Quilt Market is This Week! What I’m doing and Where I’ll be.

International Quilt Market, the twice yearly industry trade show is this weekend in Houston, Texas, from Friday-Monday. I’ll be there of course, purchasing the latest and greatest for our precut store.

But perhaps even more exciting (and nerve-wracking) is that I’ll also be there on behalf of Martingale/That Patchwork Place, promoting my book Machine Quilting With Style. I’ll be participating in three promotional  events for my book, so if you are attending I invite you to come see me!

Meet me at Quilt Market and choose your favorite button!

Schoolhouse Schedule

On Friday, during the Schoolhouse Series, I’ll be giving a 30 minute presentation and showing the quilts from the book. The point of this presentation is to educate quilt shop owners on why they want to carry my book in their shops and how to sell it.

Why carry my book? – it’s the perfect machine quilting reference for 18 different designs, using both walking foot and free motion quilting techniques. Quilters always want to learn more tips and tricks on how to quilt their own quilts! It’s also great lesson manual for teaching how to make a complete quilt from start to finish.

How to sell it – bundle it up with a kit purchase, include it on the supply list for at least 15 different classes (12 piecing classes, 3 different machine quilting classes); for sewing machine dealers – offer it as a “freebie” with any sewing machine purchase.

Demos and Giveaways

Then on Saturday, I will be presenting two demos in the Martingale booth, one at 11 AM and then again at 3 PM. The purpose of these demos will be to show shop owners how they can create a fun customer experience around my book and how to encourage add-on sales. I’ll be showing how shop employees can demo improv piecing, how to use a few of my favorite rulers for precision cutting of the blocks, and how to get their students comfortable with quilting by practicing daily free-motion sketching.

It’s sure to be a whirlwind of a time and I plan to share tons of live play-by-plays on Instagram and Periscope so be sure to follow me there @christaquilts!