Tuesday, May 22, 2012

sharing Quilt Market finds.....

I finally uploaded the pix from Spring Quilt Market and I realized I should have taken so many more to share with you!
Of course when you're flying up and down aisles and aisles looking at booth after booth I don't think we would have had enough time had I stopped to take more pictures. Needless to say there were so many lovely things to see. It was also very different to be on the other side of the booth. Normally,  I would be at Quilt Market as a vendor,  but this time around I was an assistant buyer. so it was a different perspective and I'm glad I was able to experience it in that light.
So let's go take a look.........
This is the view of downtown Kansas City from the convention center entrance. I love to see different downtown cityscapes. Each one is unique and interesting to me. Not that I've seen a whole bunch of them, but I always enjoy seeing new ones.



Funny, when we arrived I wasn't sure if we were in KC Missouri or KC Kansas. turns out we were in Missouri and the other KC is about 3 miles away. The person at the Marriott was emphatic that it was 2 separate cities in separate states...It was either extreme pride or rivalry I was picking up in his comment, not sure which.
Anyway....... the growing trend of modern, minimalist quilts was very evident and the Kona® display at the Robert Kaufman  booth was just one example...


We thought this accent pillow was a unique way to use pinked edge charm squares


We also saw quite a few of these little floor poufs ( ala bean bag). don't you love the shag rug????




One booth we stopped at topped that by having real - I mean dirt and all, - sod, as the floor in their booth. How fun is that - they had a picnic quilt spread out on the grass. Yes, I took off my shoes to wiggle my toes in the grass.  Now, if only I could remember which booth it was....hmmmm. If anyone knows please let me know so I can give them credit for their creativity.

Enough for now....I've got stuff I need to get done yet tonight. 
  

Monday, May 21, 2012

kaffe couture?

 



With the hot steamy weather of S Florida settling in, I decided I needed some summer dresses.
I browsed though the Kwik Sew patterns at work (SEW Studio) and found a cute little shirt waist dress pattern that I liked. Pattern # 3521.
I hadn't used a Kwik Sew pattern recently and as the bodice is fitted, I decided to use some fabric from my stash to make a preview dress just to make sure of the fit. I had the large floral print on hand but not enough to make the entire dress. So, I dug around and found a green print in my stash to use for the bodice.

I compared my measurements to the pattern sizes, stitched it together and sure enough it fit - yippee!



The only thing was I thought the top needed something to tie it in with the print on the bottom.  I decided to make some bias trim and I added it to the neckline. 
That seemed to work and now it was on to the belt.... 

                              
The belt was easy, the hard part was finding a buckle! Gosh, I need to go online and search for a source. If anyone has any suggestions let me know please.
I did find a couple of vintage buckles at Quilt Market this weekend in Kansas City but I didn't realize how scarce they are. The buckle I used on the first dress was from a box of vintage buttons and notions my friend Marti gave me from her mothers things when her mother passed away.

Anyway, I ended up wearing the test dress (below) to the family breakfast on Mother's Day.
But I was chomping at the bit to make it from the fabric I had my eye on at work.

 




I got busy and stitched up the second dress just in time for my trip to Spring Quilt Market. The fabric I had picked out was an awesome turquoise Kaffe Fasset print that I wanted as soon as I saw it.

Naturally, Rita (my boss) and I had to pop over to the Rowan booth at Market to see if they noticed LOL
They did, and here is my Kaffe (not exactly couture) dress ..... my pattern didn't have a hat.




I have to admit that I have my eye on another dress pattern...but first I have some quilting to do.