Wondering Wednesday Week 8

Starflakes Quilt with Etchings Charcoal background

Welcome back to week 8 of Wondering Wednesdays..It’s the day I answer the questions you guys have left for me. =)

Last week, I answered some quilt market questions from Pat.  She left some follow up questions after I posted and I thought I would take time to answer them right away.

Prairie fabric

Question: “Following up on Market questions, do you mostly stay in your booth and answer questions about your new line, or are you free to walk around and socialize?

Answer: We are free to walk around.  However we do try to stay in our booths for a large portion of the time.  We are at quilt market to talk about our new fabrics and for many of us, new patterns.  We lose out on that if we aren’t available!  We also have things scheduled during the time we are at market that will take us away from our booths.  This could include book signings, interviews, making videos, any collab. meetings or chats with publishers…things like that.

Sugarcreek Reds & Greens

Question: “Are you responsible for decorating your booth, or do the Moda people take care of that with you just supplying oodles of samples?

Answer:  We are responsible for decorating our booth.  Moda makes it very easy for us though.  They put up the walls and the flooring and provide us with a prop of our choice (ladder, shelves, or baskets) and a chair.  This is so nice because then we are just bringing our quilts and samples and any additional props we want to use.  If I can get a flight that gets in early on the day of schoolhouses (this is the day before the floor opens) I can fly in and set-up right away in the morning–it usually takes a few hours.  And we set up our booth around any schoolhouses we are attending.

Gingham Stripe from Flower Mill. One of my favorite binding fabrics!

Question: What about the schoolhouse sessions…do you volunteer for that or are you told it’s your turn to teach a class?

Answer:  This varies a little bit from year to year.  Sometimes we have a Moda Schoolhouse hosted by Moda that we are invited to attend.  These usually happen when Moda is introducing a fun quilt shop program…like a block of the month program of some sort.  We are usually assigned a block or we design a block that we then make a project for, for the schoolhouse and then share about our new line.

Sometimes we will be asked to participate in a schoolhouse hosted by a publisher.  Sherri & I shared at a schoolhouse put on by Martingale (the publisher of Sunday Best Quilts) this past Spring as our book was releasing the following month.

And we have the option of having our own schoolhouse if we would like.

Starflower Pillow made by the Crafty Quilter, pattern in Playful Petals

Question: How long do you have between the time you receive your new fabric line and the market to sew up all things on display in your booth?

Answer:  This varies.  Moda has a pre-market fabric release and a market fabric release in the spring and in the fall.  If your collection is a pre-market release you usually have a couple months if it is a market release, you’d have 2-4 weeks or so.  It’s never exactly the same time frame.   I’ve been pre-market this year and was market last year.  They both have their benefits!  It’s nice having the extra time when your collection shows before quilt market but it’s also fun having the big reveal at quilt market.

Thanks so much for your questions Pat!–Quilt Market is so much fun and it’s been a treat to share a bit more of the ins and outs. =)

Sincerely Yours Quilt in Strawberry Jam

I have gotten quite a few questions about pattern writing/publishing and fabric design.  If you have any specific questions about these topics, I would love to hear them.  I am planning a series on each of these topics as I think there will be plenty to talk about!  And feel free to leave any other questions you may have below.

Happy Wednesday! Corey