.Post AQM.

Can't believe it has taken me a whole week to finally post about Australian Quilt Market last weekend!  The past 2 months have been super busy for me and I am (crossing my fingers and) hoping that the craziness has come to an end and I can get the house cleaned up properly and the family back into a functioning routine (and hopefully get to bed a little earlier than I have been!)

Quilt Market was great, it was only the second one I have been to and was fun to catch up with familiar faces - both customers and blogging friends.  We decided it would be easier if I went to Melbourne on my own this year and I was going to stay somewhere by myself, but was so grateful when a couple of months before AQM got talking via email with Saffron Craig, Kate Conklin and Bec Johnson and we decided that we should make a girly weekend of it and stay together.  MUCH more fun than staying by myself :)

I hadn't met any of the girls before, but after spending a few minutes together, it really did feel as though we had known each other for years.  

I was (as usual) terrible at taking photos over the weekend, but the girls happily shared a few with me!  Saffron and I were on our own for the first night, so after setting up our booths we headed into the city for dinner together.  There are so many amazing places to eat in Melbourne - the hardest part was deciding on which restaurant to go to!  We ended up in this authentic little Italian restaurant that served the most delicious food...the gnocchi was to die for, I didn't want it to end and am reluctant to ever try gnocchi again because I don't think anything could top it! 

 

Bec and Kate joined us the next day.  I was so excited to meet these girls after becoming "email friends" a few months ago.  They are both amazing quilters and sell their fantastic patterns through their online stores and some retail stores.  (Bec's store here....Kate's store here).

Saffron has been working VERY hard behind the scenes and had HEAPS of new fabric ranges and pieces to order at AQM.  I am a huge fan of her fabric and can't wait until the new ranges are for sale - keep an eye on her online store here or at your local fabric store for her new fabric.

The four of us had a lovely time that evening at a cute little restaurant in St Kilda (oh, it is so lovely to eat out without the children!), then headed back to the hotel where we talked until after 2am!  I haven't done that since I was a teenager, and surprisingly didn't feel too bad the next day!  We had so much in common and heaps of questions to ask each other, I'm sure that we could have kept on talking for another week!

I actually didn't get much of a chance to take a proper walk through the rest of the market...I was busy on the Creative Abundance booth chatting with customers about our new patterns, but I did make sure that I got to meet with some of the fabric reps to preview upcoming ranges and get a bit of inspiration for future patterns!  As fun as the weekend was, it was lovely to come back to my rug rats and know that I can have a break from pattern writing for a little while!