4 Days in the Candy Store!

Well, it was a whirlwind 4 days in Houston! Weather was identical to San Diego...and the theater district surrounding my hotel offered up a delightful fusion of restaurants! Loved it! And even better was the time spent walking up and down and crisscrossing (many, many times) the floor of the convention center wanting to buy every fabric and pattern in sight!

The booths were amazing...many vendors try to out do each other for the best booth and here's a few photos of some of the best!

Michael Miller Runway!

Michael Miller Fabrics staged a 50's Prom night complete with runway, big white vinyl-tufted "diner" booths for us to sit at and order. But the most fun...the reps all wore 50's vintage inspired clothes or the "real" thing, complete with 50's style "hairdos" and Princess/Prom tiaras.

While their booth took up at least 1000 square feet (almost as big as my house), many designers had small booths to showcase their new collections.




Here's Amy Butler's booth - loved the way the fabrics were displayed. Notice in the background, behind the poof pillows is her raincoat pattern in laminated cotton. I'm currently sewing it up as a sample for The Grove. It's adorable and comes in adult and children's sizes! Amy won a prize for best small booth! It's not hard to see why!
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Tina Givens also won a Best Booth prize! Here's some photos and one with Tina and I. She's a delight and extremely talented - many of her new fabrics and her new book "Tina Sews!" will soon be joining my judipatuti line at The Grove.


Now begins the wait.... expect some fabrics to arrive in the next few weeks and others over the next few months. It's like seeing all the wrapped packages under the Christmas Tree and having to delay gratification for weeks! I said it then and I"ll say it now...

No Fair!

Buying Frenzy!

I'm off to Market! Leaving tomorrow to buy fabrics for "Fabrics at The Grove" and for my judipatuti Beadmat production. Once a year I travel to Houston for the largest tradeshow of fabric vendors in one place, at one time that specialize in cottons.

I've been to the textile shows in Los Angeles for apparel manufacturers and they're great shows but don't compare to the Houston Quilt Market for highlighting 100% cotton fabrics!

Last year I met Amy Butler and Anna Maria Horner - both very personable, warm and amazingly talented textile designers. I expect to meet more emerging talent this year and buy their fabrics. I have also met some pretty talented pattern designers and will keep my eye out for new pattern lines to sew!

Yes, I'll take lots of pictures to blog about what's coming!

I also plan on scoping out unusual and colorful fabric combination's for my next Beadmat production. Will be setting the production schedule once I settle on the fabrics and their ship dates!

While I planned on wearing Winter clothes - you know - wools that I never get to wear in San Diego, I just found out they're having 80-85 degree weather! Guess I'll be leaving my warmies in the closet and my coat and umbrella hanging on their hooks!