I have been attending wholesale quilt market off and on for a number of years.
In the early '90's I had a home based manufacturing business and I purchased fabrics at market for the items many gals sewed for me in their homes.
Ane then I had a small fabric business for seven years beginning in early 2000.
So the changes I saw and did not see at market were very interesting.
Overall, the show is much smaller. Most fabric companies have really downsized their booth displays. This is always a slower paced market, but I thought it was REALLY slow. Many sales reps were just twiddling their thumbs - there just weren't buyers writing orders at their tables. It was , though, the first day of a three day show.
The displays are always so fun and creative as you will see in the photos.
I thought this was a clever way to display a fabric line -
and this is designed by Marcia Derse.
She has just overlapped 1/4 yards of the fabrics and sew across the top.
If you did away with the selvage edges, I think you could have any interesting texture piece for your wall. She talked about how she does this when she gets new fabrics - just so she can look at it for a few days before starting to sew.
There are always so many totes, but I thought this one was fun!
This creative display really drew me into the booth.
The pattern is to set up a Burrito Baby Bar.
This looked like it would be so fun!!
Sew up the babies, wrap 'em up, add toppings and add a little spice!
I just had to have the pattern.
Burrito Babies, anyone??
Clever display with lots of fun things, including a checkerboard quilt on the floor.
I have always been a fan of Ardvark Quilts. Her quilts and patterns always make the fabrics that so many of us do not know what to do with - just go together. Very inspired by this one!
Another Ardvark Quilt -a real twist on the zig zag quilt.
And I will end on this one for today -
as I said - some fabric displays get a little crazy!
This was the feature in the Timeless Treasures booth!!
More from quilt market in my next post.