DREAMER Blog Tour

Today I am thrilled to share a quilt that will be displayed at Quilt Market this year. Whenever Carrie Bloomston asks me to work with one of her fabric collections, I can't resist. This year, Carrie is releasing a new line called Dreamer (with Windham Fabrics) and, after one peek at the beautiful prints -- the bees and the feathers, in particular -- I couldn't wait to get my hands on it.

To showcase the prints, I made a large, square quilt from four oversized log cabin blocks. A nice, easy, meditative pattern that produces a big, comfy quilt is my favorite formula. Interested in a free pattern for this one? If there's interest, I'd be happy to type it up and post it here on the blog.

Carrie assembled an amazing team of talented sewists to make a variety of projects that unleash the potential of the collection. You can see them all in the Dreamer look book.

From Carrie's blog post, here is a description in her words of this beautiful new collection:

This sweet, fresh, bohemian collection is filled with layered patterns I made both with my typical collage technique and by hand-painted watercolor. This collection is a love song to the earth and to our ancestors around the globe who were MAKERS and who lived in harmony with nature.

Want to get your hands on some early cuts of Dreamer? Enter to win this beautiful fat quarter bundle on Carrie's blog post here.

Spring 2014 Quilt Market + Schoolhouse

The time has come! I am beyond excited to be traveling to Pittsburgh later today for another exciting Quilt Market! Not only will it be great to catch up with friends, but I'll be actively promoting the book. I can't wait to talk to people in person about it and to get some real-time, true-to-life feedback. For so long only the team at Martingale and I have seen everything, so this will kind of be like the book's coming out party.

I'm also excited to be able to visit Pittsburgh, a city that I haven't had the pleasure of visiting yet. I've heard really great things about it, so I'm looking forward to exploring a bit and getting to know the city better. I'm staying at an airbnb rental for the weekend instead of a traditional hotel, which should be … interesting. Hmmm.

I'll also be hosting a schoolhouse session with the Martingale team tomorrow (Thursday, May 15th) to talk more about the book and show off some of its quilts. If you'll be at market, PLEASE come by room #326 from 3:30 - 4:30 PM and show me some love. I promise a big Quilt Dad bear hug in return.

More from market soon! I am sure I'll be posting more regularly over at Instagram (@j_q_adams) than here, so let me know if there's anything in particular you'd like to see from market.

Back from market

So, I'm back from market a week now, and with being thrown right into a crazy (rainy) Halloween with the kids and then a crazy work week at the day job, I haven't had time to stop for a moment and even think about it, much less blog about it.

And here's the thing: I didn't take any pictures. Not a single one. I didn't even bring my camera. Go ahead, call for my blogger card to be revoked.

That's OK though, because Katy is doing a FABULOUS job blogging all about Quilt Market. Besides, she's cooler, smarter, and wittier than I am -- not to mention her kick-ass camera that takes way better pictures than mine -- so her posts are sure to be more entertaining than anything I could write. And since she and I were pretty much joined at the hip (along with our other Fat Quarterly partner in crime, Tacha), Katy's stories and observations are pretty much the same things that I would write anyway.

So go ahead, check out Katy's posts -- it'll be like you were there, hanging out with us the whole time:

quilt market - schoolhouse sessions

quilt market - the booths (part one)

quilt market - the booths (part two)

quilt market - the booths (part three)

... with more to come, I believe.

I will leave you all with a picture of something I was able to grab at sample spree. My bags came home noticeably lighter than from prior markets -- my stash simply can't handle much more until I actually start sewing with some of what I have -- but I couldn't resist this fat quarter bundle of Salt Air, a new fabric collection by Cosmo Cricket for Moda. I love it. I really, really do.

Here is a picture of some of the quilts that Moda had hanging in their booth, made from the line:

Photo by Katy, of course.

My only other acquisition from sample spree was a fat eighth bundle of Aneela's new line, A Walk in the Woods. It's fantastic. Foxes -- gah! Photos soon.

Rubans pour les cheveux

... which, thanks to the ever-trusty Google Translate tool and my online pal Cara (thanks, Cara!), I know means "hair ribbons".

It's also the name I decided to give the quilt I designed and made using Tula Pink's new line, Parisville. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Allow me to step back a few months ...

Back in August, I was asked by Tula herself and the nice people at Free Spirit / Westminster if I would be interested in designing and making a quilt featuring the Parisville line. The quilt would hang at Quilt Market in Houston to showcase the line, and the pattern would be made available as a free pattern to accompany the line on the Free Spirit site.

It took me all of about two seconds (just enough time to pick my jaw up off of the floor) to say "yes!" A chance to play with the as-yet unreleased Parisville? And have something actually on display at market?! Duh.

