Some thing that became noticeable last year to me and reinforced this year is the lack of display/patterns from some of our "big names" in Australian stitching/quilting/designing...............very disappointing especially for me as I live in an area where we don't have any quilt shops as it is always much better to see things in person and while I know all shops have different styles and keep different designers patterns etc but I would say Melbourne and Sydney have the biggest quilt shows in Australia. Would this not be a priority in the Australian market....and I as I don't own a shop I don't go to the trade show but quite a few of what I would call our big names are just not at the show you try and find a pattern from some.........non existent..........a lot of people don't follow blogs online like me so how would you even know they exist or have new patterns.............if your trying to make designing and selling patterns your business would this not be a great way to promote it all..................
Having said the above I have no idea what it costs to have a stand at the expos but I am sure it is too expensive as I know one shop told me she wasn't going back due to the cost.......AND I do know it is a massive effort for the shops/designers that make the effort to attend.
Maybe you could tag on with a shop..........they promote your patterns and you draw customers to their stand also.....share the cost.....I don't know what the answer is but that was disappointing..........
....but moving onto the good stuff.............
to the shops that did attend..........you hard work is appreciated...............
I did miss lots of photos of shops that were at the quilt show that I loved......there were heaps but here are some of the favourites............
Threadbear, Cherry Pie Designs, Monica Poole was with Margaret's Fabrics..........Kelani...
Quiltmania had a stand.........Kathy and the girls at Material Obsessions...........
I have a few of my favourites following...........
Having said the above I have no idea what it costs to have a stand at the expos but I am sure it is too expensive as I know one shop told me she wasn't going back due to the cost.......AND I do know it is a massive effort for the shops/designers that make the effort to attend.
Maybe you could tag on with a shop..........they promote your patterns and you draw customers to their stand also.....share the cost.....I don't know what the answer is but that was disappointing..........
....but moving onto the good stuff.............
I did miss lots of photos of shops that were at the quilt show that I loved......there were heaps but here are some of the favourites............
Threadbear, Cherry Pie Designs, Monica Poole was with Margaret's Fabrics..........Kelani...
Quiltmania had a stand.........Kathy and the girls at Material Obsessions...........
I have a few of my favourites following...........
Hatched and Patched............Anni is always a massive hit.........
The Birdhouse.........The designs from Natalie's new book are to the left........
great to see Natalie at the stand Trev was hiding behind the middle quilt.........
A wonderful surprise this year was to find Carolyns' Quilting Room........OMG reproduction heaven.........
Carolyn has big news since the quilt show.........Congrats Carolyn...........
I am so tempted by this quilt..........the blue,brown and creams
what do you think should I do it???
great to see Natalie at the stand Trev was hiding behind the middle quilt.........
Sue Daley was with Busy Thimbles..........I did have Sue in the photo but she may not have been speaking to me if I hadn't cropped this photo..........it wasn't very flattering............
Marg Low was on a stand with Blue Willow Cottage last year and this year branched out on her own............the stand was gorgeous and full of her designs............
For some you may have heard of the Travelling Friendship Quilt............
Blocks are made up from all over Australia.............
Blocks are made up from all over Australia.............
This one was from Pauline Calico Crossroads in Tasmania
thats a pic of her shop in the middle.........hope your on the mend Pauline.......I'm sure your customers are missing you.............
Catch you later..............
Chookyblue
45 comments:
I agree Chooky - there was a lot of big designers missing and I found that disappointing as well.
Love your new header.....and yes you should do it....and I do totally agree with what you are saying Chooky..xx
i think you should do it and i also love the new header.We dont even have Anni's stand or Marg's stand which is a shame because i would love to see them here,i know the stalls are extremely expensive,about 10 yrs ago the brother rep told me that each of their stands and they had 3 was $500 dollars a day for each stand,now over 3-4 days thats a lot of money for smaller shops to pay i would hate to know how much they are now.
I agree about the designers. It must be such a huge effort to have a stand at the show, but it is especially disappointing for country sewers when some of the big names aren't there. I think we thanked the ones that did attend by spending so much money!
You are right in thinking that the stands are expensive Chooky. They cost thousands of dollars & if you are a pattern designer it is very difficult to sell enough patterns to even cover your stand cost let alone your travelling expenses. Many pattern designers are mums who run their business from home & just cant afford the costs of having a stand at a show. I think it's a clever idea to join with a shop & share the costs and hopefully more designers or stores will go down this road. We have an amazing amount of talented designers in Australia and it would be wonderful to see them represented at the shows. Great post!
I agree fully, as a small designer, there is no way, I could go without aligning with a shop, and that opportunity isnt there if you are small....but we soldier on lol
Love you new header, nice and warm for winter !!
Great post Chookyblue you are such a great country supporter of events. Wish I could have met you there again. Loved seeing some of the stalls and those lovely quilts.....
