Spring Quilt Market 2014.

Spring Quilt Market in Pittsburgh was a little over a month ago now (kinda hard to believe!)…which I guess means that it’s time to share some photos from it. Better late than never, right?

I’ve never been to Pittsburgh before, and I was surprised by how lovely the city is. The convention center was also surprising in ways, the best of which was the natural light. This was how it looked when I walked through the loading dock to unload on the first day of set-up. It’s always crazy to me how much of a blank canvas it starts out as.

Another highlight (that I didn’t get a picture of) was the scenery from the front of the convention center of the river and all their wonderful bridges and buildings. This was a city and convention center with plenty of character and charm.

Set up is always a whirlwind and a little stressful. There are those details that you hope will work out in reality how they work out in your head…or at least that’s how it is for me.

Set up quickly started out with plenty of ironing…

…as well as a body-esque bag o’ quilts that we kept having to shuffle out of the way and try not to destroy.

(also, not super glamorous…)

These old grove ladders (that I still need to do a deeper clean on) were a recent procurement and where I wanted to display most of the 23 quilts from the book. Here I was just starting to figure out their placement.

This other wall was more of my new pattern area, and I wanted it to have a flame/tangerine theme. While I was getting the big stuff up there, I noticed that the two Circle Lattice quilts from the book (lower left) worked well with the them, so they went up too.

The ladder wall was my Savor Each Stitch wall, and the plan was to make use of a ton of the photos we had from shooting the book. (Note to self: I need to devote an entire blog post to these photos–I have no one but our local girl, Alexis Wharem of Green Photography, to thank. She is amazing!)

More photos.

Here’s how it all turned out.

New patterns–Totem and Post on the left, Savor Each Stitch stuff on the right.

And I was really surprised and totally flattered to win an award.

Alright, now we’ll move into my random pics from the show. When you’re holding down a booth, I can’t say that you get out too much to walk the floor (hence the not-so-comprehensive Quilt Market photos of anything else but my booth and what was right around me), but you do get some great visitors.

Starting with my awesome neighbors–I totally lucked out!

Vintage quilts and fabric across the way…

Jen Kingwell was one of my immediate neighbors–such a dream! Her quilts are beautiful to stare at, and she’s a great person too.

I paid closer attention to her Green Tea and Sweet Beans again, since I’m taking a stab at making my own.

And then to the other side was Valori Wells! She’s so much fun and super creative. Here she is adding some final details during set-up. Such a pro.

She and I made sure to show off some Kaufman love.

It was great having the entire Kaufman team nearby…they are so supportive…and just nice!

Below are Elisabeth and Nichole from their super team.

The Kaufman booths were amazing, and I especially enjoyed this quilt that was within eye-sight. So stunning. It looks like the free pattern is coming soon. It’ll be hard not to want to try this in some of my favorite fabrics…