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Quilt Market Needs to Embrace Tomorrow’s Buyers

April 24, 2019

Quilt Market is taking place in Kansas City in just a few weeks. Unlike the fall show which is always in Houston, the spring show rotates through different cities which makes it harder to compare year to year. Still, looking at the exhibitor list the show appears to be down 25 exhibitors from last year… 

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Filed Under: Online Culture of Craft

Love It or Hate It? The Pattern Cabinet and Table at JOANN

March 25, 2019

When was the last time you sat here? Maybe it was just a few days ago, or sometime this month? Maybe these chairs, that long beige table and pile of thick catalogs, bring back memories of sitting here with your mother or your auntie or your son, planning what you’ll make for a recital or… 

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Filed Under: Online Culture of Craft, Patterns, Traditional Print Publishing

barn on grassy field with blue sky

How Digital Printing Will Impact the Quilting Cotton Market

March 12, 2019

Michael Miller Fabrics will begin printing the majority of its quilting cottons digitally in 2019. The shift from screen printing to digital printing is one that Michael Steiner, the co-owner and company president, has been contemplating for a while. “We’ve been printing a small percentage of our quilting fabric digitally for three years now,” Steiner… 

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Filed Under: Getting Published, Online Culture of Craft

quilt floral by vera bradley

Vera Bradley Makes a Debut Presence at QuiltCon with Exclusive Products and Charity Quilts

February 22, 2019

“Quilt Floral” is an exclusive pattern by Vera Bradley for QuiltCon. You might have noticed a new brand at QuiltCon this year. Fort Wayne, Indiana-based luggage and handbag brand Vera Bradley was a platinum sponsor of the event and had a booth on the show floor where they unveiled four bags, a lanyard, and an enamel… 

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Filed Under: Online Culture of Craft

international-quilt-market

Analysis of Fall 2018 Quilt Market Attendance Numbers

December 11, 2018

Quilts, Inc. released attendance numbers for Fall 2018 Quilt Market last week. This is a reversal of a policy shift that was implemented after the Spring 2018 show when the for-profit company that runs the trade show chose not to make those numbers public for the first time. I’m really glad to see this return… 

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Filed Under: Online Culture of Craft

husbands lounge

Quilts, Inc. Does Away with Husbands’ Lounge at International Quilt Festival

November 10, 2018

International Quilt Festival is taking place this weekend. Quilt enthusiasts from all over the country and the world have gathered in Houston, Texas to take workshops by highly esteemed instructors, see award-winning quilts, and shop for fabric and quilting supplies. There’s one thing visitors won’t find at the show this year, though: a husbands’ lounge… 

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Filed Under: Online Culture of Craft

June Tailor Mega Rack

The Thread Rack Brings Organization to the Sewing Room, All Thanks to June Tailor

October 12, 2018

My studio. Can you spot the thread rack? Walk into almost anyone’s sewing room and you’ll likely see a thread rack mounted on the wall, spools of thread in pretty rows waiting to be plucked off their dowels for the next project. The thread rack is ubiquitous in today’s sewing studio. What you may not… 

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Filed Under: Online Culture of Craft

Waiting for the doors to open

Sample Spree, Rife With Reselling, Has New Staggered Entry Times

September 18, 2018

Waiting for the Sample Spree doors to open. Photo by The Quilt Room “I’ve seen people line up five hours before we open the doors. You’d think it was the Rolling Stones concert circa 1975,” says Bob Ruggiero, Vice President of Marketing for Quilts, Inc. the company that puts on Quilt Market, the quilting industry’s… 

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Filed Under: Online Culture of Craft

PreQuilt

PreQuilt is a Sleek New Design Tool for Quilters

July 24, 2018

One January evening Laura Henneberry was designing a quilt in Adobe Illustrator and growing increasingly frustrated with the tedium of making design changes. Her husband, Gar Liu, a web developer, looking over her shoulder, remarked, “I could code something that would do that for you in one click.” Laura’s eyes lit up. That simple exchange… 

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Filed Under: Online Culture of Craft

How Quilt Market Could Invest in Its Own Revival by Catering to Online Retailers

July 19, 2018

According to Paul Johnson, the owner of Quilting Hub, a quilt shop registry, the total number of brick-and-mortar quilt shops in the United States is shrinking. Johnson’s records show that there were approximately 5,500 quilt shops in 2010, whereas today that number is closer to 3,200. “The majority of quilt shop owners that were hobbyists are… 

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Filed Under: Online Culture of Craft

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Welcome! I'm Abby Glassenberg and I'm glad you're here. While She Naps is a blog about designing and sewing stuffed animals and running a creative business.
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