I mentioned some about my trip to International Quilt Market and Festival a couple of weeks ago. At Market, fabric colors still seemed to be clear and bright, though I did notice some browns creeping back in. Lots of large designer prints, a la Amy Butler; lots of young new designers, including Jay McCarroll, Project Runways’s 2005 winner, now designing for FreeSpirit Fabrics. Also fans of Robin Pandolph will be thrilled that she is now designing for RJR. The other thing that struck me was food: lots of jelly roll, turnover and layer cake fabrics, books, patterns. Nice to have a non-caloric choice!

One of the niftiest new products I saw was Clearly Perfect Angles from New Leaf Stitches. This vinyl template sticks to your sewing machine table via static cling and lets you sew 45 degree angles. It also has 1/4 and 5/8 inch seam guides. These static-cling products remind me of the Colorforms I had as a child. My favorite was the repositionable fashion model. I remember drawing around the model and then creating dress designs on paper.

Quilts Inc. has released the following attendance figures for Market: 3,321 attendees and 551 exhibitors taking 1,144 booths.

The quilt show featured a number of special exhibits, most notable the more than 30 quilts in the “The DAR Museum Collection: Quilts From a Young Country.” These quilts have never traveled outside the Society’s Washington, D.C., headquarters. I feel fortunate that I live in the DC area and have seen quilts in the DAR collection.

As for attendance, final figures from Quilts Inc. show that total attendance was 52,542, down 1,704 from last year’s recording-breaking numbers. Considering the economy and Hurricane Ike, the drop in attendance was surprisingly moderate, said Karey Bresenhan, president of Festival’s producer Quilts Inc.
I’ll share more of my thoughts and other products in the upcoming issues of The Professional Quilter. If your subscription expired with the Fall issue, be sure to renew shortly.

Join us in the PQ Café on December 16 when I talk to Linda Taylor about starting a longarm business. Linda is well known in longarm circles for her quilting skills and her teaching. She has made more than 4,000 personal quilts and has been involved in the creation of more than 16,000. She began teaching longarm quilting more than 15 years ago. She has appeared on numerous quilting and sewing television shows; hosts her own show, Linda’s Longarm Quilting; and has written/produced numerous books/DVDs for the longarm industry.

The teleclass is scheduled for Dec. 16 at 8 pm, Eastern Standard Time. Here is a link to the details. Hope to see you then. And, if you have questions you want me to be sure to ask Linda, just drop me an email and I’ll try to fit them in.

I don’t know about you, but as we get into November I start to feel bogged down with lots of business activity (maybe it’s the overflow/aftermath from Houston!) and then the holidays are on us. It’s sometimes hard to keep balance in my life. This summer I talked with a new friend, Laura Howard West, on how I manage to keep balance in my life and live my priorities. Laura owns a business called Joyful Entrepreneur. For me it’s all about scheduling what I say is important, whether that is editing the magazine, working on a new product, volunteering at my church, taking a yoga class or having an afternoon out with my husband, and then living up to that commitment. That’s not to say I don’t occasionally reschedule, but I try not to. Once the activity is written down, I know it’s something of value to me and I make my best effort to live the values. I think for many women, myself included, it’s easy not to set time for self-care. This is my way of doing that.

If you’re interested in listening to our podcast, here’s a link to Laura’s site. Just click on the Café Entrepreneur link and look for podcast #14.

I’d love to hear how you balance your life!

Quilt Festival is always so inspiring to me. I’m floored every year by the quality and creativity of today’s quilters. I always return with my creative juices flowing. Just wish that came with unlimited time!

Tuesday evening before the show opened was the IQA Winner Circle’s Celebration. Best of Show, sponsored by HandiQuilter, went to Sharon Schamber for her “Spirit of Mother Earth.” Here are some details:

I particularly liked Trellis of Red Flowers by Deborah Kemball, the quilt that won the Founders Award, sponsored by International Quilt Festival. Here’s a full shot and a detail:

One of the newer awards is the Future of Quilting Award, sponsored by C&T Publishing. It went to Gina Perkes for Silken Defiance. Here’s a full shot of the quilt:

I always love Quilt Festival, not just for the outstanding quilts, but for the energy of other quilters and for the chance to catch up with quilters I haven’t seen for a year and to make new friends. If you’ve never been to the show in Houston, the scale is hard to appreciate. It takes up all five halls of the convention center.

Here are some overhead shots:

Thursday was the final premiere of the Bernina Fashion Show. Here are the two winning garments. The one on the left is the viewers choice, High Tea at the Broadmoor by Jenny Raymond, and the one on the right is the creme de la creme, Midnight Waltz by Ludmila Aristova:

Here is a shot of me with Alex Anderson, who received the Silver Star Award on Saturday, Ricky Tims and Eleanor Burns. Alex’s and Ricky’s booth was close to mine, so I saw them in passing a lot:

I also took a turn in the Priority Alzheimer’s Booth on Saturday. I don’t know the final numbers, but I do know they raised more than last year and went home with less than 100 of the 1000 quilts they brought.

Susan Ennis is the artist who created the second quilt I had in my booth. It’s titled Oasis.

And, finally, here’s a shot of Karen Bresenhan, the force behind Quilts Inc.

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.

The Fall issue of The Professional Quilter includes a profile on Terry Atkinson. I’ve watched Terry’s business grow since I met her at her first Quilt Market in 1997. Her simple patterns have always been well-received by quilt shop owners and quilters alike, including the perennial best seller “Yellow Brick Road.” I wanted to know more about how Terry grew her business.