This is a great post Chookyblue. I went to the Perth Craft & Quilt show, first time for me to one of these. Certainly in terms of quilting & stitching, I'm sure I'm remembering correctly that there was no designer as a stand-alone. Of course many businesses/shops selling various patterns of various designers. Monica Poole was most notable to me, at Margaret's Fabrics (and I love Monica!) Good ole Perth, distance is our foe - which is why I'm sure most designers don't bring their stands to Perth. No doubt the costs of travel & transport & all that, then cost of the stand, is carefully weighed against the benefit. Certainly my eyes have been opened to several Aus designers I would not have known about if not for reading blogs. BTW, do THAT quilt!
Thank you for letting me join you at the quilt show. I really enjoy our trips together!!!!!
It is disappointing when you go to the shows and the designers you really want to see aren't there but I know one of the shops you mentioned and the cost and effort is enormous...it does cost a small fortune, thousands of dollars over the course of the show,very hard to recoup.....not to mention while they are at the show the shop still has to operate so there are extra staffing costs as well..and they want confirmation and money up front for next year's expo pretty much straight after you get home from this year! Very hard for small business to justify.
Yes, the quilt is gorgeous Chooky - very easy on the eye, comforting! Poor old me from Perth too - I have been tossing up if I'll go to Melbourne this year, now don't know what to think. Must check back to watch other Comments coming in.
Hugs - Lurline.
Love your new header.
I can sympathise with you about not all the designers being there - but as everyone has said the cost is enormous. Its a bit the same in Brisbane - we never get an Anni Downs stand - we do sometime get her patterns on the normal shops stands but not the samples very often - we are lucky and do get Natalie Bird.
Get the quilt - if you still love it now you are home - get it.
Thanks for all the snaps and info - you are such a wealth of "guide talk" - its almost like being there.
Hello Donna,
Interesting comments so far, I gave up going to quilt shows, to expensive to get there myself with fuel entry food etc plus I don't do crowds so well. I think we have a idea of what to expect and if that doesn't live up to what is at the show we can become despondent with what is actually at the show. I guess with having to make sure the designer gets enough from the show to cover someone running the business back home travel cost of stall and accommodation it all adds up.Maybe someone should organise smaller shows in the country where costs are a lot less and I can imagine that people wouldn't mind a designer staying at there home to save costs etc.
Happy days.
Bev.xoxo
Go on, get the pattern - you will have a beautiful quilt when you have finished.
Very well said Chooky. I've been going to the show for many years and each year there are less designers/shops there for us patchworkers.
Great pics. Thanks.
interesting post i agree with Lynda i find that less and less shops for patchwork are at the show, i think it is great that all the other crafts are represented but noticed some great designers missing....i would seriously consider not attending the show at all if it wasn't for the quilt show and catching up with all my bloggy freinds...
i love the quilt, i didn't get much time at Carolyns stall...by that time my card was smoking and i was exhausted from all the socialising...lol
Hi Chooky..I totally agree with you. It is so sad... I am very proud of the Australian Patchwork designers.. they rock!!!
It must be so hard for them all...
Sandyn
Let's keep supporting them all.
Lovely photos Chooky. I agree, if we don't know what designers are doing, how can we buy their work. Hugs...
love that quilt....
I agree with the comments about designers not being at the shows, but it is really expensive, and it's very hard to justify especially if you are just starting out and not well known...that in itself is a balancing act...how to become known so that people do want to buy your patterns...
I think too, that a lot of designers try to make the commitment to one show per year because of the expense and if the sales aren't there, it's dropped...and I think that trying to work out which is best show to attend is quite hard also...
maybe some of the smaller designers could team up together, it's something to think about.
Great post Chooky! I think some of the designers that I didn't see at all at the show are distributed thru a wholesale distributor so wouldn't have a stand at the show but it was very disappointing to see none of their designs being promoted by the retail stores that were there.
Great post, great photos..great jealousy that i wasn't there!
Hi Chooky....I hadn't been to the Sydney show for 10 years until this time...Yes I agree about the stands...there seemed to be quite a few more there then...and big names also. I'm thinking cost might have something to do with it all perhaps...I had heard that at the Canberra show it was around $2000 to have a stall!
That's a lovely quilt you are thinking of doing...I think half the fun of doing the quilt is the thinking/deciding/choosing...keep thinking about it all and the answer will just be there I reckon. That's how my SKOW quilt 'happened'...I kept thinking and thinking...got the book...now the fabrics but still not started but that's okay...I'll get there...Just have to stop going to these shows all in a row ha ha!!!
as a teeny micro designer I could never even dream of doing a retail show like that. Of course as my patterns are wholesaled into shops, I would love to see my patterns at the show and would happily send the shop samples for display. It is hard to get patterns into shops...and therefore to the shows. Keep plugging away is my motto.
Maybe this is something the organisers need to look at or better yet if everyone sent and email(bombarded)them to consider their high costs things may change in the future... If the venues and insurances are what put the prices up maybe they need to reconsider where they have them. I intend to go every year but don't always get there and sometimes when I have I have been so disappointed!! We need to support our industry whether it is a sahm or a larger concern, while ever this continues more and more people will purchase from overseas!
