To Quilt Market and back!

Hi to all!  I've had the wonderful opportunity to go to Spring Quilt Market, with my traveling SIL and friends.  This is our 4th market together, and I think, my favorite.  People are starting to know who we are, and we know them, so it's like a big reunion with some of the most talented people on the planet.  I can't wait to share some photos. 

First off, things didn't start off smoothly.  We ended up sitting on the runway in Denver for over 2 1/2 hours during an incredible electrical storm.  There was also a tornado warning in effect!  Thank goodness the people next to me were fun to talk to!   I kept thinking... "Well, if we get stuck in Denver, there is a new American Girl store here!"
We did make it to Minneapolis, at 3:30 in the morning.  Imagine my surprise the next day when we went to the "Mall of America" and they had an American Girl store!  I was in heaven!  I spent many hours and dollars here!

My husband says this is a dangerous place to let me loose in!  He's right.  I could look at everything 3 or 4 times.  I don't get tired of it.  I must be a kid at heart, because I love these dolls!
Our hotel was right across the street from the Mall, and they had a giveaway for Lanie the cute doll above.  I entered every time I walked past the desk. 
I bought my daughter some little gifts for her birthday.  The typewriter, the guitar and the doctor set.  Imagine my thrill to see this at market....

More AG dolls!  This is Playdate, the new line from Patty Young, and ModKid

 I like Patty, because she is just my size!  I really wanted to buy every pattern she has, but my closet is already overflowing with projects to do.  I will probably break down and order some of her doll clothes patterns eventually.  They are too cute for words.  I especially loved the little "wardrobe" suitcase.  (hanging next to the bed on the left) What a great thing to take to Grandma's.  

Most of our day was filled with "fabric buying"  We had back to back appointments with Michael Miller, Moda, Studio e, yaddie, yada, yada...so in between trips to the bathroom, I would wander around and get pictures of things I wanted to see.
I stopped off at one of my favorites...Fig Tree, and low and behold one of my favorite fabric designers was there...Kate Spain!  (The nicest person you will ever meet!)
I reminded Joanna of the time she came to my little town to do a trunk show.  My mom and I got to sit at her table for dinner.  We ate a very famous local restaurant named Maddox.  Well, because it was a very large event, we had 3 options for dinner.  FRIED chicken, Turkey FRIED steak, and Chicken FRIED Steak, (which is beef, not chicken.)  You should have seen Joanna's face when the choices were read...She grimly said, "I'll have the salad?"  wondering if there was any proper way out of this FRIED unhealthy food night.  A very funny moment to watch.  She remembered it perfectly.  It was fun to reminisce about. 

 As you can see we were laughing way to hard to have a proper picture taken.  Really it was because I am so short, and these 2 ladies tower over me.  They were practically on their knees, and I was as high on my tiptoes as I could get.  Too funny!  BTW, Siobhan.  I told Joanna all about you!  She now knows she has a very devoted fan in Ireland that "stalks" her website.!

 More of Fig Tree's beautiful booth.  Joanna talking to Kate Spain.

 This was Michael Miller's booth.  (A fabric company)   It was really elegant, but interesting, as everything was white...I can assure you that none of their fabric collections are white.  It made for a nice backdrop to show off all of the different designers collections.




To the right is the booth for Bonnie and Camille.   They are a mother and daughter team that both have their own patten companies, and together,design fabric for Moda.  This was a great new fabric collection called "bliss".  Turquoise and red is all the rage this year.

Here I am meeting the famous "Elliot"!  A highlight of the trip I'll have you know!  You have to go to Amanda Herrings website to read the adventures of Elliot.  Amanda is the wonderful pattern designer of "The Quilted Fish".  

Amanda is a doll!  So much fun to be around.  She is from Utah too, so I'm hoping for a lunch date!  What do you say Amanda?  Check out her new darling fabric line in the window panes above!  So cute.

Oh, I just loved this booth of Ann Sutton.  Bunny Hill, has become one of my favorite designers.  Her patterns are very detailed perfect works of art.  I have to say, that it was very busy in this booth when I went by, and I didn't get the chance to talk to Anne, other than to say everything was wonderful.  To tell you the truth, I was really nervous around her!  I am such a big fan, I was just too chicken to tell her!

Love these vintage colors.  I got the charm pack from Anne's quilter that was helping in the booth. 

On the stitching front, I finished my freebie from Plum Street.  I want to mount it on this basket, but I've never done that before.  If you know how, or have seen a good tutorial, I would love the link!

I also did some deep stash diving and found this pattern by Homespun Elegance.  I don't have very many "travel friendly" projects right now.  I've got to buy more stash..Darn!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures.  I really appreciate all of your sweet comments.  I'm all inspired to work on some quilt projects this week!  Have a great week...It's the last week of school, I could not be more thrilled!  More market fun later!