2014 Spring International Quilt Market: My Absolute Favorites

I talked a bit about my experience and such at the 2014 Spring International Quilt Market yesterday. Today I want to share my absolute favorites. The lines that I know I will buy every piece from and make loads of pretty stuff with.

2014 Spring International Quilt Market: My Absolute Favorites {an Art School Dropout's life}To start I have to share everyone’s favorite, the first line from Cotton & Steel. They have a great story and are all very talented, so you should read up on them more to see what i’m talking about.

2014 Spring International Quilt Market: My Absolute Favorites {an Art School Dropout's life}

2014 Spring International Quilt Market: My Absolute Favorites {an Art School Dropout's life} 2014 Spring International Quilt Market: My Absolute Favorites {an Art School Dropout's life}Every single design from them is brilliant, and it all coordinates perfectly. So there loads of mixing and matching. It’s all very playful and vibrant and a few designs incorporate metallic colors which I’m loving right now.

2014 Spring International Quilt Market: My Absolute Favorites {an Art School Dropout's life}Though, I won’t lie, I’m most excited about their basics line. The dashes, cross hatches, lines and more are totally on my “must buy” list. I always prefer the basics, but they aren’t usually this perfect. I’ve already sketched out a quilt that would showcase these all perfectly.

2014 Spring International Quilt Market: My Absolute Favorites {an Art School Dropout's life}Next on my list of absolutely perfect was everything in Carolyn Friedlander’s booth. I was in love with her last line Architextures, and I’m even more in love with her newest line Botanics. I also had the pleasure of meeting her and chatting a bit. She’s even sweeter in person than she is online!

2014 Spring International Quilt Market: My Absolute Favorites {an Art School Dropout's life}2014 Spring International Quilt Market: My Absolute Favorites {an Art School Dropout's life}I left her booth with a few mini charm packs that showcased her line, plus some of Robert Kaufmans basics. I’ve already cut into them all and can’t wait to share the piece I’m making, it’s just taking me a bit to finish.

2014 Spring International Quilt Market: My Absolute Favorites {an Art School Dropout's life}I also was a fan of everything else Robert Kaufman put their name on! Their Kona Cottons are a staples in all my projects, plus I picked up a bunch of polka dotted fabrics which will probably be used a lot soon. Check out that diamond fabric garland in the Blueprint Basics booth! I so badly want to recreate it.

2014 Spring International Quilt Market: My Absolute Favorites {an Art School Dropout's life}The last of my ultimate favorites was the awesome American Made Fabrics solids. They were gorgeous and person and I’m always a sucker for pretty solids. Plus look at those ottomans!!! I know a very cute little girl who would love one of those.

Ok, so that’s a wrap on the Quilt Market photos. I still have more to say about some of the things I brought home with me, but I promise this is the last photos from the actual event.

Like I said yesterday, I was inspired so much by just walking around this event. Then add all the conversations I had and I am set. It really made me 100%, fully realize, how much I love sewing, quilting and everything involved. It’s how Art School Dropout started actually, I was hand painting SEWN bags! I came home realizing that I want to be a part of this industry MORE, and I have sat here all week trying to figure out how to balance all my goals with all the stuff I’m already doing. I haven’t figured it out yet, and I’m not sure when I will, but I do know change is coming and it makes me really happy!

Happy Thursday…

HW_022014…From Batman & Robin!

I hope the week has been a great adventure that surpasses the one these guys had (though motorcycling cross-country on a batcycle seems pretty adventurous, so it might be hard to compete).

I have decided to spend the day rewatching Ugly Betty and drawing objects from my kitchen. So far I’m having a perfectly calm day. Though I can’t wait for tomorrow when the rest of my supplies get here and I can start casting a new piece I’ve been thinking about.

My Extended Weekend: Very Little Sleep and a Movie

This past week has been pretty stressful. My husband was on call in addition to his regular work schedule. So we weren’t really able to go out, and there was the possibility he would have to go in at any minute. He luckily wasn’t called in at all during the week, but he was called in non stop the entire weekend. Middle of the night, early in the morning, seriously non stop. We were all on edge, and lacking sleep. I already wasn’t feeling like myself lately, so this just added to it…

One good thing that came out of it all was since he worked so much during the weekend, he was able to take off yesterday. We used the day to actually do some fun stuff! We went out to eat, did a teeny bit of thrifting (I found a Disneyland cookie jar and CT found loads of books), some “window shopping” and we saw a movie!! Everything was nice, but that movie was great!!

We don’t really have a way of going to the movies often, timing is just never right. If we want to go, it has to be a kids movie that all three of us want to see. It pretty much has to be cartoon and can’t be scary. We learned our lesson about scary when we saw Brave, I still haven’t seen the second half (though I did buy the dvd this past week, so I’ll know what happens soon) Anyway, we decided to check out Wreck it Ralph.