My mind began thinking of a bunch of different directions I could go in with my design. I was a bit overwhelmed and anxious about it, to be honest. It wasn't until I actually spoke to Tula on the phone about the project that my idea really started to come together. You see, she told me a little more about the line itself and her thinking and design process in pulling it all together. The thing that stuck most in my mind was a single comment that Tula said: "it's really ALL about the hair."

Hence, an idea was born -- a quilt pattern depicting hair ribbons & bows! Hey, I thought it had more mass appeal than my other idea: a quilt featuring guillotines in honor of Marie Antoinette. I wasn't sure how that would go over with the quilt market crowd. (Tula, I'm still going to make you a mini quilt based on that idea!)

I sketched out some ideas on graph paper, and realized that the ribbons could be assembled from some of the most basic of quilt blocks: simple squares and rectangles, half-square triangles, and flying geese.

By this point I had the precious cuts of fabric in hand and headed over to my local shop (Wish Upon a Quilt) to pick out some coordinating fabrics. (Here's a tip for anyone who has purchased the Mist colorway: the Free Spirit solids in ICE, ORCHID, CREAM, & OLIVE (an Amy Butler solid) coordinate wonderfully with the prints. I can provide the FS#'s if you want them.) I couldn't decide on a single solid to use, so I decided to use all of them. I created a rugby stripe-like effect with the four different colors.

And here are some photos that I took along the way ...

A close-up of some of the ribbons (and a hair bow!) after I had finished piecing the top:

The entire quilt top laid out on my living room rug:

Here's a shot taken on my back deck in the sun. The quilt had just come home from the quilter:

And now, some beauty shots of the quilting. Once again, I collaborated with Bethany (of bethanyquilts.com) to work on a design that would really highlight the quilt pattern and prints. Bethany really delivered the goods!

Bethany alternated between two different quilting designs -- one in the blue and cream layers, and one in the purple and green layers. They remind me of intricate lacework, and the dense quilting on the solid portions of the quilt really allowed the ribbons featuring Tula's masterful design work to pop.

Some more shots of the quilting ...

And what it was all leading up to ... on display at Quilt Market in Houston!!

I was so fortunate not only to have my quilt hanging at market, but to be able to attend and see it in person. It was really a big moment for me, for which I am very, very grateful.

The quilt was hanging in the Free Spirit / Westminster row, where the company reps were holding all of their customer meetings. Every new line was showcased by a single quilt.

By the way, I also designed and made a second quilt for market that was also hanging in this row! It was a last minute request because some yardage of David Walker's new line, "Baby Talk", had become available. Here's a picture of that quilt on display:

I'm calling this one "ABC Menagerie":

I'll post on that quilt separately, but let me just tell you -- the line features both unicorns and narwhals. That's a sure sign of a winner in my book.

But I digress. Back to my Parisville quilt ...

I received the most wonderful feedback on the quilt from Tula herself, the folks from Free Spirit / Westminster, and my many quilt market buddies. The one comment I heard over and over again was that it was just so original and "didn't look like anything else". And I take that as the highest compliment.

Neither of the two patterns ("Rubans de cheveux" nor "ABC Menagerie") have been posted to the Free Spirit site yet. I will be sure to let you all know when they do. Or, let me know if you see them first!

Here's a picture of me and the woman herself, Tula Pink. It was great to finally get to meet her in person after striking up an online friendship so long ago when I first posted my Full Moon Forest quilt blocks. I only wish we could have hung out more ... but there's always Salt Lake City!

Tula's booth at market was absolutely stunning, and I am ecstatic that Parisville is finally hitting the stores so that all of you can have as much fun playing with it as I did.

And no post about Tula would be complete without a picture of my puppy (also named Tula!) She's getting SO big -- way bigger than I ever expected her to get. She's a GREAT dog. We really lucked out.

More Parisville sneak peeks

Remember the sneak peek I posted a few weeks back? The one of the quilt I was working on with Tula Pink's new line for Free Spirit, Parisville? Well, several of you called me a tease, and as much as I don't like getting called names, I also recognize that you were kind of right.

So in the spirit of being a tease, here are a few more shots of the quilt, freshly returned to me from my quilter, Bethany.

I'm binding, binding, binding away on this quilt, and then it will hit the road on its merry way to ... ???

Coming soon!

I'm here! I'm here! Hang on while I brush a few cobwebs away. I know I've been quiet for a bit, but it's not because I haven't been busy. Au contraire, mon frère. I've actually been quite busy, just unable to show a whole lot just yet. Want a hint?

But that's all you're getting out of me! Well, for now, anyway ... ... ...

Market ... finally! (Giveaways, too)

(See, Angela ... you're not the last one to post about market!)

When I decided to go to the International Quilt Market last month, I had the best of intentions. My initial plan was to blog from the show floor. Doesn't that sound cool? Cool, yes ... but realistic? Not so much.

