I got back on Sunday evening after four days in Salt Lake City, which has to be one of the friendliest cities around. Yes, I just confirmed that it ranks second in a Travel + Leisure poll. I started my stay with a trip to Harmon’s Grocery to pick up flowers for my room, and a young woman actually took me part of the way so I wouldn’t get lost. As for Market itself, I loved catching up with long-time friends and making some new ones. I loved being inspired, and I definitely was.

In a few words, the themes that kept popping up for me are flowers — large flowers — glamping/camping, handwork, and navy and gray.  Here’s just a bit of what I saw.

• New from United Notions is the Weightless Quilter, which is designed to lift and hold your quilt above the machine bed while you freely work. Measuring 36″ by 36″, eight Flex poles provide three levels of lift capacity: lightweight (thinner poles), medium (thicker poles), or firm (combination of lightweight and medium poles). The Weightless Quilter is shipping in July and retails at $399.

• Handi Quilter introduced three domestic sewing machines. The HQ Stitch 210 weighs just 12 pounds and is the perfect machine for travel. It is priced at $595. The HQ Stitch 510 is a powerful straight stitch machine that stitches up to 1,600 stitchers-per-minute (SPM) and is priced at $1495. The HQ Stitch 710 offers 170 build-in stitches and stitches up to 1,000 SPM. It’s price is $3495.

• New from Michael Miller is Luxe, a 108″ super soft cotton available in 19 SKUs. The wide backs are in both solids and prints and feature a coral thread in the along the selvage. Also from Michael Miller is the 20-piece Summer Lovin’ collection by Susan Emory of Swirly Girls Design. This bright and cheery collection is complemented by Susan’s new five-month block of the month featuring hand embroidery. Violet Craft’s 18-piece House of Happington, again from Michael Miller, features an array of textures, a large print and several smaller prints.

• New from Hoffman’s Spectrum Digital Collection is Jeanie Sumrall-Ajero’s first line Supernova. With two designs in six colorways, Supernova 45″ square gradient panels offer options as either striking backgrounds or cut to add texture.

• New from Hoffman is its Me + You line aimed at newer sewists is the Grafic line by Latifah Saafir. Latifah was influenced by graffiti in Los Angeles as she created the line.

• Lydia Nelson showcased her Darling Little Dickens line with Moda. The line features solids and prints in a neutral palette perfect for baby quilts that work for either boys or girls.

• Sew Very Smooth showcased the Ideal Seam Guide. It comes with a seam gauge to mark the seam that is unique to your sewing machine; you just drop your needle into the hole that matches your desired seam width. Then you can you line up the Ideal Seam Guide along the edge. The company recently partnered with 4-H to co-brand the product.

• For pet lovers, Joanne Hillestad with Fat Quarter Gypsy introduced her Pet Pop-Ups pattern. Similar to her other pop-ups, this pattern is smaller and features the use of laminate fabrics.

What did you see that was new? I will try to post pictures in a future blog post and share more.

Tags: Darling Little Dickens, Fat Quarter Gypsy, flex poles, Grafic Line, handi quilter, Hoffman's Spectrum Didgital, HQ Stitch 210, HQ Stitch 510, HQ Stitch 710, Ideal Seam Guide, Jeanie Sumrall-Ajero, Joanne Hillestad, Latifah Saafih, Lux, Lydia Nelson, Me + You, Michael Miller, Moda, Pet Pop-Ups, Sew Very Smooth, Summer Lovin', Supernova, Susan Emory, Swirly Girls Design, United Notions

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 25th, 2016 at 10:15 am and is filed under Quilt Market, Sewing, Trade Show. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.