From the moment I stepped off he plane in Portland last week for Quilt Market, the twice-annual quilt industry trade show, it was nearly impossible to go anywhere without seeing beautiful roses in full bloom.
Portland's rose-scented reputation dates all the way back to the late 1800s. Portland's first annual Rose Festival was held in 1907 and continues today.
Although I stopped to smell the flowers along my five-block route between my hotel and the Oregon Convention Center, my Quilt Market home-away-from-home for the next few days, sadly, I wasn't able to experience a whole lot more of this lovely city surrounded by rivers and abundant foot trucks.
The evening before the market floor opens, Sample Spree is well attended
by shop owners hoping to make some early wholesale purchases. The long
lines start forming at the entrance a few hours before Sample
Spree opens for business.
I didn't have a table at Sample Spree, but did go in and wander about for a short while after my booth was set up. It was sure crowded - as busy as I've ever seen a Sample Spree event!
No big purchases for me, but I did manage to find a little bird in all that chaos. This needle keeper came home with me for my hoops-and-hand-stitching projects. I know, a bird, right? You know I had to have it!
My booth was pretty basic. My main focus was making Your Nest™ Organizers available for broad distribution to Quilt Shops throughout the country. That stack of Your Nest packages on the table was gone within an hour or two of the show opening. Shoulda brought more!
(After I took this photo, I noticed that my bright yellow rain coat on the back of the chair grabbed all attention from anything else in the booth. I tucked it away after that!)
Each day before the show opened, I wandered around a bit. If I noticed any sort of 'trend' it was COLOR! . . . Big BOLD color. . . All the colors of the rainbow! (Allison Glass booth)
Little bitty flashes of color. . . (Granny's Legacy Booth)
Colorful birds . .
(I didn't grab the booth id on this one, sorry!)
Even color hanging from the sky! Booth: Valori Wells
Whimsical color, too!
Booth: QT Fabrics
Since I was there promoting Your Nest™ Organizers, it was fun to see them sprinkled about the convention center in various booths!
At CutterPillar, for example.
In Deb Tucker's booth, Studio 180 Designs. And in the BlocLoc booth. You know I love these tools!
In the Olfa booth - have you seen the new pink splash rotary cutters, and bright blue and pink cutting mats? Perfect companions for Your Nest Organizers!
And in Sue Pelland's booth. She has exactly seven curvy rulers, and exactly seven places to store them on Your Nest! Talk about perfect match!
And, of course, there were quilts. Unlike Fall Quilt Market's huge Quilt Show adjacent to the exhibit hall, the quilt display in Portland was much smaller, but still very impressive!
The hand work on this one (Marchen (Fairy Tale) by Kayoko Hibino) was stunning. Take a close look at that border! Aside from the beautiful stitching, the border fabric is wrong side out! You can see in the close up shot below, a touch of the same fabric used for the binding has a more distinct polka dot. By placing the border fabric wrong side out, the dot pattern added a subtle texture to the highly textured quilting pattern.
I hope you enjoyed my short and sweet Quilt Market travel diary!
Happy Stitching!
Joan
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