The "Best of" Parade

If pressed to say what I enjoy best about Quilt Market, I would have to say that

it really is a blast to be in the midst of THAT many creative people. I know of no other
occasion in my life where this has been so! I LOVE strolling up and down the aisles and
 marveling at the sheer genius! And THIS time, I made sure I had time to enjoy it!
We made a special trip back to the Market floor Thursday night around 7:30.
Most of the booths were done and the floor was pretty quiet because most
everyone was getting ready for the wild and wooly "Sample Spree" to begin!

I'll show you some of personal favorites in some upcoming posts, but in the meantime, 

pictured below you will find the booths that were judged to be the "Best of the Best" 

by a panel of experts. Let's see what YOU think!

1st place in the Single Booth Category

Bari J
(this booth was diagonally in our sight line)

2nd place in the Single Booth Category

Ever Kelly

 1st place in the Double Booth Category

Pat Bravo
(this booth was directly across from ours)

2nd place in the Double Booth Category

Anna Marie Horner

Best Booth by a new exhibitor

Lauren & Jessi

1st place in Multiple booth category

Michael Miller Fabrics

2nd place in the Multiple booth category

Alexander Henry Fabrics

Best Booth for Creativity

Sarah Jane

Best Booth for Merchandising

Moda Fabrics
(and this booth was also diagonally in our sight line)

So... did the judges get it right? 

I don't know about that, but I've seen enough
to know that I would NOT want their job!
AND-
since 3 of the winning booths were within sight of ours,
we obviously had one of the BEST seats in the house!

And what are YOUR thoughts? 
Which one do YOU like best?

Booth Building- "2012 Style"

So in a previous post we revealed our plan for our booth at the Spring Quilt Market in Kansas City and since we're home now, and the dust has settled, I think it's time we showed you the final result!

 Just as background, this year's Spring Market was held in the spacious
 Bartle Convention Center indowntown Kansas City. To say the facility is HUGE
would be an understatement, as it covers EIGHT city blocks.

I was told that it's the largest column-free convention center in the country
and while I can't seem to verify this, I also can't imagine it any larger!
I'm also not at all sure what function the smokestack-like pillars serve,
but they do make it easy to find it on the skyline!

We arrived on Tuesday night, just in time to enjoy a yummy supper at the Cheesecake Factory
on the Plaza, which is a really nice place, but more on that in a later post!

Here's how the Market floor looked before the decorating began. It did seem strange
 but nicenot to have any pillars. That's our empty booth on the right and as you can see,

all of our stuff made it pretty much OK.

I usually spend the better part of the first 2-3 hours pressing my curtains. 

It's a slow, hot process and this year my hubby successfully talked me out of doing it.

I had taken great pains to fold my curtains VERY carefully in Houston last fall, so they

were only creased, not wrinkled. His contention was that once the rest of the decorations 

were up, that the creases wouldn't be noticeable. It was SO hot inside when we arrived, 

that I decided to see if he was right. (You be the judge later on.)

I also decided to change our look just a tad this time. Instead of hanging to fabric

banners (one on each set of curtains), I opted for only one, substituting some posters

of my five best-selling patterns for the 2nd banner (along with 4 small notions posters). 

You can see them in this picture-what do YOU think? Good? Bad? Indifferent?

With our shelving is in place, it might be apparent to you now that one of our
side tables (on the right) is tall and one of them is standard table height (on the left).
 If you remember from our planning post, this change was by design to open up
 the sight line into our booth. The shorter table also functioned

as a demo/comparison area for our growing line of purse inserts.  :) 

This worked out good.

And here's one of the two new lighting units that my Dad fabricated for us, and I must say,

they worked seamlessly! SO much steadier than our other fixtures and our booth seemed to 

have more even lighting than we've ever enjoyed before! Thanks Dad!

Here's the hubster busy assembling "stuff". This whole process would sure be tough to 

accomplish by myself, so I sure am glad he likes to come along 

(even though certain aspects  must be quite boring for him).

And placing our bag samples in formation on the stands is probably the easiest task of all, 

since we just use the "blueprint" we prepared on the studio floor at home.

