Houston – July 17, 2020
From Karey Bresenhan
Founder and Director Emeritus of International Quilt Market
I’ve spent most of my adult life in the quilt world, first as a new shopowner of Great Expectations Quilts, then as the Founder and Director of the International Quilt Festival, and then as the creator of a very important part of quilting—the International Quilt Market. And today, with sadness and regret, I am amplifying the earlier announcement about the cancellation of this fall’s Quilt Market, previously scheduled for October
24-26 at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
All of our public health officials, which locally include all the head physicians of the main hospitals in Houston’s world famous Texas Medical Center and nationally include the CDC, have called for a halt to events that attract large crowds (and that is the very definition of Quilt Festival—which has already been cancelled—and Quilt Market).
Attendees at these events run a high risk of infection with the deadly virus that has changed our world this year. Rather than risk the health and safety of even one person at Market, I am cancelling the show.
However, we’re already planning new adventures in the virtual world. Watch for upcoming announcements as our second Virtual Quilt Market takes shape, including another great, and well-received, Virtual Schoolhouse Series.
Our first VQM, held after the cancellation of last spring’s show in Pittsburgh, drew an impressive number of responses from attendees and shopowners, some of whom even asked for virtual Schoolhouse presentations to be held before every Market.
Our shows, and our industry as a whole, have brought much joy to quilters, and many opportunities for women to start and succeed in their own businesses. We’re proud that Market has also helped many companies expand their reach into a successful worldwide presence. It has always also provided an important showcase for the small, creative companies that each show introduce new products to help quilt shops keep customers coming back…and making more quilts!
All that being said, Market was started primarily for quilt shops by a quilt shopowner. It always has kept their needs in mind, and it always will as we all move in new directions.
Because we will all weather this pandemic storm and Market will go on to hold more events, some of them in new and different formats. So stay tuned as our resilient quilting industry adapts, once again, to the new challenges ahead.
To the future!
Karey Bresenhan
Founder, President, and CEO of Quilts, Inc.
Founder and Director Emeritus of International Quilt Market
