Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

And Happy Halloween, too!

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 Market and 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!

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.

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!

Until then —

Sew. Laugh. Be Inspired. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @VRD