Market Wrapup

Monday morning and we're driving home from Minneapolis. Here are a few last looks at the Spring Market Booth. I'm tired but pleased to have seen so many quilt shop people! It was a good market.

One photo shows projects from our new book. Then you can see a hi-lo driver as he moved carpeting rolls in the aisles.

Onward and upward!

Saturday At Market

Here's Ed in the GW booth at Minneapolis Market. We can hear thunder and it's raining hard outside this noon.

We've been visiting with colleagues in the quilting industry. The dominant word -- "we are looking forward to a good summer." It's good to hear how positive people are as we roll out of a recessive retail cycle.

Market Prep Day

Good morning, dear readers. It was a long drive (570 miles) from Gaylord, Michigan to Roseville, Minnesota yesterday. I'm finally getting my second cup of coffee and my first awareness of the day.

Ed and I oohed and aahed at the many clumps of lilacs that we saw yesterday. We spotted a clump in the wild about five miles south of the Big Mac Bridge and kept seeing lilacs all the way into Minnesota. Our absolute favorite place for lilacs (besides our yard) is the Royal Botanic Garden in Hamilton, Ontario, pictured here. Yesterday's spots of purple, lavendar and white reminded us of the wonderful Canadian gardens which we visited last May.
Today's work will be fun. I'll be setting up a half booth (six feet by ten feet) with all of the new samples from Tapestry of Texture and some of the samples from our previous books. The half booth format is new to Graywood Designs. Business has been slow and I decided to do a half booth for Spring Market rather than skip the market.

Our photo shoot last Saturday went very well. We used the Graywood Studio Store in Pigeon for background and setting spaces. Photo stylist Danielle Damen raided the antiques collections of her family and provided stunning settings for Tapestry's table runners and table covers. Photographer Steve Jias was sprawled on the grass for garden shots. Steadicam operator and photo guru Will Eichler assured us vertical and horizontals of most shots before a set was broken down and we moved to another spot.

All of this photography and packing and travel has been a backdrop in my life. My dear mother-in-law moved to assisted living on Monday. While Ed and I cared for her transition along with his family, my staff has rallied round the tasks at hand that needed to be done to get Graywood Designs (me) to Market.

So, off to the Convention Center to Booth #3404. Stop by when you are at Market. Thangles has their booth right next to us, too.

If you are a Quilt Shop buyer and have not received our Market email, call Lori at our office -- 888-453-4554 and talk with her about our May Market offers. She can connect you to our email list so you can see Graywood's new products now.

Packing Day for Market

Whew! It's finally packing day for Market. We travel by car and all of our booth setup supplies and the samples from the new book go with us. By Thursday I'll be hanging backdrops and figuring out the best way to display the table runners and tablecovers from our new book, Tapestry of Texture.

We'll be in Booth #3404. If you'll be at Market, do stop by and visit! I will post photos of the booth at Market sometime on Friday.

Book Delayed. . .Just a Bit!

Things happen! Our photo shoot is now delayed until the middle of the month, so Tapestry of Texture will be released in June.

Here's a look at the Cheddar Runner version of the Cut Glass Dish Runner project. I used the classic Cut Glass Dish block in this runner. Accented with 18 different cheddar orange to deep golden fabrics, the runner is 15" wide and 45" long. I sized this runner to fit on a console table in our lake house. A quilt hangs behind the table against the back of a massive natural stone fireplace.

This is the 288 half square triangle project! It has a lot of sewing and quilting time in it and it is worth every minute. The Cheddar Runner developed into a classic, showy quilted table runner.

So, dear blog readers, what do you think? I'd like to sew another sample of this runner. What color should I feature next? Blue? Rose pink? Greens -- mossey and limey? Your input is desired. Let me know what you think, okay?

Update on the New Book

It's an exciting week here at Graywood Designs. On Friday we'll be doing the photo shoot for our new book so that means that we are busy quilting and binding this week. I'm putting the last of many quilting lines into the Cut Glass Dish Runner. This 15 inch wide and 45 inch long runner uses 288 Thangles and 18 cheddar fabrics. It's a spectacular quilting project.

We've been practicing circle quilting on our long arm Gammill and will quilt a Jill Harmon pattern into the cover runner which is called Off The Table since we know that quilters will take it "off the table" and make it as a wall quilt.

These two projects are joined by four others:

Rounded Toppers

Carlie's Runner & Carlie's Square

Teatime in Uji Tablecover

The colors are stunning. The designs are fun to piece. Some are challenging; others are easy as can be. The new book comes out in May. Don't miss it!

Our New Book Will Be Published in May

Our next quilting book, Tapestry of Texture, comes out in May right around Spring Quilt Market. It's a busy and confusing time for us right now. We're still sewing samples. . .but we're almost done. I'm doing page makeups. . .and I'm not almost done. The first advertisement has been placed in American Quilt Retailer. Our market booth is planned. Here you can see my cellphone with the cheddar Thangles for one of the projects in the book, Cut Glass Dish Runner. This project uses lots of half square triangles so I would often settle in at the pressing surface with my cellphone and scissors and Thangle away!

 Next there is a shot of the design wall in the Studio Store which is where Danielle sews most of the samples she prepares. On the wall to the right is part of the table cover called "Teatime in Uji." The project on the left is called "Rounded Topper" and you probably won't see this version in the book. We often sew more than one sample and this one is not scheduled to be photographed as of now.

Our book has six projects -- three runners and three tablecovers -- all projects that we know quilters will want to make. Once again, we're using Thangles for half square triangles. Our projects range from easy to challenging. It's a good book and its coming soon!