So when that didn't really work out for me, I decided I would blog each evening about the day's events. Yeah, that didn't happen either.

Then, when my flight home from the MSP airport was delayed and I had a few hours to spare, I thought it was the perfect time to pony up the $6.95 for unlimited wifi and blog, blog, blog. But I uploaded my market photos to Flickr and caught up on LOST instead.

And when I stepped off the plane at RDU, I was almost immediately gobbled up by real life again. Work, family, kids, the sale of my house completely falling apart before my eyes (grumble, grumble) ... well, you get the idea.

So here I sit, almost 3 weeks later, writing my Quilt Market blog post. Bad, bad blogger. By now I am sure you've seen everyone else's pictures and read everyone else's recaps. To be frank, I am not sure I'll be able to bring very much to the table that you haven't seen before. But I have several other blog posts queued up in my drafts folder, so this post is the only thing standing in the way of "getting on with it".

Oh, but I do have prizes. So that's a good thing!

Let me start by sharing one of the highlights of my whole quilt market experience: meeting Amy Butler. You can go all the way back to my first post and see that Amy Butler (and, of course, her beautiful fabrics) played a big role in getting me into quilting in the first place.

Very early on the first day of market I walked right by Amy's booth. She was speaking with someone and I didn't want to seem like a geeky uber-fan, so I kept on walking. As soon as I got past I stopped myself and thought, "this is exactly why I came -- to take advantage of opportunities like this." So I turned myself around and walked back to Amy's booth. At this point Amy was all alone in the booth, straightening up some displays, so I stepped right up and introduced myself.

Amy was as warm and kind and gracious and friendly as everyone has always described her to be. I told her all about how she inspired me to start sewing and quilting (probably babbling on and on incoherently). Amy's new fabrics (Soul Blossoms) and patterns and books and wallpaper and yarn were all on display, and were just as amazing as you would expect them to be.

I was thrilled to get this picture of us and only wish the lighting was better:

PS. Yes, Amy is tall, but I'm over 6'4" myself so it was no big deal!

I snapped the following picture for Amanda (aka mrsmcporkchop). It's the mini quilt that she made from Circa 50 fabrics that was on display in the beautiful Birch Fabrics booth. Unfortunately, she was unable to make it to Minneapolis to see it in person. I was, however, able to meet the lovely Cynthia from both fabricworm and Birch Fabrics at market as well. The Birch fabrics are gorgeous and I see nothing but great things in store for Cynthia & her new fabric venture.

On a separate note, I received my bundle of Circa 50 that I won in Cynthia's giveaway last fall ... so stay tuned, because I probably won't be able to resist cutting into it for long!

Let me introduce you to one of my bestest market buddies and bloggy / Twitter pal Jennifer. Here she is in front of the quilt she designed that was on display in the Lecien booth. It's made from the sticky sweet Caramel Town line of fabrics.

More about Jennifer later.

I had to take a photo of this stunning quilt that was on display in the Robert Kaufman / Kona solids booth. It was made by Cherri House, another one of my quilting idols whose blog I've been reading practically since day 1 of my quilting adventure. I've always admired Cherri's simple yet bold & innovative designs, and her inspiring use of solids.

I was lucky enough to meet Cherri at market as well, where she was celebrating the release of her new book, City Quilts. I've had a chance to see the book and, let me tell you, it's one of the best quilting books I've seen in a LONG time. I'd put it up there with the Kerr/Ringle books, which I hold in the highest regard. This quilt is one of the patterns included in the book.

One of the most fun people at market? Sandy Klop of American Jane, for sure. Not even 5 minutes after being introduced to Sandy (thanks, Julie!), we were sharing picture of our kids (me) and grandkids (her). Sandy's just that type of person: real, genuine, sweet, and full of laughs and smiles. She was showing off her new line for Moda, Punctuation, which I can't wait to get my hands on.

Even if you haven't read all of my posts, you don't have to look much further than my blog header to know that I am a HUGE fan of Joel Dewberry. Along with Amy Butler, his fabrics really kick-started my interest in designer fabrics ... and, well, it's been downhill ever since.

I was extremely fortunate to meet Joel and chat not once, but a few times with him. Joel was a really warm, soft-spoken guy, and it was fascinating to learn that, apart from sharing a passion for creating and handmade items, we actually work in very similar fields. Besides being an amazing designer, Joel is -- quite simply -- a super nice guy. I am a fan for life.

