{get to it} Kansas City March at Quilt Market

Have you heard about the Kansas City March?

As a shopowner, you can join in the fun at the upcoming Quilt Market in Kansas City, where you’ll get the chance to win all sorts of goodies just by collecting stamps. You might win fabric bundles, books, pattern bundles, or even the Legacy Sample quilt. You can check that quilt out while you’re getting stamps–it will be displayed in the Andover Fabrics booth (#1724). So how do you win? It’s easy!

First, you’ll need a special passport available on the Kansas City March site, in your Buyer’s Guide at Market and in the April issue of FabShop News.

Second, you will visit the booths of participating designers and sponsors, collecting stamps. There are 16 designers and six sponsors, so take the time to visit each and find out about their new Market releases, as well as getting your passport stamped.

When you finish, you’ll need to drop off your passport at the Andover Fabrics booth before noon on Sunday, May 20. Everyone who completes the march and includes their email will be given downloads for all the blocks of the Legacy Sample quilt. One lucky winner will walk away with the finished quilt! One entry per, please.

{promo} Bag it for Mother’s Day

Are you hosting any special Mother’s Day promotions or events? It’s a great holiday for handmade gifts–what mother doesn’t love something made just for her?!

Here are a few of our favorites, both new and not-so-new, in the purse and handbag category. Whether your customers are looking to make wallets or clutches or over-the-shoulder bags, independent designers have the patterns just for them.

PATTERNS: 1. Cash and Carry Wallet from Atkinson Design 2. Cancun Clutch from Pink Sand Beach Designs 3. The Classic Minaudiere from Ellen Medlock Studio.

4. Urban Tote from Indygo Junction 5. Carolina Carryall from StudioKat Designs
6. Abby Bag from V and Co.

BOOKS: Released in 2011, Bags: the Modern Classics (Stash Books/C&T Publishing) by Sue Kim includes how-to and patterns for 19 projects with plenty of tips for making each project unique. Lisa Lam‘s The Bag Making Bible, published in 2010, is considered by many to be the resource for bag construction, whether you are making a small wallet, a market tote, a handbag or a Weekender.

{look-out} New design competition with Indygo Junction and BurdaStyle

Amy Barickman’s new Vintage-Inspired, Modern Style Design Challenge (hosted by BurdaStyle) is an opportunity to encourage fashion enthusiasts to use their sewing skills and creativity to make a wearable fashion project. And of course, to help you sell some patterns, notions and fabric while building and inspiring your community.

This challenge was created to celebrate the history of sewing by recognizing both SINGER and Coats & Clark, who are both celebrating significant anniversaries this year (160th and 200th, respectively); as well as educate and inspire through the life and work of Mary Brooks Picken, the authority on fashion and dressmaking in the early and mid-1900s. Mary’s work is the basis for Amy’s book, Vintage Notions.

Amy made a short video sharing all the details on the challenge and how to enter. Feel free to post this video on your blog and website!

The deadline for submissions is Monday, March 12th at 11:59 pm (EST). The winners will be announced Monday, March 26th.

Indygo Junction want to provide you with some tools to help you create buzz & excitement in your store around the challenge! They encourage you to create an in-store display (they’ve got a free poster you can use), plan an event (sponsor a fashion show of the entries from your area!), send out an eNewsletter (feel free to use their graphics & videos), post on your Facebook page, Twitter page, website and blog! Don’t forget to link to the Challenge Page on IndygoJunction.com!

As an extra incentive for your customers to participate in your planned events – they are offering you goodies to do a giveaway! Coats & Clark will ship to you a vintage-inspired, 200th anniversary commemorative tin filled with thread. Indygo Junction will send a selection of patterns and a copy of the Buttonware book. All you have to do is send them a photo (via email) of the poster hanging in your store or send a copy of your eNewsletter promoting the contest to info@indygojunction.com.

For more information, Cheryl@indygojunction.com or call their offices at 913.341.5559.

Hello Houston

The FabShop crew, along with many other fabric enthusiasts, have found our way to Houston for the 2011 Quilt Market. We’re kicking it off with our dinner event tonight, ramping up for an exciting weekend ahead of us. Did you make it to Houston? Will we see you at dinner? Swing by and say hello or make your way to our booth over the weekend; we really do love meeting you all, talking fabric retailing and making this the best event of the year!

Quilting Documentary Premiers During Pacudah’s Quilt Week

Stitched, a new film about three art quilters competing in quilt shows is set to make its big-screen debut in Paducah, Kentucky during Quilt Week. The following is the news release from the film’s producers.

Houston, TX., April 01, 2011, — Picturesmith Productions, LLC is proud to announce the theatrical and Kentucky premier of “Stitched,” a documentary that follows three art quilters as they compete in the country’s largest quilt shows. Stitched features the American Quilter’s Society annual Quilt Show & Contest in Paducah, which transforms into “Quilt City USA” during the event, one of Kentucky’s largest tourist attractions.

The film will be screened multiple times at the Paducah-McCracken County Convention Center and Maiden Alley Cinema in historic downtown Paducah.

“Stitched” follows Hollis Chatelain, whose painted quilts address social and environmental issues such as immigration, poverty and water scarcity; Caryl Bryer Fallert, the first to win a big prize with a quilt made by a sewing machine; and Randall Cook, a fitness guru whose quilts depict male nudes.

“We wanted to focus on some of the super stars of quilting who have stirred up controversy with their work,” said director Jenalia Moreno. “We traveled around the country documenting the lives of these dynamic artists whose creations have changed the definition of ‘quilt’.”

Editors compiled 250 hours of footage interviewing traditional and art quilters, museum curators and other industry experts. The result is an entertaining and educational film that captures the enormity of the quilting world, while examining tightly knit communities illustrated by shows, quilting bees and fabric stores.

During production of the film, “Stitched” won a grant from the Austin Film Society and a short version of the film took home a second place award at Extremely Shorts Film Festival, an annual event held in Houston by the Aurora Picture Show, a non-profit micro-cinema.

BEHIND EVERY STITCH THERE IS A STORY…

WHAT: The theatrical and Kentucky premier of “Stitched,” a documentary

WHERE & WHEN:

Paducah-McCracken County Convention Center 415 Park St., Eisenhower Room

* Tuesday, April 26 @ 4 p.m. (Kentucky premiere)

* Wednesday, April 27 @ 6 p.m.

* Friday, April 29 @ 6 p.m.

* Saturday, April 30 @ 4 p.m.

Maiden Alley Cinema 112 Maiden Alley, downtown Paducah

* Thursday, April 28 @ 7 p.m. (Theatrical Premiere)

* Friday, April 29 @ 5:30 p.m. and 9 p.m.

* Saturday , April 30 @ 4 p.m., 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.

* Sunday, May 1 @ 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.

For more information about “Stitched,” visit www.stitchedfilm.com or www.facebook/stitchedfilm.com.