Fall Quilt Market 2009: Windham

On Sunday I got to eat dinner with a wonderfully assorted crew: Kathy Mack of Pink Chalk Fabrics and her mom, quilt artists Susan Brubaker Knapp and Sarah Vedeler, and Windham designers Jessica Levitt and Paige Stanley Miller. (I was exhausted by this time and embarrassingly started crying uncontrollably when I tried to tell Kathy’s mom about Sherri Lynn Wood’s Passage Quilts. I think/hope you wouldn’t blame me if you’re familiar with Ms. Wood’s work, but under the circumstances it just looked like I was an emotional wreck!)

I ran into Jessica and and Paige again on Monday and they gave me a behind-the-desk tour of the Windham Fabrics booth. Sweet! Unfortunately I don’t have any straight up fabric shots but these displays and sample products are of course so wonderful and inspiring. And though dealing with the convention center lighting was a challenge, you’ll notice it made that quilting stitches jump out — a great silver lining.

Here’s Paige with a bunny sewn from her collection Juliet (February 2010). Paige is a New York City textile designer who really knows her stuff. The soft pastel colors aren’t usually my thing but her hand-rendered drawings and textures are really stunning, don’t you think? I love the paisley quilting in her sample quilt:

Jessica Levitt wins my vote for Most Photogenic Designer 2009. It goes without saying that we’re all really excited about Timber, right? It’s scheduled for January 2010. She did tell me about the bag and quilt patterns but I will have to re-gather that information for you.

Below are shots from the display of Bari J.’s second collection, Art Journal (April 2010). I only saw Bari briefly on Friday … I wish I could have talked to her more about the collection!

Here’s Genevieve Gail’s next line, Gypsy Garden (April 2010). I missed out on meeting Genevieve completely. Kicking myself.

And finally, here’s a glimpse at Allison Jane Smith‘s upcoming line Flutter (March 2010). I very much wish I had met her too. Windham meet & greet fail!

I was drawn to that one leaf on the pillow with the brown curlicues. This is one of the best scrapbuster projects I’ve ever seen.

Will you be too disappointed in me if I close here for the week and resume my Quilt Market posts on Sunday? The exhaustion is just catching up with me! I’m craving some mindless TV and a nap like nobody’s business. But get ready … I’ve got a post on a different Japanese company for each day next week, several more domestic companies to cover, and more giveaways. (And just to let you know, Sale Alert Sunday will resume this weekend.)