Spring Quilt Market Update #2

The adventure continues...

By the time we got our act together to organize our trip, hotels near the Portland Convention Center were full. But Greta got us a lovely condo across the river and each morning we got to cross this bridge. It enabled us to see geese, rowers, bicyclists, and a section of the Portland marathon. (The biggest challenge was crossing the morning of the Heartlandia walk. Literally thousands of people were walking in the opposite direction, but we managed to part the sea of humanity and cross over.)

Here's more of what I saw at Market:

Echino bags in the Seven Islands booth

Loved the subtle piecing on these Seven Islands aprons

Neons from Michael Miller. I was standing next to one of the women from the Portland Modern Quilt guild who had stitched two of the quilt's blocks but never seen the completed top. She was so excited to see her work on display.

Tula Pink's booth

Super-excited to meet Sherri McConnell of A Quilting Life. We both blog for Moda's Cutting Table, but had never met in person. She's a real sweetie and was helping Camille Roskelly with her booth (and had sewn some quilts for her, including the one she's standing by, above).

Fig Tree Quilts booth

Each fabric collection shown in Free Spirit's booth included a piece of clothing stitched from the collection—garments were a true trend at Market.( That's Amy Butler on the left, checking out a visitor's bracelet.)

And not exactly part of the garment trend, but this incredible selvedge dress was the star of RicRac's booth

Iowa, represent! We join our other eastern Iowa buddy Vanessa Christensen, in her Simply Style booth (and check out her dress—she added a strip of her fabric to the bottom of a Target dress—she's not just cute, she's' clever).

Loved the big stitching on this quilt by Jen Kingwell

The garment theme continues at Monaluna's booth

Butterflies flit across the walls of the Art Gallery Pure Elements booth

Nobody uses color and pattern quite like Sandy Klop of American Jane (for Moda)

Another Market trend was pink and orange. Here, Kanvas fabrics did it up with festive tissue-paper flowers.

When Market ended, we treated ourselves to a day-and-a-half of play in Portland. One of our first stops was Cargo, in the Pearl District, which offered an incredible array of Asian antiques and imports, with prices that ranged from less than a dollar to thousands.

Cargo whistles We sampled the beer at a couple of brew pubs, including Deschutes, where we stopped for lunch.

We stopped at Front Porch, which has a sister store in Des Moines, and ran our fingers over the blankets.

The next day we had some fantastic Indian food at Bollywood Theater

And we ended our day at the Rose Garden.

Thanks, Portland, for a lovely week! And thanks, too, to the folks who work so hard to make Quilt Market happen. It was great to go, and great to be home.