Other Market Meetings

While at Market this year I had the pleasure of attending 2 demos. The first was done by Lura Schwarz Smith, author of Secrets of Digital Quilting-From Camera to Quilt. She does beautiful work and the tips for creating depth along with using your printer were very accessible.My second demo was from Ruth Chandler and Liz Kettle, two of the authors of Fabric Embellishing-Basics and Beyond. They showed lots of fun creative ways to texturize your work.

Then there is Jane Davila! I am not sure what I could say that probably hasn't already been said about Jane (sweet, funny, sharing). I have been taking her online marketing class--my first online class. I already knew about 60% of the information but her comprehensive layout of everything has been so helpful as reinforcement that I am going in the right direction. Her dedication to making sure we all got what we needed out of the class was priceless.Fortunately her schedule allowed for us to go to lunch along with her lovely daughter and helper extraordinaire:) Every working mom should be so fortunate! We sat and chatted about all sorts of things and the pleasure was all mine. In the internet world we rarely get to meet the people that we develop relationships with, so this was a treat. For that reason alone I would recommend a Market trip and once you are there, the reasons to be there will grow by leaps and bounds. What better way to have your thumb on the pulse of our industry?

I am cautious taking classes at Market since I know that most of the material is only aimed at Quilt shop owners. Although I wish they focused more on the large population of designers that also make up this industry, if you are clever enough you can adapt a lot of the information to your needs in your business.

Meet Charlotte Angotti....quilter, teacher, stand-up comedienne!!
Almost 2 hours of non-stop hilarious stories about owning a shop, teaching classes and how to improve the classes you are teaching at your shop using natural progression for beginners to keep them intrigued and coming back. Great information no matter who you are. I am not a shop owner but I do teach classes and honestly the biggest thing Charlotte does to keep people coming back has nothing to do with quilting:) I don't need a class in quilting but I would take one of hers just to hang out with her! Her personality is her biggest selling point and I can ADAPT THAT to my business. I felt my $20 was well spent as I watched her work the room. I realized that I too have that capability but I don't utilize it enough.....stupid being 'overly professional' wins out. Don't get me wrong, professionalism is paramount but does not have to exclude having fun and being myself more, right? So take the classes but learn to read between the lines.

Meet Leigh Layton in fabric form.... Can't you learn a lot about a person through their art? I learned that Leigh has a wonderful sense of humor and loves to play with words. There were plenty of beautiful quilts at Market and this one just tickled my funny bone:) Do you see what I see?

The parting shot for this post is from one of the quilt shops we visited while in Minneapolis. Susan and Celine shopping and above them a quilt from our friends at The Quilt Branch...it was like they were with us in spirit:)