I sort of disappeared from the online world for the last few days UNLESS you’ve been following along with me on instagram – PersimonDreams … which of course I recommend you do! I left my house on Tuesday to head up to Minneapolis to go to Quilt Market. 

Bus Tour.

On the first day at Market I signed up for the Bus Tour that did a little mini shop hop to three different quilt shops around town.  It was fun but definitely not like the shop hop to Houston last fall.  This bus load was full of shop owners just checking out what was working for other shops.  This is actually something I would love to do with other orchards but unfortunately I’m too busy at my own apple store to do it when they’re open.  I also didn’t want to buy too much on this trip because I wanted to save my money for sample spree!  It was great though as a designer to connect with shop owners and see what they’re looking for in fabric, in pattern designs, and in the industry. I took the bus into the convention center from Uptown each morning.  I’m really proud of myself, the Country Mouse that I am.

Schoolhouse.

Day 2 started with a talk from the infamous and fabulous Pepper Cory about Modern Quilting, Slow Stitching Movement, and the Bad Ass Quilter’s Society.  She was a fantastic speaker and it was great to hear their history.  Next up – my first schoolhouse experience! Schoolhouse is the time when you see all the new books, new lines, and new fun things in the quilting industry that are coming out! I started by checking out Pat Sloan and her new book, Pat Sloan’s Teach Me to Applique: Fusible Applique That’s Soft and Simple!  It’s fabulous and has TONS of great opportunities for teaching opportunities, workshops, and quilt alongs.  I don’t have my own copy yet but I guarantee it will be joining my collection very soon! The next school house I went to was Melissa Corry where she talked about her new book Irish Chain Quilts: Contemporary Twists on a Classic Design.  I adore the patterns in these book.  These are going to be great quick quilts with a lot of impact.  Melissa uses a lot of solids/lights in the background of her samples – I can’t wait to see what I can do by making that scrappy and colorful! I guarantee I’m going to have a lot of fun with it.  There’s one for sure in the book that I’m going to start as soon as I get a few of the projects that have deadlines done!  I’ll keep you posted!   Heather Bailey has a new holiday fabric line coming out called ‘Gingersnap’.  It was great to hear from a fabric designer and hear what her though process was behind her new line.  ‘Gingersnap’ is meant to not only work for Christmas but throughout the winter season as well.  It’s fairly ‘holiday-neutral’ I would say and pieces of it could even be used in year round quilts as well.  Later that day I heard from the amazingly talented free motion quilter – Leah Day.  Leah Day has books (365 Free Motion Quilting Designs – is like a bible to me) and online tutorials out that I refer to regularly when I’m trying to decide what pattern/design to go with.  She has a wonderful quilt along focused on the quilting portion of the quilt.  It’s a great way to gain confidence and muscle memory in your free motion quilting skills. Okay – now I’m going to go a bit ‘fan girl’ on you all.  I LOVE TULA PINK!!!!!  Her fabric designs are just amazing and so are her quilt patterns!  That butterfly quilt behind her … I have the pattern and I need to make it soon!  I squeezed into Tula Pink’s schoolhouse – literally – I was in one of the last seats in the back corner of the room.  And I’m so happy I did!  Her new line coming out soon – Eden – is fabulous!  It incorporates tigers, moths and elephants (hidden in lace …seriously – it’s amazing!!!!!) You can be notified by the Fat Quarter Shop about when you can buy it be going HERE and choosing what quantity you hope to get.  The other big reveal is that Tula is releasing a fabulous 108” wide backing fabric that is dots with birds on it.  The birds are tossed on so it is not directional at all.  It’s going to be a high demand!  And then I heard from Heather Ross.  Wow!  If you have a chance to go and hear from Heather Ross speak I highly recommend that you do.  She is hilarious!  Heather has a new line coming out –Tiger Lily! I miraculously won an entire fat quarter bundle of her new line because I had the most cats in the room!  It pays to live on an orchard where cats are a necessity!  It also helps that two of them just had babies … After hearing Heather Ross speak I can’t wait to get my hands on the book she released last year – How to Catch a Frog: And Other Stories of Family, Love, Dysfunction, Survival, and DIY – which I heard from a good source is pretty amazing! Heather Ross is also one of three designers that share advice and experience on Creative Bug’s new class – ‘How To Design Fabric’.  I’ve only watched part 1 of this series but it has already made a HUGE difference in how I think about my own fabric designs.  I highly recommend it if you’ve even considered designing your own fabric.  The end of the day of schoolhouse was the ‘sampler spree’.  I did a decent amount of damage at sample spree loading up on Aurifil, Cotton N Steel and Art Gallery fabrics.  I’ll be sharing my treasures with you in the weeks to come instead of completely overwhelming you on this post! I arrived back at my brother’s apartment late that night – exhausted, content, and inspired!  I was ready to hit the exhibitor’s floor on Friday!