Spring Market Photos

Thought I'd post some of my fave photos from Spring Market in Pittsburgh. I think I mentioned how I have never been to Pittsburgh and found it lovely. One thing I was fascinated with was their penchant for yellow bridges.
We had the opportunity to ride a riverboat at the Moda dinner. I should probably find out what body of water we were on. :)

Here's Jennifer with one of the Blythe dolls her pal, Cara, brought to visit. They had a little photo shoot on the deck with the girls.




















So, the reason for the trip... the quilty goodness. These are a few of my faves: the gorgeous Michael Miller booth, McKenna Ryan's quilts that I aspire to make one day, Indygo Junction's funky little Zipper Critters, and the stinkin'-cuteness of Lecien's little bags for babies (free pattern, yay!). I was also totally psyched to see that Anne Sutton of Bunnyhill Designs put my photo with her at market up on her blog. We were saying "hi" to one of my customers at the shop who loves her designs. My customer was totally thrilled! So, that's my trip. It was an experience!

I finally went! Aka: Spring Market in Pittsburgh

I finally, after many years of trying to get there, got to go to the International Quilt Market with the quilt shop I work for. It was amazing and inspiring! Jennifer, of Sweet Liberty, went with us and is a total rock star. She made the trip a blast. We saw and met a whole heap of quilty celebrities... Anne Sutton of Bunnyhill Designs, Sandy Klopp of American Jane, Alex Anderson, Eleanor Burns, Heather Bailey, Amy Butler, Joanne Figueroa of Fig Tree, Sandy Gervais, Lila Tueller, Stacy West of Buttermilk Basin, Barri of Bareroots, and a whole bunch more. Everyone was really kind and generous with their time and thanks.

The booths were amazing. My fave in terms of creativity in their booth design was Lizzie B Cre8ive. Their booth was so fun and they had chocolate chip cookies, so what's not to love? We talked the owner of our shop into some fun, new stuff. I'm probably most psyched about the new Michael Miller lines coming in. Definitely funky and fun.

We had a fun night on Friday at the Moda dinner cruise. It was on a riverboat (thank you Dramamine) and we had some good eats while we sailed alongside Pittsburgh. Which, incidentally, is a kinda cool city. I had never been and was really suprised at how green and pretty it was. I'd like to go back to visit, but my hubby - being crushed by the fact that the Penguins beat the Caps in the playoffs - will hear nothing of that. :) Back to the Moda cruise... the most fun part? Getting to play with Jennifer and Cara's Blythe dolls and being escorted into the whole cool world of their collectors.

I can't even really put into words how inspiring this show was. I don't know if it knocked my socks off in terms of getting to go, for some other different reasons that I don't want to go into, but it was amazing to see the creativity, the inspiration, women (and men) putting themselves out there and sharing their art. Loved it. I'll add some photos soon!