Quilt Festival - Day One

And so the show has officially begun - well there was preview night!  But this was the first of THREE days where the show opens at 10AM and closes at 7 PM   (and unofficially the show opens at 8 AM for vendors so that makes an 11 hour day on the floor).

I was at the convention center at 8 AM and the moment we could get onto the floor, I was there. I dropped my bag at our booth and then walked to the far end of the floor and started my walk.  I had camera, notebook, and pen.

I think there are 26 aisles and I was able to make it to 10 (starting at 26) in one hour and a half. It's amazing how fast you can walk that floor when there are no people on it!   I made notes - lots of notes of things that I want to go back and get. Nothing too exciting but I did see a couple of license plates - I know - an addiction that won't go away!  I see that some of them have plates from previous years and I don't know if I have them so I did stop myself from buying those.

Technically, I'm window shopping and then I'll re-evaluate the list and go from there.

I did find one very interesting tool and the owner was in the booth to demonstrate to me and I'm going back later today or tomorrow to buy the tool.  It was amazing and something that I have been looking for forever.  Wait until you see what it does!

In my second walk, there does seem to be a lot of jewelry places and things for finished goods but probably no more than previous years.  For those that think the CreativFestival has some "non-quilt" places, ALL shows - even this big one does.  It's just the nature of the beast and of course at the end of the day, the massage places are making a killing!

I did pop out during the day to the Cherrywood booth to see the challenge fabric only to find that ALL the half yard kits for the new challenge (the theme is Prince - the singer)  were SOLD OUT!!   Yes - they had brought well over 50 and all were gone! At a mere cost of $64 US!!!!!   It's totally insane and why this particular challenge is so popular, I've no idea.  But wow!!!!  The purples (like all their other colors are to die for - they are rich and very saturated and well, I know that Ronda would love to pet them!  Looks like we better put in an order with the shop in Seaforth and Shelly is going to be our fabric mule!

For some reason, I can't upload the pictures that I want! 
Ok - now properly connected to the internet.   Nope still can't upload a picture.





If they do get some more in, I'll try to fill my requests but I'm not holding my breath!

I'll be back early this morning so I can walk the rest of the floor and then it'll be easy to pop out for a few minutes here and there to pick up what I want or at least to investigate it a bit further. One of the problems is that I get excited about the same booths every year and so I'm reluctant to buy something from them unless I know it's brand new because chances are, I bought it last year!

The lesson here is to get things done that you buy!

We had very steady traffic flow in our booth all day.  There are five of us staffing the booth (oh shoot -  just realized I forgot to charge the iPad last night!)  It's now plugged in!  We have three iPads to capture e-mails and people get to spin the wheel and get a prize.  Not only do we had out a small fabric pack, but they get a pattern to make a project as well which is fun. Have I ever posted those projects online?   I don't think so - well I'll try to remember and try to get them on our Northcott website so that even if you didn't get the pack, the patterns are there.  People are very receptive to the idea of the patterns so that's a good thing. 

The show closed at 7 PM last night and by the time we got to our hotel and getting ready for dinner, it was 7:30.  Then the discussion of where to eat.  That drives me absolutely crazy.  I ended up going to the local sports bar and had a great dinner by myself.  No offense to my colleagues but after spending the entire day being "on" with our customers, I like a wee bit of quiet time for myself.  I had a few words with the people in the bar and the bartender and that was as much conversation that I wanted. I was back at the hotel and in bed by 9:30.  I woke up this morning feeling awesome so that is a good thing.  I'm too old to spend all this time without sleep - it just isn't good for me anymore.

People are loving the wolf quilt.  Ooohing and aahing and hopefully, we're directing traffic to Yanicka's web site.  It's a pretty stunning piece of art and of course, Marilyn quilted it for her.  I love it and I want it!

We've had a great response to our other quilts as well so all in all, it's been great and that was only the first day.

Shoot, I'm not sure that I have any pictures that I want to post on the blog.  I'll try to snap one or two today for you. sorry about that!

I've got to run as I have to write out a few notes as to how to change things for next year!

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!