FabShop News Magazine – Issue 86
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Trade Magazine
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Quilts Inc. Announces Cincinnati Quilt Festival Attendance
Quilts Inc. recently announced the attendance numbers for Quilt Festival in Cincinnati–the first time Festival has visited that city. The following is the press release from Quilts Inc.
The Queen City gave a royal welcome to the International Quilt Festival’s first-ever spring show in Cincinnati, as a total of 19,435 attendees came to the Duke Energy Convention Center from April 7-10 to see quilts, learn how to make quilts, and shop for quilts!
And while that number was slightly less than the previous spring show—the final one to be held in Chicago—Festival Director and Founder Karey Bresenhan was more than thrilled with the results.
“For a first show in a brand new market, I was very, very happy with the attendance figure. And I can’t tell you how many people I met who told me now that they know about the show, they’ll be back next year…with friends!” she says. “That’s very gratifying, and great for quilting in general.”
Bresenhan also credits the “incredibly positive” attitude of many of Festival’s partners (including the Duke Energy Center, Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Hilton Netherland Plaza, Hyatt Regency, and Millennium) with making it the “best first show” that Quilts, Inc.—which produces all three editions of Festival—has ever put on.
“That made a difference for sure,” Bresenhan says. “Everyone was so helpful and wanted the show to succeed. Cincinnati was ready for the quilters. And so many of the local quilters from the area stopped to tell us how happy they were that the show was there. All those years of planning certainly paid off!”
Festival featured 219 exhibitors in 394 booths offering everything from finished antique and contemporary quilts to fabrics, books, patterns, tools, sewing machines, antiques, and crafts. More than 500 pieces of fabric art were also on display. Finally, a total of 955 enrolled students could choose from more than 80 different quilt and art-related classes, lectures, and events.
International Quilt Festival will return to Cincinnati and the Duke Energy Center on April 13- 15, 2012 (with classes beginning and Preview Night on April 12). For more information, visit www.quilts.com. You can also visit Festival’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/QuiltFestival, or follow the show on Twitter at www.twitter.com/QuiltFestival
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Houston’s International Quilt Festival Breaks Record
Quilts Inc just announced the attendance numbers for the International Quilt Festival in Houston–and they broke a record! Not only that, attendance grew by 15 percent over last year. The following is the press release from Quilts Inc.
Quilters from around the country and all over to be thankful for just before the holiday season, because they are part of a record! The total attendance for the recent 2010 International Quilt Festival/Houston was 60,162—a 15% increase over last year’s total.
“I just knew that this year’s show was going to be incredible, so that figure doesn’t surprise me at all,” says Festival founder and director Karey Bresenhan. “I could feel it in the energy on the show floor, and the number of people I saw shopping, taking classes, and viewing those gorgeous pieces of quilt art. Everywhere you looked, there were quilters!”
In addition, the show featured 546 exhibitors (up 7% from ’09) taking out 992.5 booths (up 3% from ’09). Of those, 51 exhibitors were brand new to the show. In terms of class enrollees, 4,862 attendees took part in Festival’s Quiltmaking Academy—a 14% jump from last year. Quilt Festival also regularly ranks in the top-three attended conventions and trade shows in the city of Houston each year. And that shouldn’t be surprising. According to the 2010 Quilting in America™ survey, quilters spend $3.6 billion annually on their passion—more than golfers, fishermen, or gun/hunting enthusiasts do on theirs, according to USA Today. There are also 21.3 million active quilters in the U.S.
“That’s the statistic that really throws people for a loop!” Bresenhan laughs. “And so many people have a very set idea of what a quilter is or what she looks like or what she does, but these facts and our attendees certainly challenge that notion. Today’s quilters are modern artists in their own right, and more and more people are realizing that. Especially once they see the special exhibits displays at Festival!”