How did you come to quilting?
I made my first quilt in college for an art class project because I couldn’t afford paint. I had lots of fabric around the house. Later, I took an adult education class about quilting and began teaching quilting to my home ec students. I think the teaching skills translated into my ability to write easy-to-follow instructions.

What led to the business?
I was teaching quilting at a local quilt shop. Soon, my students asked to buy my class handouts, and I adapted my most popular class handouts for my first two patterns. Initially, the patterns were sold in local quilt shops. A pattern distributor picked up those first two patterns that year, giving the patterns exposure across the United States. In 1997 International Quilt Market was held in Minneapolis, and I exhibited for the first time, giving my patterns even more exposure to shops and distributors. They started to take over on a larger scale at that time.

One of your patterns, “Yellow Brick Road,” has been in the Checker Top 20 for seven to eight years. Why do you think it remains so popular?
“Yellow Brick Road” is a quilt that looks good in any kind of fabric. It’s fun to sew, and people like the fact that it uses up all of each fat quarter so there are no leftover scraps. Each time you make it it looks like a brand new quilt because it takes on the personality of the fabrics used. From what I hear, longarm quilters end up with lots of these to quilt for their customers.

You have 27 individual patterns and 14 books. How do you decide whether to issue a particular design as a solo pattern or as a part of a book?
For a pattern, we have only four pages of instructions, so a book provides more flexibility. The pictures are larger in a book as well, so sometimes I make the decision based on if the quilt would look better in a larger or smaller photo. I also will use books to showcase new fabric collections. And, if I want to work with a theme, I’ll go with a book. For example, Let’s Do Lunch, which came out earlier this year, includes a variety of table runners, napkin rings and a few totes. Most of the patterns have food-themed names.

To read more of the profile on Terry Atkinson, you can purchase Issue 105 or start your subscription here.

Mother Earth’s ABC
Sieglinde Schoen Smith
Breckling Press; $15.95

Fans of the award-winning quilt “Mother Earth and Her Children” will love this charming tale of the coming of spring and the transformation of a seedling into a zinnia. The book includes instructions for transferring each letter onto your own sewing project as well as the embroidery instructions. A wonderful gift for the holidays.

Here’s a link to order the book through Amazon.

I decided to name our teleclass series, and I picked PQ Café Business Series. I think listening to the conversations is perfect with a nice cup of coffee or, my choice, herb tea. Stop in the café next month when I’ll interview Ann Anderson about publishing patterns. Ann is a pattern designer and the founder of Quiltwoman.com, a pattern publishing company and distributor. Ann also published the wildly popular Publish Your Patterns!, the definitive guide to starting and running a successful pattern publishing business. Earlier this year Ann sold her business and today enjoys focusing on art and textile design. She also consults with designers about starting and growing a pattern business.

The teleclass is scheduled for Nov. 13 at 8 pm, Eastern Standard Time. Details are here.

Our last class resulted in 250 signups and a large number of purchases of the audio. Since so many people wanted the audio, it made more sense to include the audio free with the purchase of the class. That way, too, if you can’t make the class, you can still listen at your leisure, even with your cup of tea.

I’m still on a cloud after our teleclass on Tuesday evening. One of our listeners asked, “How do I type a standing ovation?” Thanks, Allison! It was our first of what I hope is a long series of teleclasses geared to serious or business quilters. Our first class featured a Q&A format with Gloria Hansen. Gloria’s latest book, Digital Essentials: The Quilt Maker’s Must-Have Guide to Images, Files and More, was just published in late September. The book is a wealth of valuable information and she shared lots of information on the importance of resolution, printing on fabric, working with images for slide shows, copyright protection of your images on the Web and more. I think our conversation is a great compliment to her book. We taped the conversation and it will be available next week as either an audio download or a physical CD. I’ll also have copies in Houston. And, thanks to everyone who stuck with us despite the technical difficulties. I know you’ll agree it was definitely worth it. And, thanks to Gloria for helping us kick off the series.

In the Summer issue of The Professional Quilter, David Nagle wrote about the importance of keeping good business records. Considering the current economy, I think it’s very important to have an accurate picture of the operational and financial effectiveness of your business. Without it, we can’t make good business decisions.

Part of recordkeeping is knowing how long to keep your records. (I tend to keep too much for too long, so David’s advice is helpful to me.) Here are his tips:

Generally, you need to keep supporting records of all income, expense and credit items that you claim on your tax returns for the period of limitations the Internal Revenue Service requires for those items. This is defined as the number of years after your return was due within which time you are allowed to amend your return
or to claim a refund or credit. The information below is a summary of the IRS guidelines:

1. For most tax returns filed on time with no tax due, keep supporting records for
three years after the later of the filing deadline, extension deadline or actual
filing date.
2. If you had income that you should have reported (but did not) that was 25% in
excess of your gross income, keep records for six years after your final payment
was made.
3. Keep all employment tax records for the later of four years after the employment
tax became due or was paid.
4. Keep records to support any deduction for bad debt loss for seven years.
5. In cases of someone required to file a return (and does not) or in the case of
fraudulent returns, the IRS requires records be kept indefinitely.I suggest that
after the period of limitations for your supporting records has expired, then you
make copies on CD (or DVD) before destroying them. Then, store the discs in a safe
off-site location.

Now, what do you do with all the papers you’ve purged after following David’s advice?
It will take me too long to put them through the paper shredder, so I’ll have a
box ready for the next free shredding day in my county.

To read more of David’s article, which includes specifics on what records to keep
and a sample recordkeeping system, you can purchase Issue 104 or start a subscription
here.