Australian Quilt Market Recap Part 1

The blog has been very quiet of late while we have been away for the Australian Quilt Market in Sydney (and a family holiday).  In the few days since we have been back it has been business as usual (plus some) - loads of washing to complete, unpacking, health nurse appointments for both girls, a doctors appointment for Sarah (she has an ear infection and is now on antibiotics and is teething :s), shopping for a new fridge (ours died while we were away!), filling out orders and s-l-o-w-l-y getting on top of the emails and work things I have missed while I was away.  I apologise if you have emailed me and I have not yet replied.  I will get to it in the next few days promise and if not please feel free to email me again!  Holidays are so much fun but always bring a truck load of work on the return ;p but despite it is so worth it!  Anyway lets get onto what you really came here to see - the market! 

Sydney market was much slower than Melbourne (I had been previously warned this would be the case- not sure why it just is) and the rain didn't help things!  While I was there I caught up with some lovely friends, met some AMAZING people and wonderful new stockists.

Let me tell you a bit about my booth - I had a slightly smaller booth than I had in Melbourne in November which means the space can become cluttered and uninviting if you are not careful but despite the challenges it was heaps of fun to design. 

Quilts and bags were displayed were possible so as customers could see the finished products.

Because I knew I would have limited car space to take everything up I decided not to use large stands and props and instead opted for framed photos of my patterns to optimise the amount of products displayed at once. You might remember ages ago I posted this gorgeous nursery wall - it was the inspiration for the frame layout. 

The patterns were all displayed on shelves from Ikea for easy access to fill orders. 

My highlight of the show - meeting the owner of Riley Blake fabrics from America, Bret Cloward. And having him compliment me on my booth - this was a HUGE compliment - their market booths are ALWAYS AMAZING as you can see here.  Can you believe that I didn't get a photo with him :( - kicking myself now!  I love Riley Blake fabrics and many of my designs use their fabrics so to say I was excited to meet him is an understatement! In fact (as you can probably tell) I am still on a huge buzz.  He gave me a catalogue - quite dangerous as I have marked almost the whole book of fabrics I want to buy!  I especially love Bohemian Festival by Lila Tueller, Apple of my Eye by The Quilted Fish and Avignon by Emily Taylor Design.  I also adore their chevron prints and had already bookmarked the grey chevron laminate to use on some mismatched dining chairs I am doing up. 

So that is it for my booth.  I will be back soon to show more eye candy from the show (and share some of our family holiday) again soon.