In other Festival-related news, the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative raised $54,437.75 through the sale of miniature quilts. The Ina Stentiford Memorial Award for quilts in the exhibit “In Full Bloom: Floral Quilts in Memory of Helen Pearce O’Bryant” went to Mariet Nieskens for Turqouise Flowers on My Quilt. The International Quilt Association also awarded $98,250 in cash prizes in their annual fall Judged Show, “Quilts: A World of Beauty.” The Handi Quilter Best of Show Award ($10,000) went to Sharon Schamber for Mystique. All winners also got to keep their quilts.
The dates for the 2011 International Quilt Festival/Houston are November 3-6 (with Preview Night on November 2). Other editions of Festival include the debut of International Quilt Festival/Cincinnati (April 8-10 with Preview Night April 7) and International Quilt Festival/Long Beach (July 29-31, with Preview Night on July 28).
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Chinese-American Television Features Quilting in New York City
New York City-based Chinese language television station NTD-TV recently did a story about quilting in New York City–and featured FabShop member The City Quilter. While the broadcast is in Chinese, the interviews are in English. You can watch the story in the embedded video above or on NTD-TV’s website.
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GO!™ Fabric Cutter Named Finalist in International IDEA Competition
Accuquilt’s GO! Fabric Cutter has been heralded for its impact on quality of life–details follow in the press release below.
(FREMONT, Neb.) AccuQuilt, distributor of fabric cutting solutions in the quilting and fabric crafts markets, proudly announced the company’s GO!™ Fabric Cutter wass elected as a finalist in the 2009 International Design Excellence Award (IDEA) program, the world’s premier international competition honoring product design excellence. The honor puts AccuQuilt in the company of IDEA winners such as NIKE, Samsung, Dell and Coca-Cola, world-class companies that have been recognized for the sustainability, functionality and aesthetics of their products.
“We are thrilled the cutter is being recognized not only in the quilting world, but by world-class product design experts,” said Andrea Ronning, AccuQuilt’s director. “This honor assures quilters, when they purchase an AccuQuilt® GO!™ Fabric Cutter, they are getting the best—both functionally and aesthetically.”
The annual IDEA competition, which recognizes the impact of industrial design on “quality of life and the economy,” is open to designers and designs worldwide. Judging criteria include: 1) innovation; 2) benefit to the user, society, natural ecology, and the client; 3) visual appeal; 4) usability and reliability; and 5) implementation. The jury, comprised of 20 world-renowned designers and design thinkers, spent weeks previewing entries online and 2½ days of intense, face-to-face evaluation and debate List of award winners was announced in July.
ABOUT ACCUQUILT
Headquartered in Fremont, Neb., AccuQuilt offers quilters, fabric crafters and retailers a premiere line of fabric cutters, dies, quilting patterns and other quilt and fabric cutting solutions that help quilters quickly and accurately cut shapes for quilting and fabric crafts. Cutting with AccuQuilt cutters is a natural evolution of fabric cutting methods. “First scissors…then rotary…finally…AccuQuilt™” for fast, easy, accurate fabric cutting. Visit AccuQuilt online at accuquilt.com.
ABOUT IDEA
IDEA® (International Design Excellence Awards) is the premier international competition honoring design excellence in products, ecodesign, interaction design, packaging, strategy, research and concepts. IDEA is sponsored by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), the voice of industrial design, committed to advancing the profession through education, community and advocacy. Visit idsa.org.
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MADE IN NEW YORK: City Quilting
The City Quilter Announces A Public Quilt Exhibition at the Williams Club, Fall, 2009
Celebrates the best in New York metropolitan area quilting with 63 quilts on display for 7 weeks
The City Quilter has organized a quilt exhibition that will be shown from September 22, 2009 through November 14, 2009 at the Williams Club, located at 24 East 39th Street. 63 quilts will be hung, covering most of the public spaces onthe first two floors of the Club as well as the basement gallery area. Viewing hours are from 8 am to 8 pm, 7 days per week.
