If you love sewing, fabric and quilting this post is a must-read! The International Quilt Market and Quilt Festival in Houston are the biggest events of the year in quilting – for both manufacturers and the quilting public. These two events recently took place in late October, and Sizzix Quilting was there! Today we’re sharing pictures from our time in Houston!
Quilt Market
This industry-only event is an exciting time! Companies, including Sizzix, introduce their newest products and project ideas. We released 19 brand-new dies!
Not only did we have a big, gorgeous booth, we participated in some special events. The first special event was School House.
Our first 30-minute session featured Victoria Findlay Wolfe, who introduced her 3 new dies: Bow Tie, Rocking the House and Square Dance.
Victoria also has a new fabric line with Marcus Fabrics, and it’s called Mostly Manor. We can’t wait to get our hands on it!
Our second School House session featured Kerry Goulder – aka Kid Giddy. Kerry shared her three adorable new dies: Fox, Bear, and Bird with Egg.
The other special event during Quilt Market was Sample Spree. Attendees have to purchase tickets for this exclusive shopping event where the newest products are offered at major discounts. Sample Spree is a big deal – just look at this fractional view of the line of people waiting to get in!
We had great fun with our customers at Sample Spree!
Here’s a view of just a small fraction of the show from above. There were 25 rows full of quilting and sewing goodness for attendees to explore.
As Quilt Festival continued we met with wonderful people in our booth. Kevin and Cathie demonstrated how to use our eclips2 machine to cut fabric.
Man Sewing’s Rob Appell stopped by to say hi and pose for some pictures with Sizzix Quilting Manager, Linda Nitzen, and Kid Giddy. Look at Kid Giddy’s cute Doll and Fox!
Kid Giddy’s Doll die was also featured in the Windham Fabrics booth for their Mendocino fabric line. So adorable, and another example of how this versatile doll die can be customized in so many ways!
We were happy to have Victoria Findlay Wolfe demoing in our booth during Market. She’s working with her new Bow Tie die in this photo!
Hey, look! It’s the wonderfully talented Tim Holtz! He and Mario manned a booth showcasing Tim’s line of Eclectic Elements fabrics.
Tim also stopped by the Sizzix booth!
The Missouri Star Quilt Company booth, with Jenny Doan in orange, was always busy.
We were also happy to see Crafty Gemini at Quilt Market.
Another lovely aspect of Quilt Market was seeing some of our fabulous Sizzix Quilting Bloggers. Here’s Rebecca Bryan, of Bryan House quilts, posing with one of her quilts that was on display at the event. This was in the Lecien Fabrics booth, and is her BFF quilt.
This is both hilarious and awesome: The Husbands’ Lounge.
This room was equipped with TVs, comfy couches, and recliners. I’m sure this little hideaway was appreciated by many. LOL.
Oh, and lest you think Sizzix employees are eager to leave quilting “at the office”, here are a few behind-the-scenes photos of our hotel rooms.
That’s right, some of us even sew in the evenings while away from home! Here’s Sizzix Quilting Manager, Linda Nitzen sewing away in her room. 
Don’t you just love her elf jammies?! Linda was sewing a Double Wedding Ring in our 9” size - #660532
This shows my work space in my hotel – I was sewing stars for a quilt, with our Diamond 660529.
Quilt Festival
Quilt Market ended on Monday the 26th, and then came Quilt Festival. This super exciting event is for the quilting public, and is the largest consumer quilt show in the world! Event organizers expected over 60,000 during Quilt Festival, and people come from all over the world!
The festivities kicked off with Preview Night – a VIP shopping event on the eve of the show opening. We had changed out our booth to include product for purchase and tons of project samples to inspire our shoppers. Here’s our team, ready to kick off Festival!
Let the shopping begin!
Here’s the first official day of Quilt Festival – eager attendees lined up and ready!
Our booth was packed!
And so were the aisles!
Another amazing aspect of the Houston shows is the Quilt Show. Hundreds of STUNNING quilts are on display during both Market and Festival, and it’s awe-inspiring to see the pieces that have been created with fabric, needle and thread. Here are a handful of examples of quilts on display:
Ewe Are My Sunshine by Janet Stone – Best of Show Award
Gardenesque by Kate Colleran
Comma Comet by Pam Biswas and Janet Gannon
Arroyo Grande Album by Andrea Perejda
Color Play by Victoria Findlay Wolfe
You can see more of our coverage of the two Houston events in our Sizzix Quilting Instagram feed HERE.
We hope you've enjoyed this look at some of the fun at Quilt Market and Quilt Festival. Until next time, Happy Quilting!
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