doing just that so we didn’t have to move much inside. Secondly, you have to navigate around all the other vendors’ stuff sitting in the aisles as they are also setting up their booths. Let me show you some photos of set up. Don’t forget the loaders and equipment, the trolleys and carts….
See what I mean??? These photos are looking up and down the aisle the VRD booth is located in.
And here’s our VRD booth in the beginning stages. We had a Schoolhouse session at 1:55 PM, so we couldn’t do much with the quilts until afterwards. Schoolhouse sessions are basically mini break out lectures where vendors can share their current and upcoming products and programs.
I was thrilled that our quilting partners, Hoffman, were in the booth right beside us. It was great seeing my Hoffman pal, Sandy, again. Oops, I never did take any photos of their booth. Mea culpa…..
So, halfway through set-up, we took our cart of quilts (which you see above in the third photo) and headed up to the classroom assigned to us for our session.
WOWZER!
There ended up being well over 100 people in attendance to see what was new with Villa Rosa! And to see all the quilts, too! Amazingly, we showed every single one we brought upstairs. It was crowded and standing room only — just the way we like it. YAY!
Look at all those happy people!
Then it was straight back to the booth to really get it set up. Molly and Heidi worked on hanging quilts. Pat and I kept working on Rose Cards. It was hustle time!
Finally, we were ready for the onslaught of eager shop owners on Saturday! It never fails to amaze and delight me when a disorganized space suddenly turns into a beautiful booth. Big SHOUT OUT to Molly and Heidi — they hung all the quilts, moved tables, helped Pat figure out the layout….
Me, I just try to stay out of the way and look pretty. LOL!
Quilt Market is On!
Saturday went incredibly fast as we were pretty much swamped all day. It took all 4 of us to man the booth. I just LOVE chatting with everyone and hearing their wonderful VRD stories and experiences. I didn’t get to grab any photos for you on Saturday, sorry.
Sunday was also pretty steady, but not the mobs like on Saturday. Molly and Heidi had some meetings at fabric companies to order new fabrics just for you! You’ll have to stay tuned to see what new fabrics are coming into the shop over the next year.
Here are some great photos Molly and Heidi wanted to share with you:
By the way, Molly promises to drop into the blog soon – she’s working on some new posts just for you. 🙂
Monday was my play day! Woohoo! When I wasn’t needed in the booth, I headed right down to the first aisle and enjoyed some great eye candy as I meandered my way through the aisles. I was such a slowpoke, though, because I kept stopping and chatting, but hey, that’s part of a show, isn’t it? After all the Markets I’ve been to now, I’ve developed lots of show friendships over the years, so it’s great to check in with folks and catch up.
Of course, I also love to meet new people, too.
I even managed to get some photos with a few folks myself. Cool!
With Minki Kim, a Riley Blake designerWith Kaffe Fassett and LizaWith Brandon Mably
I stopped by and met some other great designers too. Sandy Gervais has been one of my all-time favorite fabric designers for a very long time, so it was great to meet her.
Monday was such a relaxed day, I didn’t feel like I had to hurry to see everything all at once. Surprisingly, I did actually get to see everything. Yay!
This is a wonderful felt board set – it’s a felt panel! – by Jennifer for her Created With Love fabric collection coming to shops in May 2025. There will even be a felt panel sew along in May, so watch for it!
I absolutely adore it!
When I was a Children’s Librarian at my local public library a few years ago, I led a Tuesday Toddler Time and we always did some kind of felt board activity. Oh, how the kiddos would have loved this set. It does come with a cute little book for storage and play, but you could use them on a large flannel board, too. If you have little ones in your life, you might want to watch when this collection comes out and grab the felt panel because it probably won’t last long.
Schiffer Publishing booth
I wouldn’t be a very good book nerd if I didn’t show at least one photo with books, would I? There were 3 different publishers present this year. That was really great to see because since the Pandemic, book and magazine publishers have been slow to return to Market. Still no magazine publishers, though. Maybe next year.
Schiffer Publishing (the photo above) has always been my go-to publisher for amazing historical quilt books with an abundance of gorgeous photos. It was so nice to see my Schiffer pal, Joe, and catch up with him. I haven’t seen him at a show since before the Pandemic so it was great to see him.
C&T Publishing was there this year, too. In addition to being one of our 2024 Blog Hop participants and sponsors, they were my publisher for my book, I Love Precut Quilts!
Fox Chapel was there, too. They were also one of our awesome 2024 Blog Hop sponsors.
Next up is Quilt Festival! If you’re planning to attend, please please please come see us and introduce yourself — we would love to see you. You can find us at booth 721. I promise, we’ll have some great shopping for you – kits, patterns, fabric, and super fun fat quarter bundles! Wait until you see our amazing dump table.
See you there!
Well, looks like that’s it for me this week! Stay tuned for next week’s post all about Quilt Festival!
It’s October! How’d that happen? I feel like this year has been too short and yet too long at the same time. Does that even make any sense? So much has happened this year, yet there is still so much to accomplish, and now there is only a few months to do it in. Oh brother……… (me, smacking my forehead).
I know I mentioned last week that Fall is my absolute favorite season and happily, October is my most favorite month. October in northwest Pennsylvania is simply beautiful! You can almost watch the leaves burst into shades of red, orange, yellow, and purple . Then after a grand showing of color for a little while, they simply hop off the tree branches and drift down to the ground. There is nothing better than walking through those piles of color, crunching as you go. Raking leaves into a big pile and jumping into it is still an option for me too. Of course, I adore the cool nights and warm days, which make me feel more energetic and eager to get back on track to get things done after the lazy hazy crazy days of a hot summer.
