So all along I thought that as I was leaving Portland, I’d have time on my layover in Minneapolis to put together more photos from Quilt Market to share but the concourse hike I took in Minneapolis didn’t see it that way. You did me dirty, Minneapolis. In the end I was overjoyed at being able to enjoy a cup of Caribou Coffee after a 20 minute hoofing from one side of the airport to the other.  When I lived in Northern Minnesota (Duluth to be exact) just a few years ago, we’d spend the morning in Canal Park drinking Caribou.  Ohhhh it’s so good.  The waters of Lake Superior make THE WORLD’S BEST COFFEE.  Le sigh.

Back to Quilt Market.

Are you familiar with Blend?  It’s the licensing division of Anna Griffin Designs.  What it boils down to is that Anna Griffin wanted to showcase her arty friends’ talents under a different label.  Blend was born.  What I  thought was INCREDIBLY noteworthy was the holiday selections Blend has for Halloween and Christmas.

Photo above taken from BLEND website. How did I not get a close-up of these dudes?

Here’s a closer look at just how cute the holiday fabrics are.

Look at those cars with Christmas trees attached!  We totally play that game around my house at the holidays.  We keep statistics on how many xmas trees we see strapped to the the top of cars.  It’s exciting when the daily count reaches the teens or when the game begins well before Thanksgiving. Yesssss!!!

Violet Craft‘s newest line for Michael Miller is totally worthy.  She’s so warm.  When I had the fortune of attending QuiltCon, the Modern Quilt Guild’s conference, Violet was taking the same class I was which was Patchwork Skirt with Jay McCarroll.  We giggled the entire way through. (Jay McCarroll smells really good.  More about that some other time.)  Here’s Violet’s booth with the Portland inspired collection.

The domino print is pretty sweet and reminiscent to the rivets found along the surface of the Portland bridges.  This was no accident, I’m sure. Violet?!

Also found in the Michael Miller suite was Patty Young‘s typography inspired fabric.  Here’s the lovely Patty sitting inside the swan paddle boat trying to act like she wasn’t being caught on film.  Who me?  I’m fabulous.  Rumor was that the swan boat was totes for sale.  Violet Craft threatened to put it in her yard to grow tomatoes out of it.  How great would that be?

Finally for this post, I leave you with T.J. Lane, artist and giggler.  She designs and crafts sterling silver thimbles that are AMAZING.  We have had a selection at Crimson Tate for a year now and we loaded back up this time with a few with gems, a few with bees, and a few delicate hearts.  Here’s our girl T.J. as she realized she charged my credit card SIX TIMES for one transaction.  Get it together, T.J.!!  😉 I love her dearly.  Look at these amazing pincushion rings.  I wore one the entire time I sat in her booth with her.  Sooooo good.

Here she is after she charged my card six times.  HAHAHAHAHA.  Jokes on me! 😉

And then when I told her to be serious, this is what she gave me:

Yea right!

It might take me a month to get through all of these photos.  Stay with me.  I’ve got a lot to share.

xoxo

Heather