L.A. Int'l Textile Show

It's showtime folks! We're in a fabric flurry here at Michael Miller as we plan, prep and hit the road all over the country for the many different wholesale shows this fall. For those wholesale customers in the L.A. area c'mon by! The cute skirt above (on my cute niece) is from Serendipity Studio using our latest Plain Jane prints - due in stores end Sept/early Oct. (To any of you retailers selling this group: feel free to post your info in the comment section of this post)

International Textile Expo in Vegas

It's been a busy summer behind the scenes here at Michael Miller. Lot's to share and preview in the days and weeks ahead! For those of you that are wholesale customers : we'll be at the upcoming Las Vegas International Textile Expo Sept. 15 - 17th.
You're getting a SNEAK PEEK of a fabulous new sewing pattern: Emaline from Serendipity Studio made up in our newest girly floral Savannah and trimmed in Patty Young's clover dot along with Paula Prass's garden trellis. floralicious!

Dress up in the forest

Seems like I've been here, there and everywhere this summer, but my favorite was the blissful time spent with my grandchildren at the family cabin in the forest near Yosemite.

and yes, I used that time for some shameless fabric promoting photos!

I talked Samantha into a little dress up time with these adorable skirts from one of
Cindy Taylor Oates' Patterns
don't ya love the touch of tulle!

But now onto the fun stuff: collecting the pine cone babies

that go to bed in their bark beds with moss tufts for pillows.

what looks like a twig to the untrained eye is really a "toy" to help them fall asleep.

.........these are the good times........

Paula Prass giveaway!

Still submerged but hoping to surface soon- till then, get on over to Paula Prass's oh-so-fun summer soire giveaway!! Really , I can't wait to read the winner's story - Paula's too!

Patty Young giveaway!

I've been submerged here - we've all been hyper busy planning lots of exciting things to come - but I wanted to surface and make sure you're aware of the giveway happening on Patty Young's blog. check it out!

Laura Gunn debut at Quilt Market

It took a year and a half to bring Laura's paintings to life on fabric and boy was it worth it!
We're thrilled with the results and the response !
Her booth was chalk full of artful Lantern Bloom goodies

a good luck doll from her Mom, Elinor Peace Bailey

Here we are at school house showing the paintings that started it all

Laura sharing the quilt designed by Marinda Stewart

for the free down loadable pattern click here

Laura's adorable patterns

a great line - in the bag!

Spring Quilt mkt Pittsburgh 09

I'm back from market and scrounging around for pictures- I swear next market will be different- I'll come prepared with a fully charged camera and stop what I'm doing long enough to take some pictures!! I PROMISE!

Thankfully, I work with great people who came through once again!

All Smiles
2nd place award for multiple booth category! L to R: Sandi Henderson,Christine Osmers, me, Paula Prass, Michael Steiner, Patty Young, Deb Buchanan, bk row: Becky Bennett, Susan Day, Jennifer Storey, Debi Porreca, Ben Rubin.

that's the icing on the cake

now for the behind the scenes view of market- start to finish

A birds eye view of our booth (the Aqua row 2nd from the bottom) note the sunlight streaming in! Pittsburgh is my all time favorite convention center! Natural light- a huge plus at a show!

believe it or not - this stage has taken hours
it takes a village to raise a booth
somehow this will all come together

order through the chaos
showtime!
(note quilt pile-up- these are hard working show pieces, too many to hang, pawed through over & over)
and then it's over
what goes up- must come down- dismantling of the hidden kitchen
(yes, a well fed crew is...a well fed crew)

hard to believe this part goes quicker than set up

reverse construction

we all place bets predicting the finish time - imagine the antics- by this time we're all punchy
sorry- too exhausted for the empty booth photo
next post - show pics!

Pittsburgh Quilt Market

quilt by "Swirly Girls"

It's that time again, when we're all going a little crazy getting ready for Spring Quilt Market. A lot of exciting stuff to share with you!

For those of you going to market, make sure to come to our 2 School House sessions: the first one by Swirly Girls Design featuring our fabrics and the second one (immediately following the 1st, same room) where I'll give my trend & color report for the season along with preview trunk shows by Paula Prass, Patty Young, Laura Gunn and Pillow and Maxfield and of course Michael Miller!

When I return expect Lots of pictures!

Kitty Litter

For all you cat lovers out there, which by the way, have you ever noticed there's some kind of weird connection between quilters and cats? I mean since we started MMF it seems there's 2 print categories that quilters and fabric lovers can never get enough of: cat prints and boys' prints!

this leads me to our latest batch of vintage kitty prints- adorable if I do say so myself -

purrrrrrrfect!

Silhouette Kids Quilt

Is this the sweetest photo or what? It's in the Summer issue of Quilts and More. Quilt designed by Marinda Stewart. Prints from the Silhouette Kids Collection with cuddly soft backing of Cozy plush Big Harlequin