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.

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Innovative Fabric Imagery
Cyndy Lyle Rymer and Lynn Koolish
C&T Publishing; $27.95

Every year we see more and more quilts with images that have been created with digital technology. In 2007, C&T sponsored an Innovative Fabric Imagery special exhibit at International Quilt Market and Festival in Houston. The majority of Innovative Fabric Imagery for Quilts features a gallery of more than 40 of the inspiring entries in that exhibit. The book also includes the basics of working with photos on your computer and 19 projects. The projects range from “Ocean Sunset” by Gloria Hansen, which features a large photograph printed in four sections, cut into squares and then fused on a background, ending up with an attic windows look, to “Gramsie” by Jeanie Sumrall-Ajero, which turns a photo into a kaleidoscope as the focal point of the quilt. The book is full of ideas to inspire you to put your computer and its imaging software to creative use.