Well said Chooky.... I could not have said it better...... Even from your blog I have be able to catch up on the lastest patterns, books fabric etc .... So a BIG THANK YOU for expressing your thoughts and feelings.... Bravo
Oh love the pics of the stands, and re the blue and cream, y e s you should do it. Thank you for sharing your photos They are always terrific
Hi Chooky !!
Can you imagine what it could be without Australian designers and with quilt shops that haven't heard of them ????? A LOT of frustration !!!
It could be worse !!!
Florence
I totally agree with you about the missing designers at the Show.
Like Jodie said in her comment--"incy wincy designers" try to sell their patterns wholesale through a shop. From my experience, it is very difficult to get ones patterns into a shop in the first place, and they are not keen to have your things in their stall at the Show (even if you give them on consignment ie they only pay you for what is sold).
Maybe the small designers should get together and have a site where we can showcase our patterns for people to buy. Not the big shows though-- they would be way too expensive.
I totally agree with you about the missing designers at the Show.
Like Jodie said in her comment--"incy wincy designers" try to sell their patterns wholesale through a shop. From my experience, it is very difficult to get ones patterns into a shop in the first place, and they are not keen to have your things in their stall at the Show (even if you give them on consignment ie they only pay you for what is sold).
Maybe the small designers should get together and have a site where we can showcase our patterns for people to buy. Not the big shows though-- they would be way too expensive.
I love all the Australian designers myself and I noticed more and more of them in shops here...and on-line. I think the stands are expensive...they are here!! Loved all the pictures!!
Hi Chooky,
Yes I do agree there did seem to be less quilting stands at the show this year than in the past, however those that were there were as impressive as usual.
Yes the cost of a stand is huge but I look at the cost of this as advertising and networking but its still nice to make a profit at the end of all the hard work. For many of the shops out there the cost of the show and running a shop with staff is overwhelming for them,so they have to choose carefully into which basket they place their eggs,luckily for me, working from home does help with that decision. We need to make sure that we support our shops here in Australia even though the temptation to shop overseas is always there just in front of us.
Thank you to everyone who supported my business at the show and I hope to see you there next year if not at many of the smaller group shows that I attend.
Carol
Cherry Pie Designs.
Great post, Chooky......ans Sydney lures many more designers than Brisbane....very sad.....wish I'd been there to see Carolyns Quilting Room stand and I hope she doesn't overlook Brisbane in her rounds........
I think you have a good point regarding knowledge of Aussie designers. If I compare to VQF (a show near me) if one is made aware of a designer it's really because of the shop owner. Having said that, I have seen designers with their own booth. I do know Creative Abundance does the distributing for many Aussie designers. They used to have Cinderberry Stitches, Red Brolly & a few others that are some of my favourites. However, that is no longer the case. Not sure what happened. Maybe there is a restructuring of Aussie designers this year. Who knows?! I too would have been disappointed. It's always nice to see "what's new" in the designer department. Thanks for sharing! Cheers!
Wow!....love the birds eye view photo. Looks like an amazing time. Very inspiring.
Nice to visit the show with you. Loved seeing Bob the shop cat got a mention. It is interesting to read what you had to say about the Aussie designers. Not sure there is an answer to the problem. Very interesting quilt ..... go on give it a go.
What an amazing lot of posts of your trip to the Quilt show! It was lovely seeing all the quilts and recognising friends in the pbotos. Looks like lots of fun, thanks for sharing xx
Not only is it hard work but it's the enourmous cost of going. They even have to pay to use the loading bay so I can understand their absence. We're starting to lose some good shops in Sydney and if too many close down, I'd have to go to Melbourne for my fabric fix. Sometimes designers do appear in shop stands but it wasn't this year.
Funny, I did notice too! I suppose those big names you are talking about only wholesale their patterns to their distributer... Anni and Natalie wholesale AND retail so that is why there were there I supppose. But, I do think it would be great for them to jump onto a actual stall holders stand.
Oh, and I forgot to say..... I have no doubt though, some designers would demand payment for working on a stand too!
Having worked and attenede all the Melbourne shows for ten years, you can imagine my disappointment in the Perth show when 70% of the stall holders don't come to the west coast. I am loving being home but I am as remote as you are from access to fabrics and patterns, yes the Internet is handy but this is a tactile craft. Those that can't afford a stand on their own should combine and do a stall together.
Having worked and attenede all the Melbourne shows for ten years, you can imagine my disappointment in the Perth show when 70% of the stall holders don't come to the west coast. I am loving being home but I am as remote as you are from access to fabrics and patterns, yes the Internet is handy but this is a tactile craft. Those that can't afford a stand on their own should combine and do a stall together.
Having worked and attenede all the Melbourne shows for ten years, you can imagine my disappointment in the Perth show when 70% of the stall holders don't come to the west coast. I am loving being home but I am as remote as you are from access to fabrics and patterns, yes the Internet is handy but this is a tactile craft. Those that can't afford a stand on their own should combine and do a stall together.
Great post - thanks.
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