Little pickers wear bigger knickers!

"Little pickers wear bigger knickers" ... thats one of my hair dresser favourite sayings. He tells me all the time and of course its true but sometimes its just too tempting to pick, especially when you've been on holiday.  In this case though the picking wasn't foody bits (although I did indulge in some wonderful sweet treats)

 ... it was crafty supplies! 

 I am just back from 10 days away in Houston visiting Quilt Market and then the Quilt Festival. It was FABULOUS!   Its been over 10 years since I have been to Houston and I was amazed at the size of both market and festival. If you haven't been think football pitch ... 9 of them !  All filled with row after row after row of vendors with beautiful things to entice you to part with your dollars and frame after frame of gorgeous quilts to stop you dead in your tracks. 

 It has to be seen to be believed. 

Friday Night of Market is Sample Spree 

Queues of people waiting to go in! 

I found some UK talent at Market!

Aneela Hoey at the Moda Booth

I found some Modern Inspiration

Bill Kerr at his Modern Quilts Studio booth

Saw Linzi Uptons amazing Quilted Yurt!

Tried the new Juki Lonagrm

(Trudi and Emma ...if you read this is was VERY good!)

Ate some great cakes!

Selected Olives from waaaay too much choice

and was inspired walking on this carpet!

The quilt show was good too ! 

Best of Show 2012 ! 

America Let it Shine by Sherry Rogers 

I didn't go with a shopping list which was a big mistake as I kept seeing things I couldn't resist. Fabric, thread, patterns, quilt hanging systems, longarm bits and bobs, ruffle fabric, elastic, ribbons. Oh my goodness it was just too much and I did pick!  A little here and a little there and before I knew it I had expanded out of my suitcase and had to buy another one (on top of the spare one I took with me!)  You should have seen me and my travel companions on the last night - packing and stuffing our goodies into the cases and frantically borrowing scales to make sure we didn't overrun the weight limitation per case. At one point I was sure Laura - my room buddy - was going to sit on her case to close it.  What a scream!  

The week went very quickly - too quickly but we squeezed so much into it, even a trip to the Johnson Space centre ..which was amazing. I got to go inside a space shuttle and even took a photo of a space loo! And of course we stopped via a mal to do more shopping.  

In addition to the bits I brought back I have a few more in transit - oops!  But these truly are gorgeous and I know you will love them too.  Robyn my other travel mate is a very bad influence on me and I'd like to say it was her fault I succumbed to Richard the Kilt from Akonye Kena fabrics.  Richard is best described as colourful character. Instantly recognised by his kilt and Doc Martins, his personality is an equal to his dress sense and his products even more so. The shelves of his booth were dripping with colourful beads and baskets - real beauties but the Ugandan fair trade cottons he had were divine!  100% 58" wide cottons in 60 colours.  The range is called Seed to Sewer because the cotton is grown, woven and processed in one area.  The whole range is hand dyed using both commercial and natural dyes from local plants and berries. There are 20 natural dye colours in the range and these looked a lot like linen to me. I have samples to work with now but the main line should arrive soon after Christmas. The max run length is only 5yds per piece though because they are hand dyed, so it may be a case of first come first served on this line. 

Other lines I ordered include some  Maywood Woolly flannels - which are 100% cotton but look like wool and due next April the whole line of Jason Yenter's Modern Solids from In the Beginning Fabrics. These are 100% cotton that look  a lot like silk! 

(Oh look at that ... I ordered cottons that look like linen, cottons that looks like wool and cottons that look like silk! ) 

Now its back to work again. I took this week off to recover - I'm not a good trans-atlantic traveller and I knew I would be tired - I'm still tired but I'm forcing myself to work today!  The shop will reopen on Monday 12th but just a heads up I will be starting a grand clearance sale on Monday 19th Nov to make way for all the new stock coming in.