So last post I talked about setting up our first booth at International Spring Market in May, well now onto the other fun stuff that is market! The night before it opens, there is the fabulous event that is sample spree.  It is literally a mad dash to get the latest and greatest coming out.  People line up for hours prior and we were no exception! I waited as patiently as possible with some old and new friends.  One friend that was very new to us was  Annik – this was her first market so we were filling her in on our own experiences. Please pop over to Annik’s blog Mini Mushrooms and say hello- she makes the most fabulous  bags. It was great to meet you Annik!  Of course I also sat with my old Quilt Buddy Stefanie  and Jennifer.  It was so exciting to talk about what we wanted and where we were going once it was time.  I took this pic from our vantage point of one of the 3 lines….

….crazy right?  Once inside, I went for the Moda and Lecien Co. tables first and got most of what I was looking for!

Then after Sample Spree, we stopped in at the Fabric 2.0 party at the Hyatt Martini bar…pretty cool to meet some fellow bloggers IRL! Specifically I finally met John aka Quilt Dad and I also met Carla from The Scientific Seamtress and saw Angela again (she was there with her uber nice mom)-great to see you again Angela!  So great to meet so many of the faces behind some of my fave blogs!

The next day opened market. That in itself is a surreal experience! Having attended before I figured it would be old hat, but it is definitely different while showing your own work.  In the next week or so I will be introducing the new quilts that we showed in our booth and tell you a little bit about them, so please come back for that!  I lucked out and had fabulous people in the booths surrounding me.  To start with the beautiful ladies from Favorite Things– they were there all the way from Vancouver! Their booth was so cute.  Across from them I met the wonderful Darlene from Crow River Mercantile.  It was her first time as an exhibitor too so we had lots to share- she also had some pretty awesome wool BOM’s.  Next to Darlene and across from me was Rebecca Ruth-her and her husband were so fun.  And on the other side of me I met Tiffany and Roni from Tiny Seamstress Designs.  Tiffany’s bags are just to die for!  Unfortunatley I only had pics of Tiffany and Roni as I really did not get to take many pictures at market- just too busy! 

Aren’t they awesome?! We all had a lot of fun helping each other out, having a little drama {security?!} and meeting some fabulous people along the way.  I was sad to say goodbye to these fun ladies!  One of the coolest meeting to happen was when Mark Lipinski came down our row ( thanks to Rebecca)! I was actually on a small break and Stefanie asked him to wait until I got back….I guess he admired my Pocketful of Posie’s quilt… so once I came back and got to meet him we had our picture taken in front of said quilt.  I tell you, Mark is just hilarious in person! What a sweet guy he is too- he had us all in stitches and it was quite the excitement for us down in row 1!  If by chance you read this Mark, I thoroughly enjoyed meeting you and thanks for the picture!

Photo courtesy of Annik Miller/Lemonade Bags

Along the way I also met up with some other new bloggers and some I have met before! Unfortunately I did not carry around my camera {shame on me} but it still was great to meet Anne Suttton, Lynette Anderson, Brenda Riddle, Monica/Happy Zombie, Pam Kitty Morning, V and Company and Kate Spain.  I am so happy to have met or seen all of you and hope to see you again at Fall Market!In the end Market was an awesome experience and I had so much fun, learned a ton and met some great people- old and new!   One last picture from Minneapolis is of the goodies I brought away with me from Market:

I hope to have some new designs using some of these soon so be on the look out for it! Oh and next week I will be having a giveaway that will include some of those goodies AND do you see the 2 rulers in the bottom of the pic?  They are these very cool new tools that I will be blogging about in one of the next posts!  They are so gonna make life easier! Susan Brown from Simplicity Studios had a booth in row 1 with the rest of us too, and did an awesome demo using these that had me sold! 

As parting news, I also got accepted to be be in my second Doll Quilt swap!  This one proves to be just as cool as the last as people are already posting their ideas and some have already started on their quilts!  I am excited about this one as I too already have some good ideas for my partner!  If you would like to see what this is all about please click on the button below for some awesome inspiration! Definatley some really talented people in this one!!

 So that ends my market posts -in the next few posts I will be introducing the new patterns for Quilt Nook Gal Designs, talking about my trip to Lancaster’s Old Country Shop and of course talking about the awesome rulers that I got at market- oh and don’t forget, the post market giveaway will be announced in one of those posts!

Until Next time!

Cara