By Christina Marie
I cannot believe Quilt Market 2023 in Houston is said and gone. Now that I live in Texas, it is so easy to attend the Houston Quilt Market and Festival. I have been going since I learned to quilt around the age of 12 or so. It is always around Halloween and my Dad's birthday so I would even come back home when I lived in the DFW Texas area. Living in Georgia has been a little bit harder the past few years, but I now live about 45 minutes to an hour from the venue. This year, it was a no-brainer for Lisa to come and stay with me so we both could attend Houston Quilt Market 2023 one weekend and Quilt Festival the next, plus work on some very exciting things for 2024. Crazy that we are talking 2024 but it's now November, EEK! More to come on Festival in another week so stay tuned.
If you have never been to Quilt Market in Houston, we highly recommend it! It was such a great time and we got to make so many new friends and connections with industry professionals. I have been wanting to go to Market for years, many, many years. You must have industry credentials to attend but this year I was finally able to go! My 12-year-old self would have been so proud and excited to attend. Heck, my 37-year-old self was stellar excited to attend as well.
So what is our takeaway? Our giveaway of pens with our business card was a great hit. We writers and we gave out a pen, how novel. And we kept hearing, "Oh, YOU are Christina and Lisa!" (we loved this). We would have loved to attend Friday events including a networking dinner between designers, however, Lisa started her travel day at 3:00 a.m. And we should have taken way MORE photos, but we kept forgetting. Check out just some of the photos from Market we did take.
Did you go to Market or Festival? We would love to hear your thoughts and takeaways!
Lisa and Christina are packaging up our pens and goodie bags for our meetings.
We made it! We had to take our picture overlooking the showroom and at the Market sign.
We found our friend Deb Grogan from The Quilt Factory before the doors opened.
We stopped by to see Jennifer Long from Sew a Story and her two new fabric lines. We love Little Witch, and To Grandmother's House is amazing as well.
Lisa totally fan-girled upon meeting J Wecker Frisch of Great Joy Studio. Lisa has so many of her fabrics. They work so great with Lisa's mixed media background.
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We had to take this fun picture in Jill Finley of Jillily Studio's booth. We also got a peak of her new notions.
We drooled over Heather Bailey's new line with Figo.
Ran into my friends that I met IRL at Quilt Con. Shelly of Ma Tante Quilting (left) and Jess Zeigler of Longarm League (right). Both are amazing businesswomen. Shelly has a great photography course that I took earlier this year and Jess is such a great resource for Longarmers, plus I love her pantographs.
We met Crista Watson of Christa Quilts and saw her new fabric collection called Dazzle Dots from Benartex.
We met "Candy" (the skeleton) and Vanessa Goertzen of Lella Boutique. Her new Hey Boo line with Moda is so fun and whimsical.
We also got to meet Libs Elliot. I totally fan-girled! I have been a fan of Libs for years (plus she has a bulldog).
We met Stacey of Stacey Lee Creative.
We went to Elizabeth Chappell's home from Quilters Candy's and met so many quilting friends. Keep an eye out for these women. They are all so amazing and doing some awesome things.
We saw Caroline Moore of Carolina Moore Patterns (craftmoore) with her bejeweled Oliso Iron and her new Glow Ruler. Lisa and I both love our Oliso irons and cannot wait to get her Glow Ruler.
We watched Deb Strain with Moda Fabric paint this to match her new Woodland Winter Collection.
We also saw Samantha Krebsbachhuber's shoes that she made for Eye Candy Quilts new line, Gemma, for Andover Fabrics.
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