As always, Quilt Market is inspiring. Fabric companies have new lines to show, pattern designers have their latest releases, and new products are introduced to the quilt industry. Here’s some of what I saw.

1. Rapid Fire Lemoyne Star. Following up on her success with the Rapid Fire Hunter’s Star, Deb Tucker has introduced a ruler for this block.

2. Big Beautiful Bugs! Andover Fabrics introduced this latest line from Lonni Rossi that features moths dragonflies and bumblebees, bugs with wings. The bugs, all drawn with dots, are available in 3 colorways: spa colors; red, gold and black; and green and brown.

3. Shabby Chic Hits Quilt Industry. Rachel Ashwell of Shabby Chic fame has released a line of cotton quilt fabrics. The 46-SKU line is her first for quilt shops and will be followed by a home dec line. Rachel told me that she was humbled by the tradition of community of quilters.

4. Quilt Designed Hot/Cold Bags. Kona Bay Fabrics introduced a line of hot/cold  bags in 11 designs. Available in two series, the Great Northwest and Elegant Beauty, the bags retail for $8. These would be perfect for shop hops that want to include a meal.

5. Bag, bags, more bags. We continue to see lots of bag patterns. Sometimes I wonder why, and then I remember a bag always fits! I also saw lots of patterns for aprons and little girls’ clothes.

6. Water-soluble, iron-on, pre-printed guides for crazy quilt stitches. These came in kits with wool pieces, threads and the guides. I saw people on the plane using the product and the results were lovely. They were from Sew Cherished.

7. Lots of bright, clear colors. I really like the clean look of today’s fabrics,  and I found lots to like in many booths. I particularly liked the display in Michael  Miller’s booth with the story boards of the colors that went with the new lines.

8. On the gift side, I liked the lotion bar from LaviShea. The bars melt with your  body heat and absorb quickly and completely without leaving a greasy residue, perfect for quilters and fabric.

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Morna McEver Golletz is the founder and CEO of the International Association of Professional Quilters, an association to help quilters, fiber artists and other creative arts entrepreneurs build business success. Her weekly e-zine offers tips, techniques and inspiration to help you craft business success from your creative arts passion. You can sign up for a F.R.E.E. subscription at http://www.professionalquilter.com.

I’m back from Market. It was exhilarating and exhausting. It was great to catch up with other professionals, and I met lots of new people in the industry. I enjoy seeing the new fabrics. I love the beachy colors – blues, greens, yellows, oranges – clear, crisp, almost sherbetty colors. After all, the oranges did make me think of mango! OK, most colors make me think of food!

Just a bit of what I liked: The Authentic line by Sweetwater Design from Moda. It’s filled with typography and newsprint fabric; must reflect my journalism background!

Also showcasing Moda‘s line is Joanna Figueroa with Fig Tree & Co.

Avlyn fabrics also has several nice new lines, including Belle Fleur, a white, green and black graphic collection from Karen Combs. Karen also introduced here Batik Cascade line.

And always a favorite for me is the Michael Miller booth, with bright happy colors.

And, while I didn’t get a photo, Kona Bay always has a wonderful fabric selection.

And I liked what Valori Wells did to decorate her booth. She took swatches of her lines and sewed them onto a canvas cloth and hung that. It was simple and effective.

One of my favorite designers is Robyn Pandolph, who designs fabric for RJR. Here she is with Barbara Bradley. They’ll work together from a new design studio soon.

I caught up with a couple of my favorite bag makers. Joan Hawley from Lazy Girl Designs was delivering her newest girl Claire for display in several booths. And Terry Atkinson has two new books, including Big Bags, little bags, which includes ideas for using yo-yos for a little zing and for using oilcloth for your bag. Both Joan and Terry have great tutorials on their blogs.

Here are a few shots from my row at the show. Susan Cleveland with Pieces Be With You was on one side of me and Karen Montgomery from The Quilt Company was on the other. Karen’s got some great shots of the floor on her blog.

Across the aisle were Janine Burke and Amy Walsh from Blue Underground Studios.

And here’s one last shot with quilt artist and author ReNae Merrill and Leslie O’Brien, PQ advertising rep.

I did pick up some new notions, so look for some reviews in the future. The big item I think was the bias binding maker from Simplicity/Wrights/Ez.

And, what coverage of Quilt Market would be complete without a mention of Sample Spree? This is the most hectic event, everyone’s first peek at what’s new. People line up early to get first chance to buy fabric in particular. Here’s a shot of the line waiting to get in. The doors open at 8 pm; the first person was in line at 2:30!

And, as for our location, we were at the David Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh. It’s a fabulous facility with lots of natural light; everything looks good in that lighting. Pittsburgh is a great city, too, with friendly people and terrific food – any city that puts French fries on a sandwich or salad ranks high with me! I hope we’ll be back next time we go to the East Coast.

I left Baltimore on Thursday, Oct. 23 and the trip got off to a good start. Do you know that the ladies rooms at the airport have vases filled with fresh flowers! I did touch them to make sure they were real, and it definitely gave my day a boost. Should have taken a picture.

Got set up some Thursday and continued on Friday morning. Here are some before shots of the hall. First up is the Superior Thread booth. Guess the crates are filled with thread! The second shot is the Michael Miller Fabrics booth, which in its finished state won one of the booth prizes.

Friday was filled with Schoolhouse, classes geared to shop owners to help them market products in their shops, and a variety of educational lectures. Friday night is Sample Spree, a hugely popular event. Here’s a shot of the masses of people waiting to get in. The spree opens at 8 pm and attendees get in in two waves. The first person was in line at 2:30 pm!

The show opened to the trade on Saturday morning at 8:30. It’s such a transformation from vast open spaces to small shops and displays. I saw several new notions. Anyone need a whacker? It’s a hammer to use to whack those pesky seams flat. And, everyone seems to be eating at the same bakery: lots of jelly roll, turnover and layer cake fabrics, books, patterns. Still fun decorator prints in bright colors, though I did notice some browns creeping back in. Overall, you can find colors that appeal to anyone’s desire. Plenty of people stopped by the booth during the show. Here are some shots.

Here’s Jake FInch, who is has a new book on Community Quilts with C&T and was just named Managing Editor for Mark Lipinski’s Quilter’s Home.

And speaking of Mark, he popped in, too.

Did some walking on the floor and ran into Jay McCarroll, Project Runway’s 2005 season winner. Jay has now designed two fabric lines for FreeSpirit Fabrics. You can see bits in the background of the photo.

I’m lucky to have area quilters loan me quilts to hang on display in the booth. One of those quilters is Kim Ritter. Here we are in front of her quilt “Trowel and Error.”

The last two issues of the The Professional Quilter included articles on blogs by Maria Peagler. Maria stopped into Market to make contacts and sales of her book Color Mastery that comes out in early 2009.

Ricky Tims also stopped by.

And, my booth was catty-corner across from Linda Taylor and she stopped in for a visit.

Since I’m the editor of The Professional Quilter, I know lots of the editors at other magazines. Jan Magee, editor-in-chief of Quilters Newsletter and I compared notes on the show.

We have a break between Market and Festival, starting back on Wednesday evening at 5 pm. I’m looking forward to seeing the quilts, something I save for Festival. More in a couple of days.