Just look who I managed to get my photo taken with!!! The fabulous Amy Butler! She was so lovely, I felt rather in awe of her. I was fortunate enough to go to her talk, which was both sickening and inspiring. Amy showed how she goes about bringing out a new line, and what she and her team get up to. She has an amazing studio and beautiful set home/office which she uses for all her photos, which her husband takes. Someone asked how she got started and she told us how she moved from an illustrating career with producing patterns in her spare time to how the fabric and patterns took over and now keep her, her husband and a team of 10 extremely busy.
Amy and her husband David
The Rowan stand looked beautiful, with loads of Kaffe Fassett, Amy Butler and a few other Free Spirit fabrics. I didn't manage to speak to Kaffe Fassett but did catch a picture of him.
One of the most interesting things at the Festival was getting a good look at a the Go! fabric Cutter by Accuquilt. I have seen these on several American Blogs and they look amazing! I spent ages at their stand chatting with their rep and getting a good look at it in action. She demonstrated how easy it was to cut up jelly roll strips 6 layers at a time, and how to cut out applique shapes. Within seconds she had cut out flowers and a vase - just stunning.
I so so so want one!!! What an amazing tool.
In general I was a bit disappointed in the fabrics, there was very little Modern Designer Fabric and I didn't really buy very much, but it was just wonderful to be surrounded by fabric every way I looked and gadgets and notions.
I met up with the lovely Paula Ozier at her stand and bought some of her gorgeous Elephant fabric. I was lucky to get some as she was selling out of it. We went for a coffee and I managed to talk her into letting me stock some of her fabric!
I also bought some beautiful Echino fabric, which was also few and far between at the show.
Other than that I tried out several long arm quilters and frames. They were such fun and I would love to have taken one home with me, but alas they have a huge price tag and take up too much space, maybe one day.
I will post again in a bit about some of my favourite quilts from the show.
Looks like fun! So jealous that you met Amy Butler! My long arm quilter does a lot of work for Kaffe Fassett - I only hope I'll bump into him there. ha ha!
ReplyDeletebummer about the lack of modern fabrics. The stuff you did score is beautiful though.
Long Arms! Ahhh, the stuff dreams are made of! At least you got to play with one.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the fabric - most v.traditional (brown!). the eternal maker stall and oakshott(how much!) were the only two that really inspired me. I bought some libertyy fabric from fabric galore though (result!)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your time at FoQ. I find it so interesting to read others' experiences of the same thing! I also had a great time, met different people from you, wasn't impressed with the Go cutter and bought quite a lot of fabric!
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