Denyse Schmidt Sample Sale 2011*

*I didn’t bring a camera, but if you hop on over to Jennifer’s blog, Gehring Road, you can ogle over all of the amazing quilts that were for sale and on display yesterday.

Yesterday I attended the Denyse Schmidt Sample Sale.  It takes place at her studio in Bridgeport, CT, which is about an hour and a half away from our farm.  Luckily for me, for the past two years, it has taken place during my birthday weekend .  You can see pictures of my loot from last year here on flickr.  The difference between last year and this year both in the number of quilts I have made and the size of my fabric stash is kind of staggering.  Last year I had only made a few incredibly simple flannel quilts and had a very small fabric stash.  This year I have made over 15 quilts (most of them baby sized) and my fabric stash is, um, . . . no longer very small.

 

I got to the sale about 15 minutes before it started and thoroughly enjoyed chatting in line with some lovely ladies who were there to buy quilts.  Last year I bought two twin sized quilts from her Sarita Handa line, some scrap bags, and some sample pieces.  This year my plan was mostly to just look at the new quilts she had made for her new book that is about to be published.  I was on the lookout for some fabric, hopefully solids, as I now have a pretty large stash of prints (many of which are from DS lines).  When the studio was opened up, I went straight to the back room which was less crowded and just stared at the quilts for a good 5-10 minutes.  She had all the quilts from her new book on display and for sale and they are breathtaking.  The front room with the fabric samples and quilts was a madhouse.  After things settled down a bit I went to look.  There were some very good deals on pillow shams ($5-$10) and crib sets ($30) from her Sarita Handa line.  I picked up a crib set and four shams.  She also had a shelf with an assortment of random things, and what immediately caught my eye was a huge stack of leather samples, each for $1.  I picked up ten and have big plans for some wallets and a patchwork purse.

 

It was a beautiful day and Denyse’s studio is in the American Fabrics Building.  It is a huge industrial loft space and her windows are south facing and it was just so lovely being in there, surrounded by such beauty, in the nice warm sunshine.  A quilting demo was scheduled by a community group called Peace by Piece.  They are a non-profit, multigenerational group focused on providing teens with after-school art activities, primarily quilting.  I was sort of milling about waiting for the demo to start and I started looking in the bins of fabric.  There were a lot of FQ stacks of Greenfield Hill and also her DS quilts line for Joanns.  There were bags of scraps as well, but the thing that really caught my eye were some bolts of fabric and bags of solids.  I think people are really surprised to see that Denyse doesn’t really use her own fabrics, or even that many prints in her quilts.  The exception to this are her sample quilts that are put out when she is launching a new line in conjunction with a new pattern, then of course, her fabrics are the focus point.  I love her couture and works quilts, and so to have the chance to buy packs of fabrics from things she has used was brilliant.  I ended up buying a 5.5 yard bolt of a woven cloth for $12, a bag of white and natural colored linen, canvas, and ticking for $12, and three 6-yard bags of solids for $5 apiece.  I have been planning several solid quilts and now I have more than enough fabric in my stash to keep me quite occupied, and to spend $39 for about 30 yards of fabric was insane.

I waited in line to pay for everything, and amazingly, Denyse herself was tallying up everyone’s purchases.  I enjoyed chatting with her for a few minutes.  She is really a lovely person and seems very genuine and caring.  You could really tell that she wanted everyone to have a good experience at her sale.  After a bit, the group from Peace by Piece came in.  They had a basted quilt rolled onto a frame made out of 1″ x 3″ and some plastic saw horses.  They set up in the back room, with all of the quilts on display.  They unrolled the quilt partially and put four chairs on each side.  The group was mostly lovely older women and the teens that they work with.  They were quick to invite anyone who wanted to to sit and quilt.  I jumped right in!  I machine quilt pretty much all of my quilts but hand quilt most of my pillows and wall quilts.  I sat across from a woman named Viola and next to Rita.  They were both lovely, grandmotherly types and I learned so much in the short time I was sitting there.  I cannot even begin to put into writing the way it felt to be sitting and quilting with all of these people, all working on a piece together and chatting about fabric, quilts, and the weather.  I have a pretty well established fiber and spinning community, but I had never taken part in a quilting bee before.  I was in heaven.  And then, as if it couldn’t get any better, who should come and sit right across from me, but Denyse herself.  For me, she is the ultimate “rock star”.  So imagine, for me, it was like having a little jam session with someone like Eric Clapton.  Unfortunately, it only lasted for about 10 minutes as I had to leave because we had a billion errands to run afterwards, but it was just enough.  I feel SO lucky to have such a pioneer in the field of quilts and fabric in my state and so grateful that she is willing to open up her studio once very year.  It was the best birthday present imaginable.

I can’t wait to start sewing with my new stacks of fabric (I already have a quilt planned for my baby brother) and am already dreaming about next year’s studio sale!