Market Wrap Up

It's a wrap, another quilt market in the books. Whew, it sure flew by. I was amazed how quickly my week in St. Louis went. I'm so glad that I penciled in tourist days for us. Lesson learned from last year...we tried to fit in a state park while in Utah the evening after we packed up from market. I was tired and cranky and crashing mentally after months of work. My roadie (hubby) and assistant (best friend, Lynn) were all excited to finally see some of Salt Lake City (other than the mountains seen from the Ikea parking lot and the inside of the convention center) and I was Mrs. Grumpy Pants. I just wanted a glass of wine and sleep.  I totally didn't want my help to quit on me this year and tell me to get a grip, so we did some sight seeing before the show even started and I am so glad that we did. Well worth the extra days. We visited a few wineries on the way to St. Louis. It sure helped to break up the road trip. Once we checked into the hotel and unloaded our luggage and all of the 'Quilt Doodle Booth', we spent time walking around St. Louis. The Arch was fun to see and I'm happy to say I did not have a panic attack on the way up to the top while being crammed in an egg shaped pod with four other people. Once I recovered from the ride up and being a ka-gillion-million feet up in the air, I have to say it was pretty cool to look out the little windows. It's a pretty amazing story on how the arch was built. It's totally worth the time watching the movie on how the arch was built. (Checked this one off the bucket list- although I have to confess, it was never on the bucket list to begin with!)

Getting the Quilt Doodle Booth from point A to point B is a trick and requires a couple of hand trucks, and several cups of strong coffee. I usually go into market with a vague idea on how my booth is going to go together. I pick up display pieces because I like them but then have no real idea how it will work in my booth. I know designers that put the booth up at home, take pictures and recreate it when they get there. I'm sorta willie nillie about my booth. Pray it will all work out when I get there. Luckily it all fell together with the help of Mark and Lynn. Couldn't do all of this without their support.

Market itself is always so much fun to participate in. It's such a pleasure to meet all of the shop owners and their sweet staff. It's also such a great opportunity to talk face to face with people that I have been in contact with all year thru emails and on the phone. Then there are my quilt market buddies that I love seeing. It's so much fun to see their new patterns and booths. I did get away a couple of times to walk around, love seeing the new fabrics and colors. I always come home wanting to just lock myself up in the studio and sew away.

It's always so inspiring to see all of the art quilts. Shhhh..... I took pictures of a few of them to share with you. The quilting and threadwork is unbelievable! I love, love, love the one of the dog...

I've been home a week and haven't yet made it to my studio, next week I shall sew... It's hard to believe that after months of preparation, it is done.... time to start preparing for the next one.

Get ready Portland, we are planning on being there.

Happy quilting,

Cindy