Although Quilt Market & Quilt Festival keep us in Houston for weeks, it’s rare that we see much beyond our hotels and the George R. Brown convention center. Thankfully, we’re regularly treated to views like these, so we tend not to mind!
SCHOOLHOUSES
Friday, October 27 was officially Schoolhouse day at Quilt Market and we were thrilled to present a brand new product and a brand new series, both equally exciting.
Forty3 is Aurifil’s brand new 40wt, 3-play thread, 100% Cotton thread, specifically designed to handle the rigor of today’s high-speed, high-tech Longarm machines. Alex Veronelli introduced the amazing new thread to a packed house… standing room only.
Forty3 is manufactured to Aurifil’s standards and has all the versatility and lustrous color of the original 40wt threads, with the added benefit of extra strength. Don’t worry, it’s still virtually lint free! Because it is made specifically for Longarm machine use, the thread is offered on a 3280yd cone only. It is available in 50 gorgeous colors.
Aurifil Designer Sarah Thomas of Sariditty and quilter Alfonsina Uriburu joined Alex for the launch. Both had tested the thread and had some gorgeous samples on hand to showcase.
AuriKids is a partnership between Aurifil and a new generation of sewists and quilters. We aim to generate excitement, create joy, educate young minds, and pass along a time-honored tradition. We launched 4 new small-spool collections at Market featuring 4 young designers. The program grew out of the work that Aurifil Designer Wendy Sheppard (of Ivory Spring) has been doing with her daughter Gwendolyn, now one of our debut AuriKids designers.
We welcomed Wendy to the stage to debut the program. We will be sharing more in the weeks to come and have some exciting plans for 2018!
DEMO TABLE
We first introduced our demo table at Spring Market earlier this year. We had an absolute blast and felt so honored to have such an amazing group of designers come by to share their talents and drop a little quilty knowledge;). We upped the ante a little for Fall and offered a string of events every day, from mini-classes to book-signings and trunk shows.
Wendy Sheppard:
Wendy joined us for 3 awesome events — a demo on her masterful free-motion quilting, a book signing for her latest book with Landauer, and a showcase for our brand new AuriKids series.
Victoria Findlay Wolfe:
Victoria shared a remarkable mini-class on a piecing method from her new book, Modern Quilt Magic.
Sarah Fielke:
Sarah traveled all the way from her home in Australia to attend Quilt Market — officially presenting her WordPlay collection with Windham Fabrics and offering 2 fabulous mini-classes in the Aurifil booth! Sarah schooled us on hand-quilting & hand-appliqué.
Sarah Maxwell:
Sarah joined us for a demo on hand appliqué using Aurifil 12wt and her stunning flannels with Marcus Fabrics.
Jill Finley:
Jill shared a wonderful demo on hand appliqué using Aurifil 50wt thread. She also debuted a brand new collection featuring 20 small spools of her go-to 50wt threads, Quilter’s Palette.
Karen Miller:
Karen joined us for 2 awesome events, one a mini-trunk show and one a mini-class, giving attendees excellent tips on how to FMQ on a home machine. Karen’s debut collection with Aurifil, The Subtle Sampler, released in September.
We also had Christa Watson, Amanda Murphy, Alfonsina Uriburu, & Patricia Belyea. Thank you so very much to all for making our Market experience so darn amazing and for allowing us to leave with so much more quilty knowledge!
For a closer look at some of these events, check out the video tab on our Facebook page — many were broadcast on Facebook Live!
We’ll be back with you tomorrow for a peek at all of the other inspiring things we spotted at Market! Thanks for following along. 🙂
Looks like loads of fun and #CreativeGoodness. I’m absolutely thrilled to hear about #AuriKids.
QuiltShopGal
http://www.quiltshopgal.com