Perkins Dry Goods

There are lots of things that happen at Quilt Market…people from magazines stopping by the booth, asking questions about your products, taking samples for possible inclusion in future issues. You never know when or if these contacts will turn into anything – they are important though!

I just found out that QuiltMaker magazine has featured my Perfect Piecing Seam guide in the March/April issue (page 56)!  How cool is that?  Thanks QuiltMaker!

The deal with this seam guide is that it allows you to mark your machine bed at a scant 1/4″.   Scant means “just shy of”, which is a very technical term.  In actuality, it is a thread or two less than a full 1/4″ and makes it easier to piece your blocks accurately.  There is a little hole in just the right spot that you lower the needle through and then put the presser foot down to hold it in place so you can mark your machine bed with a post-it or piece of tape.

I’ve found that beginners like it because it helps them get on track with that pesky 1/4″ seam allowance, and experienced quilters like it too.  If you have more than one machine (a big fancy one at home and one you take to class or retreats), the seam guide lets you standardize your seam allowance between the two!

It hasn’t really taken me this long to recover from market, time is just flying by these days.  My friend Jenni was able to come with me this time – she is a huge support and it’s always a blast when she’s around. We usually rent a car and she navigates for me – a good thing!

I didn’t have much time to run around but I was able to get pictures of a couple of other friends in their booths.  Here are the Late Bloomers gals – Elizabeth and Pam (aka PamKittyMorning).  They were just down the aisle from me.  Elizabeth outdid herself with new designs this time – I just love that soft look!

Another friend, Susan Marth from Suzn Quilts was there too, she had neat new things – be sure to check them out at her website.  It was great to catch up with so many long distance friends.

I splurged on new flooring for this market.  Standing on concrete for three days is painful.  I loved the cushy foam floor tiles – and they even had them in a wood look!

In the heat of quilt market preparation last month, I was saved by chocolate.  Last minute and me are not good partners.  If you know me, you know that I am methodical and organized.  I don’t do harried and rushed well at all.  I was late getting my pattern covers for new stuff to the printer, which meant I might be stuffing bags in the hotel Friday night before market opened.  YUK.

I phoned Jane at Tri-State Printing and groveled a bit – she was so very nice and didn’t make me feel bad at all.  She was calm, she was kind and would overnight a partial order to me so I could bag enough patterns to ship ahead to Houston.  Low and behold those covers came, crammed into that overnight envelope along with two mini chocolate candy bars.

Okay, fast forward to a month later…… Market was great.  I think  mentioned in my Middle Name Game post that I met some fantastic new people and connected with old friends.  Better than a college reunion!

Now for the new stuff… I’m very excited about these four new designs.  I hope you like them!

Twist and Shout Tote is a fun little pattern that has a ton of options. Two styles and three sizes for each style!  I did these with Jelly Rolls and Charms.

Three for Tea is another jelly roll project that you could adapt to charms too.  Two runners and a small topper can all be pieced from one jelly roll with a bit of yardage for borders and binding.  I also included scalloping instructions for the corners on the topper.

Summit Square is a very traditional scrappy project that has two quilt sizes and a quick runner that you can make from your scraps.  I use the Civil War Classics line from Marcus Fabrics and just love how it turned out!

Country Lane is my first effort using the Sweet Sixteen (TM) charms from Maywood Studios.  These are a fat sixteenth of a yard and cut at 9 x 11 inches.  It was kind of fun to see the secondary pattern emerge.  Two main blocks and a simple pieced border in this project.

Quilt Market was held in Salt Lake City May 4-6 and what a blast it was!  So many things to see.  Fabrics were lighter and brighter.  Definitely a feeling of youthfulness in the air.  A nice addition to the mix of traditional and reproduction prints.  Lots of patterns, notions and gadgets.  I can’t wait to try the samples of Presencia thread I got.  I have spools of 3 ply 60 weight and a 3 ply 50 weight.  Stay tuned!

I introduced three new patterns along with my Perfect Piecing Seam Guide this market.

Magic Squares is a fat quarter quilt that uses a slice and dice technique.  You end up with a scrappy four patch square in a square in a square block.  It goes together really fast and comes in three sizes.

Sweet Pea lived on my idea wall for about two years.  I knew I wanted to use this block and a simple fabric plan to make a quilt that looked more complicated than it really was.  And finally one day it just came to me!  The setting triangles are pieced which makes it hard to tell where the main block is.  Three sizes in this pattern:  throw, twin and queen.

Man Quilt happened almost by accident.  I was talking to a friend about what kind of quilt she was going to make for her brother.  It just so happened that I had a quilt on the design wall  that wasn’t quite finished.  It didn’t have a name, and it was definitely more masculine than most of my quilts; both in design and fabric choices.  Just for fun, I called it the Man Quilt – and it stuck!