Did I mention the food of autumn (and October)??? Goodness! How could I forget that? Apples are huge in our area this time of year, in fact I even have a couple neglected apple trees in my backyard. I was able to rescue some good-sized apples, even if they weren’t perfect. Apple pie, apple crisp, apple cider, homemade applesauce………need I say more? And if you have apple cider, you simply must have donuts to go with it. I don’t know if this is a regional thing or common all over, but I have fond memories of Friday and Saturday night cider and donuts.
In my hometown, there is also a huge nighttime Halloween parade later in October. When I say huge, I mean HUGE! Every firetruck and queen/princess for miles takes part! As well as all the area marching bands. There are floats, too. It was always a fun time when I was a kid, snagging all the candy thrown from the parade participants. I must admit that the Zem Zem mini race cars always made me nervous when they were doing their routines, — I was always afraid they’d run over my feet when they drove so close to the curbs where all of us kids were sitting. And after the parade, it was time for — you guessed it! — cider and donuts. LOL!
International Quilt Market
October also brings Fall International Quilt Market (the professional event) followed by Quilt Festival (the retail event) in Houston, Texas. YAY! Although there’s a lot of work that goes into getting ready for Market, it’s so much fun and totally exhausting. For me, it’s the one time a year I actually get to work with Pat and the VRD gang in person, which makes it super important to be there so we can brainstorm, discuss ideas, and dream up fun new VRD events just for you.
This was the VRD Market booth in 2022
This was the VRD booth for Festival in 2023
I attended my first Quilt Market in 2010 when my very first quilt book, Orphan Block Quilts, was coming out. It was also where and when I first met Pat and fell in love with Villa Rosa Designs. My pal, Leslie (who I went with to Maryland back in August) went with me for that very first Market — basically she help my hand and provided me with training wheels, or…………simply moral support. LOL! Thanks, Leslie! I’ll never forget when we saw superstar Ty Pennington from HGTV, who was there to promote his first fabric collection. OMG! Women were practically throwing themselves at him. He had a security guard trying to protect him and they even had to bring in stanchions and ropes to help control the crowd of rowdy women. Ahhh, good times.
Last year I was really fortunate to be able to stay on for Quilt Festival (the retail event) after Market. That was my very first Festival experience, even though I’ve now been to enough Markets that I don’t even keep track anymore. I had an amazing time and I met such terrific folks at both Market and Festival.
I don’t really have any specific goals in mind for Market this year, except to work in the VRD booth and to just enjoy the experience. I do hope to meet some new industry professionals, to put a face to people I’ve only worked with online, and to catch up with some old friends — like my pals, the Springers, of Quilts of Mulberry Lane, who kindly gifted me with an antique quilt last year. You can read the Story of the Quilt that Followed Me Home HERE. I might even line up some new fun sponsors for our 2025 VRD Blog Hop.
Bedazzled Fabric Collection
The most exciting thing going on for Villa Rosa at this year’s Quilt Market is Pat’s new fabric collection with Riley Blake Designs. It’s called Bedazzled and it is a batik collection. If you know Pat Fryer, then you know she adores batik fabrics!
Here’s our Pat’s RBD designer photo on the Riley Blake website.
There are 26 fabrics in the Bedazzled collection. Lots of purples and teals with hints of pink, jade, and blue. The fabric designs have a lot of movement and energy and the colors are just sooooooo rich. Of course, Bedazzled will be available in precuts — 5″ squares, 10″ squares, 2.5″ strips, and fat quarter bundles, so the collection will literally shine in lots and lots of VRD Rose Card patterns!
But wait……………….there’s more! There is a teeny tiny little extra detail that makes Bedazzled truly unique and special — it has bling! It isn’t called Bedazzled for nothing, you know. Tehehe. The main print has wonderful hints of sparkle and shine.
A close up of one of the main prints — can you see the gold stars and moons? That’s the sparkly bling!
Bedazzled will debut at Quilt Market later this month and is shipping to quilt shops in December, which is only a couple months for you to wait. Right now all of us at VRD are busy working on quilt samples to show off the Bedazzled collection for Quilt Market, so you will be seeing those soon, I promise. You will be SEW inspired! I’m also working on a couple new tutorials for you, which will go live towards the end of the month and into the beginning of November.
One of the things I’m most excited about Bedazzled is the collectible Bedazzled tin Riley Blake created for the collection. What makes this tin so special??? It will hold Villa Rosa Rose Card patterns! Yep. SERIOUSLY! A tin designed specifically for our Rose Cards. How many times have we talked about how to store our VRD Rose Cards right here on the blog and on the Facebook page?
Ridiculously, I am so in love with this tin already and I haven’t even seen one in person. Hmmm…..maybe Riley Blake will have one as part of their Bedazzled display. Guess we’ll have to wait until then to find out.
The collectible Bedazzled Rose Card tin. Isn’t it yummy???
Remember, Bedazzled is shipping to quilt shops in December. Of course, we’ll have it available at Villa Rosa Designs. Did you doubt we would? So, hang in there. December’s coming really really fast!
Well, that’s it for me. Time to get back to work on my Bedazzled sample quilts and tutorials. Stay tuned for updates coming soon.
Villa Rosa Quilts 