And here's how our booth looked at the end of the day. This isn't the 

"official booth portrait" mind you! We'll take the official picture just before 

the opening bell tomorrow morning.   :)

So now, all that's left is to cover our entrance with a little tulle. Now I know this doesn't
seem like much of a security device, and in truth, you're right. All it really says is...
please don't come in,and I have found that with only extremely rare exceptions,
it's all that's required. We're fortunate that'sthe case, aren't we?
 I'm pleased to say that sewing communities are for the most part, a respectful bunch.

So....  what's the verdict?  

 Go ahead, you can be honest! I'd love to know your thoughts! 

What do you think about the poster substitution?

Do you think that I should've taken the time to press those curtains?
Are the creases noticeable?

Do you agree that the lower table on the left opened up our booth more?

And most important of all... might you have any suggestions for improvement?

Please feel free to leave any and all comments in the space provided below and 

stay tuned for more Quilt Market posts in the coming days.

Light Me Up!

I know its hard to believe, but in the Spring Quilt Market is HERE! As a matter of fact, as you are reading this we're either in the process of making our way to Kansas City, MO, or we're already there getting ready for the opening bell!

And here's the deal, I'm CONSTANTLY trying to make our booth more attractive and more functional, while facilitating the shipping process and of course, cutting my costs wherever possible.

Take our Booth lighting for example.

When we first starting using lighting in our booth, we did like most folks do, we rented lights from the Quilt Market. but WOW, it's expensive!

The we found these little clip-on lights from Home Depot. They weren't great, and sometimes they seem to shift around for no apparent reason (sometimes we find them pointing straight DOWN), but let's face it, the price is right! 

THEN, we spied what in my estimation is the ULTIMATE booth lighting system in our neighbor's booth in Houston last Fall.

This system (at left) has a long plastic bar that screws into the base of the receptacle and fits quite easily INSIDE the upright support pole. The result, is this light STAYS PUT. It's totally stable and ultra-safe. So I figured if I could get some decent pictures of this set-up, my Dad might could duplicate it when we got home, and my neighbor graciously agreed to let us shoot a few shots.

So here's my Dad's version, that we'll be debuting in Kansas City. I have no idea what these items are called, but the materials were so inexpensive that we asked Dad to make us up TWO of them, one for each side of the Booth.

Here you can see the stabilizing pole that will fit INSIDE the support pole, AND Dad included extra-long cords so we won't even need to use extension cords!

I totally love 'em and can't wait to try them out.

As a matter of fact, our Booth will be SO brightly illuminated, that we might should both pack a pair of shades!

Great job, Dad!




**************************************

Any questions or comments? I probably can't answer them, but I'll be glad to ask Dad!

:)

PPC5- Fruit & Veggie Sample PLUS Giveaway Results

(This post is part of a continuing series focusing on the development of a new handbag pattern from its initial conception to it's release.)

So in our last post I told you about pulling all of my PortaPocketsPLUS materials out of storage in order to make one more sample by special request for Pat Sloan in fabrics she selected personally from her "Eat Your Fruits & Veggies" collection. We even made a little game out of it, complete with a giveaway but first, let's talk about the fabric and why we chose it. 

First off, this fabric is top quality. I've heard that more than a few fabric 

houses are getting their product made overseas now with less than acceptable results. 

Now I'm not at all sure where this fabric was manufactured, but the colors are 

vibrant, and the feel is soft and smooth. I was happy working with it.

Secondly, since Pat sent me NINE choices, all of which were gorgeous,

 there were MANY combinations I could have chosen, ALL of which would have been great!

So, I opted for the "reds" for a couple of reasons. 

1) The camera loves red & its generally a good choice for a print ad.  I might as well 

get a couple of good advertisements out of this deal, don't you think?

2) It's no secret. I LOVE RED!           

            All this to sat that the numbers corresponding to the fabrics I used were as follows:          

              1-2-3-7-8

And even though there were NUMEROUS folks who guessed 4 of the 5 fabrics correctly,

there was only ONE who got all 5 of them right and that person was  

Deb who posted her guess at 11:01AM (EDT) on Wed. May 9th. 