CT has been asking to go see this movie for months now! It’s been hard explaining that movies come out at different times, sometimes in theaters, sometimes on DVD. She’s starting to catch on. We didn’t tell her we were seeing Wreck it Ralph until we bought the tickets, just in case. She was excited once we got in. We all were, ha. Truthfully we’ve all been looking forward to seeing this movie, and I’m so glad we did.

It was seriously one of the best Disney movies I’ve seen in a long time. The characters were all done so well, and the story kept your attention the entire time. They were able to make you feel something for the bad guy, the main character Ralph. You wanted him to be the hero! CT loved Venelope the best, of course. She was adorable!! I won’t get into the full story line here, because I really feel that anyone reading this should see this movie! It has a nice retro feel, it has loads of video game references from different decades, it has a little love story and a hero’s quest! Perfect! I loved it so much I MAY try and convince the family to go see it again. Maybe when it’s at the $2 theatre.

Now it’s Tuesday and my week is about to get crazy. We are headed to my uncles for thanksgiving on Thursday, and I said I’d make a pie and some macarons. Then we are hosting our own Thanksgiving for my husband’s side of the family on Saturday, which involves a lot of cleaning, prepping, baby proofing and baking too. I’m also hoping to get some antique shopping in on Friday during a huge sale at one of our favorite shops. It will be my only plan for Black Friday. Hopefully.

I hope everyone else is having a calmer week than me, and a great time with family!!

(the above two photos were courtesy of disney.com)

 

My Weekend: Way Busier Than Anticipated

My original plan this weekend was to finish a few projects at home and MAYBE work on CT’s quilt. MAYBE. Of course that didn’t happen, plans are made to be broken right?

Well as it seems lately, we’ve become quite popular, haha. Or everyone is sick of their other friends and family and we are their last resort. I’m cool with either option!

We ended up spending Saturday with family here and there, mostly my Father in law. CT got to enjoy one of those indoor bouncy castle places. She is a very energetic child, so these places are AMAZING! She lets out a bunch of energy and gets to see loads of kids, nice ones and mean ones. It’s a pretty even mix and she doesn’t care either way.

We had Mexican food for lunch, which for me was awesome! Ever since I found out gluten makes me sick we haven’t really been enjoying our favorite foods. It was just easier to make things at home, or get a hamburger sans bun while out. I finally just gave in and got something different I knew I could eat. We were also treated to some frozen yogurt, another favorite of the entire family. Oh and the place kinda close by (Tutti Frutti) has soy, gluten free fro-yo! Again, awesome for me and my lactose issues!!

Sunday we tried the whole calm day thing again, that didn’t last long at all, actually it didn’t last past 9am.

Target had a whole new line of goods come out Sunday as part of their “The Shops at Target” series. I usually end up missing all the neat things that come out because people normally ransack the stores the first day. I didn’t want to miss out this time, especially since Curiosity Shoppe was one of the featured sellers. They use to stock Art School Dropout goods before I went on “maternity leave” and cut back on wholesale, so I thought it was super duper neat to see their name in a huge store!! Anyway, our Target wasn’t done stocking by 9am and I was determined to get something.

I had posted online that I was going to try out one of the other stores in our area. Katie, who lives close by, said that her family was headed the same way for the same reason. We enjoy their company and they suggested walking around a bit and having lunch afterwards, so of course we said yes. CT gets along really well with her little ones, and is STILL talking about them right now!

I ended up only picking up a few small pieces from the Curiosity Shoppe line, I used restraint. I really wanted more. I also really want a few pieces from the Patch NYC line, but I’ve already blown my budget, oh well.

We parted ways with Katie and her family after lunch and thought our day was done. We were wrong AGAIN! While CT and my husband were taking naps I got a message from Molly saying her and her husband were in the area and would we like to get dinner? I was hesitant at first because of how exhausted everyone might be, but I really like seeing Molly so in the end we went. I’m glad we did too! We had Mexican again (I haven’t had it in months so of course I’m going to want it more than one night in a row, duh) Of course we enjoyed the company and stayed WAY too long! It’s nice talking to adults, especially ones who have the same taste as you in most areas. I think it was almost 9pm when we got home. A bit late for us, but worth it.

So as you can see from my very long post, I DID NOT have a calm weekend of sitting around and quilting. But you know what? I enjoyed myself way more than I would have with our original plan. I’m very thankful for all the invites and new friends. A HUGE Thank You to everyone who helped contribute to our awesome weekend!!

(oh and as for the photo in this post, It’s not as random as it seems. I took it during our drive back from Target Sunday, isn’t it pretty? That’s right down the street from us! I’m still surprised at how pretty it is living out in the country, you don’t get these views in the city)