Here is a picture of Joel giving a short talk and demonstrating a project from his new book, Sewn Spaces:

In case it hasn't come through loud & clear thus far, I had a BLAST in Minneapolis. The parties, of course, played a big role in increasing the "fun factor" of the event. The biggest bash was the Moda Fabrics party, where I got to mingle with many of my favorite designers, bloggers, and other industry folks. Here's a picture of me with some of the coolest girls in the room: my favorite new designer Kate Spain (I currently have both Verna and Fandango projects in the works!), Vanessa of V and Co., Angela (Moda Home Mome blogger and head Moda Bake Shop chef extraordinaire), and another of my bestest market buds, Kaye of Miss Print.

(Sorry again for the dark pic ... Vanessa has a much better one in her market recap. Oh, and Vanessa? Rest assured, I will surely shake my stuff on the dance floor next time! : )

Speaking of cool girls, they just don't come much cooler than Melissa Averinos and her PIC (partner-in-crime) Beth Dunn. I've been a big fan of them for a while now and have been semi-stalking both on Twitter since I joined a few months back. I am fairly certain they didn't know I existed before market, but I am so happy that we were introduced. I love Melissa's new book, Small Stash Sewing, and can't wait to see what she has in store for us with her upcoming new fabric line. Heck, she even convinced me to pick up the BBC version of Jane Eyre. Haven't watched it yet, but I was an English major, y'know!

Here's me & Melissa (& her ever-present unicorn, a project from her book) at her book signing:

Here's Kaye again (on the right) with two more of my bestest market pals. There on the left is the omnipresent Julie (aka jaybirdquilts). I cannot thank Julie enough for being my trusty guide through my first quilt market. It was Julie & Rachel that originally convinced me to book my ticket to Minneapolis,and Julie really took care of me as I learned my way around and introduced me to so many people. Thanks, Julie!

One of the people Julie introduced me to was Kari Ramsay of Fresh Cut Quilts (in the center). Kari is one of those people that makes you feel like an old friend as soon as you meet her. I also have to thank Kari for helping me get in to the infamous sample spree -- you see, tickets were all sold out by the time I arrived in Minneapolis, so for a small fee (namely some brute physical labor and using all 6'4" of my height to help set up her table), Kari let me accompany her in to the sample room. I can't thank you enough, Kari! (My wallet, however, might feel otherwise.)

This picture is of the three of us at Lizzy House's CAKE PARTY (!) in honor of the release of her mom Cherri's book:

The night before I left Minneapolis, I had dinner with Jennifer & Kaye at an awesome burger place called Ike's (highly recommended if you're visiting the area. Thanks for the recommendation, Angela!) By this point, Jennifer, Kaye and I had gotten pretty tight -- tight enough, anyway, that I allowed Jennifer to call me "Q Daddy". They were awesome market floor friends -- we walked much of the show together each day. Jennifer has even indicated that she is designing some "Quilt Dad is my Homeboy" t-shirts -- let her know if you want to place a pre-order -- and I had come to calling them my "Fly Girls". Too funny.

After dinner, the three of us trekked to the Mall of America. I just couldn't leave Minneapolis without experiencing it.

Finally, I wanted to show some of the books I was able to get at market. Each of these is actually autographed by the authors themselves! Pretty rad, huh?

In closing, quilt market was an AMAZING experience and exceeded all of my expectations. I am just so, so happy that I took Rachel & Julie's advice, took the plunge, and jumped right in.

Everyone I met in Minneapolis was, quite simply, wonderful: Lissa and Scott and Violet and Valori and Kim and Lizzie and Joanna and Susanne and Pam and Monica and Anna Maria and Doe and Cyndi and Erin and Cara and Vickie and Stefanie and the whole gang from the Fat Quarter Shop. And I'm sure I'm missing many others. Thanks to all of you for helping to make my visit a memorable one. I really felt at home among all of these people.

(I have a ton of photos to share that simply wouldn't fit in this post -- take a look at my Flickr album for more.)

I am not sure if circumstances (job, family, finances, etc. etc.) will allow me to go to Houston in the fall, but I am sure going to try my hardest to be there.

--

OK, and now for the giveaways. Have you guys heard about the newest addition to Moda's line of pre-cut fabrics? These little guys are called "candy bars", and measure 2.5" x 5". Kind of like if a charm pack and a jelly roll had a baby.

My first winner will receive two candy bars of the new "Lollipop" line by Sandy Gervais:

And my second winner will receive three candy bars of "Happy", by Me & My Sister Designs (who I also had the distinct pleasure of meeting!):

Both winners will also be getting one of these cool little notepads with fabric designs on the cover. The one on the left is from Anna Maria Horner, and the one on the right is from Melissa Averinos. Melissa signed the one in the front, but I'll be keeping that one!

Sound good? If you want some candy bars, just leave me a comment below. Ask me a question -- anything you want to know about me. (Keep it clean, folks!) I'll try to answer some of the better questions in a future post. I'll leave the contest open until next Friday, June 18th, when I will randomly pick two winners.

Note: this giveaway is now over and comments are closed.

Onward to Houston!