To collect her prize, (a $20 gift certificate) Deb needs to email me her contact info 

by 7pm Sunday night (5/13). (please don't leave the info on this site.)

So thanks to everyone who participated in the contest. 

We'll have another real soon, but in the meantime, I thought you might like to see the rest of the

fabrics in the "Eat Your Fruits & Veggies" collection by Pat Sloan.

Here's the rest of the cotton prints! 

 And just look at all of the batiks! 

If you like what you see, you might want to suggest it to you local merchant! 

************************

Do you know someone who would be interested in these fabrics?

If so, please feel free to pass it on to others in any way you see fit!

PPC5- A Fruit & Veggie Giveaway!

I made one more PortaPocketsPLUS purse insert this week. 

That's note-worthy because I actually closed the book on this design a couple of weeks ago. 

What that means, is that I've stored all my samples. I've archived all my draft instructions and I've packed away my tattered templates. In short, I was mentally and emotionally DONE with that pattern and as a rule, once I close the book on a design, I really do not like re-visiting it. 

Why is that? 

Because for the 4-5 months that I am working on a design, I'm consumed with it. 

I'm living with it everyday.

I'm thinking about it even when I'm away from the studio.

So by the time the pattern releases, I'm ready to turn the page, and start something NEW!

But every now and then an offer comes along
that's just too sweet to turn down?

You see, Pat Sloan got in touch with me to see if I'd be willing to use fabrics from her new "Eat Your Fruits & Veggies" line and make her a sample to put on display at the Spring Quilt Market. 

And here's the deal... I never hesitated. I gave her an unequivocal and immediate YES!
And here's the reasons why!

#1- I love working with Pat! 

She a human dynamo, tirelessly promoting  her products on her website, her blog, her radio show and in numerous personal appearances.

#2- I love this particular fabric line.

It's bright and bold, yet very different from what I would normally choose to work with, and that's good, because it would tend to appeal to a different customer base. Additionally, there are both prints AND batiks in this particular line which is pretty unusual.

#3- It places my sample in a very visible, high traffic booth (Moda Fabrics).

Let's face it, exposure is the name of the game and having my sample on display in the booth where this new fabric is being sold is almost a coup! 

So in celebration of this good fortune, and because we haven't had a good old fashioned giveaway in a LONG time (since last year I think), let's have one now. 

 A $20 gift certificate to use on our website!

So, with that out of the way, here's your nine beautiful choices. 

#1

#2

#3

#4

 #5

#6

#7

#8

#9

 So here's the way we'll play this game.

1) The nine fabrics are shown and numbered in the picture above (in no particular order). All you have to do is guess which FIVE I used in the "Fruit & Veggies" sample I made for Pat.

2) Record your one best guess in the comment section below by listing your 5 choices by NUMBER.

    (for example; 1-3-5-7-9)

3) Entries will close Friday night at 7pm. The person who correctly guesses the 5 fabrics that we chose to use, will get the following prize.

4) In the event of a tie, we will reserve the right to determine the winners by means of a tie breaker.

    In the event that no one correctly guesses all 5 fabrics, then the winner will be the closest guess. 

7) We will show you our finished "Fruit & Veggie" sample and announce our winner in our Saturday morning (5/12) blog post, so be sure to check back then. 

8) Our winner needs to email their contact info to us (info@studiokatdesigns.com) by Sunday night (7pm). If we do not hear from the winner by Sunday night at 7pm, we will award the prize to the second place entry.  

9) The ONLY entries we will accept are those that are posted in the comments section below, so if you receive our blog posts by email, you MUST visit our blog in order to record your entry at
www.studiokatdesigns.blogspot.com and record your entry in the comments section. 
PLEASE do not simply reply to the email you receive in your inbox, as those entries will NOT be considered. 

Good luck and may the best guess win!

********************* 

Do you know someone who would enjoy this contest?

If so, please feel free to pass it on to others in any way you see fit!