For submission, a quilt must have been made while the quilter was living orworking in the New York metro area. The quilts were juried, selected from 203 that were submitted. The chosen quilts reflect a wide range of quilting styles, from traditional designs to the contemporary.
As part of the show, there will be a special exhibition of ten Dear Jane quilts.”Janiacs”–as they are sometimes affectionally referred to–study and model their quilts on the 225 block design of Jane Stickle‘s 1863 quilt. The “Dear Jane”moniker refers to the letter of appreciation written by quilter Brenda Papadakis, who deconstructed this amazing 19th century accomplishment and consequently set in motion the making of many, many “Dear Jane”quilts. One defining characteristic of DJ’s is that each of the 225 blocks is unique. This special focus commemorates the 10 years of Dear Jane classes at The CityQuilter, and the community that has consequently developed.
Cathy Izzo, the shop’s co-owner commented: “There are so few opportunities for the public to see quilts in New York City, and the vast range of quilting styles will surprise–and please–all the visitors. We expect a big response to a show that will help advance New Yorkers’ interest in quilting.”
This exhibit follows The City Quilter’s successful show in Winter, 2007, that commemorated the 10th anniversary of our classroom–and our shop. At that time, 45 juried quilts were displayed for seven weeks at the Williams Club. The Club was pleased with the response, and has invited us back for another exhibition.
Several of the quilts are expected to be for sale and revenue will be shared with the Club.
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The City Quilter
Since its opening in February, 1997, The City Quilter has served New York’s quilters and other fabric artists. The 2,500 square foot shop has more than 3,000 bolts of 100% cotton fabric and a wide selection of hand-dyed cotton fabric withthe “urban quilter”in mind: sophisticated, contemporary and exotic. The shopoffers more than 125 different classes each year, covering appliqué; hand &machine embroidery; fabric bowl-making; sashiko; dyeing; bag-making; design;and a very wide range of quilting-related classes, from art quilts to baby quilts, and from traditional log cabins to Japanese-inspired.
The City Quilter’s customers reflect the wide range of people who live in New York, and the shop caters to the tastes of these urban quilters. It’s local patrons include investment bankers, bakers, lawyers, interior designers, journalists,models, network television stars, secretaries, and doctors. Local customers in our 2,500 square foot shop range in age from late teens–we have regular visits by a teacher with her F.I.T. high school classes–to seniors–but with lots of individuals in their 20’s and 30’s.
The shop probably has more men as patrons and students than most other quilt shops. Naturally, The City Quilter has visitors from throughout the country and around the world, especially from England, Israel, France, Japan, Australia, Canada, and Brazil. Many international visitors are repeat customers, visiting New York annually or sometimes more often for business or pleasure.
In Zagat’s 2008 New York City Shopping Guide, The City Quilter was assessed as the top “fabric/notions store in New York, and bested the quality level ofstores such as the Apple Store SoHo, Pearl Paint, Louis Vuitton, and Kate’s Paperie among other top Manhattan retailers. And the store is located in Chelsea, not the Fashion/Garment District!
The shop was rated 13th by Zagat’s in “service”out of the more than 2,000 retail stores assessed in the five boroughs. This placed the shop on par withsuch renowned stores as Cartier, and Bulgari, and bettered such establishments as Kiehl’s, Steuben, and Mikimoto.
How does a quilt shop provide service comparable to such outstanding, world-famous, service-oriented retailers? “Employees at The City Quilter are as enthusiastic as the customers,”says owner Cathy Izzo. “They offer a special expertise and interest—and the customers sense that.”
Williams Club
The Club was founded in 1913 by alumni of Williams College, an undergraduate college founded in 1793 and located in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The Club’s twin brownstone, six story facility includes meetingand reception areas, a dining room, and overnight accommodations, and is located on 39th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues.
For more information, please contact:Dale Riehl The City Quilter133 West 25th Street New York, NY 10001 212-807-0390 dale@cityquilter.com www.cityquilter.com
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