Quilt Festival - Day Three

The weather here is very bizarre. Well, the weather all over the world is very bizarre. The first couple of days were very cool compared to what you would expect from Texas. After all, Texas is very far south. But that was OK and it was good for set-up day when there was a lot of physical work to be done and therefore you wanted it cool so you didn't overheat.

But now the temperature outside is quite high and it's humid. As a result, they have cranked up the air conditioning in these buildings so it's absolutely freezing.  And I mean COLD.  The people who are selling shawls and scarves are making a killing. Note to self:  pack a nice big SWEATER for the next show!  As it's often cold in the convention centers, but yesterday was really bad.  I had gone over with only a T-shirt as the previous day I had on a long-sleeved shirt and thought there wasn't much difference and I could be OK. NOPE - I had to walk over to the hotel to get a long sleeved shirt to put on and I was good for most of the day with that but towards the end of the day, I was COLD. Plus it was probably shorter to come and use the washroom in my room and get a hot chocolate from the Star Bucks here than it was to wait in the convention center.

It took the girl here a mere minute to make a hot chocolate. At the convention center - it's at least five and there's a huge line up there and not here.  Doesn't make sense. There are people walking around in shorts and T-shirts and little dresses with no stockings. Not sure how they are managing.  But the worst is that even when you go outside, you can't get warm. The air is so humid and clammy.  It's very uncomfortable from that perspective.  By the time we get to the hotel, I'm starting to feel OK and then back to cranked up A/C.  YUCK.   The first thing I did when I got in my room last week was to shut the A/C off and shut off the ceiling fan.  Last night, I cranked the temperature up a degree or two (turned on the heat) and wore my sweatshirt to bed.  This is why I hate A/C.  I don't mind it to get comfortable, but the extreme temperature change is what I hate.

We have one last day today and the show closes at 4 PM. Then we have the fun task of taking the booth down and packing up everything. We leave tomorrow.  Yeah - as much fun as it's been, I'll be glad to get home. This is a long haul to be here for the two shows. I'm OK with that as the opportunity is one not to be missed. 

I was over early yesterday morning and got to see some of the quilt displays.  There are some amazing quilts over there and I spent as much time as I could in the area before coming back to the booth to get it ready for the day. While it doesn't take long, it's still a matter of getting the fabric bundles out of the boxes to make it easier to hand out. Make sure the garbage is emptied and the tables look presentable. 

We had a steady stream of people in the booth all day and it was really only in the last hour that things slowed down. So that made the day go by relatively fast and I managed to get out and do a wee bit of shopping. I'm not really needing anything, but there are still about 15 places that I want to go back and revisit. What I'm finding is that the things that I want (other than license plates) are sold out.  ALL the fabric kits and books for the Cherrywood challenge are gone. Hopefully Shelly is going to come to the rescue for that one. I wanted a new Teflon ironing sheet - gone!  But no worries, I will be able to find these things elsewhere - at least I was able to see them here.  I sure hope I can get my bias maker!  The bundle of fabric that I had my eye on was still waiting for me so I guess that was meant to be. 

We got back to the hotel shortly after 7 PM.  The others wanted to hit some fancy restaurant, but no reservations could be made so they were going to have to wait.  Not happening for me.  I had HOT soup in our hotel and a sandwich. Made tons of notes about the show and I was in bed and asleep by 8:30.  I had a fabulous sleep and I feel great this morning.  It takes too long to recover from lack of sleep and too much to drink.   I do NOT have time to get sick.

I'll be heading over to the convention center for 8 AM this morning so I can check out some more of the quilts. There are two more exhibits that I want to see for sure and I should take a peek at the winning quilts. I really really hate to say this, but after a while, I become so conditioned, that I have no problem to breeze by these magnificent works of art with a mere glance!  Isn't that awful. 

And HI to Marlene, from back home, whom I ran into several times now.  I had to laugh yesterday as I had seen her at a booth as someone was giving a demo. (I need to buy Inktense blocks now - thanks to Swan!)  Marlene said I'm going back to the hotel and look - I haven't bought any fabric.  Not even five minutes later, she was in our booth with a handful of fabric that she found that matched something she had at home.  We had a good laugh about that!

The networking never stops here.  I've made another couple of good contacts and advanced some existing relationships.  I ran into Jenny and her husband from MSQC yesterday and some interesting things were discussed so that was my big excitement for the day.

On that note, I'm out of here to find a great combination of clothes to wear that I don't have to change for tear down and that will keep me warm during the 6 hours of being on the floor.

Oh - I should mention that it's so cold in the convention center that when you walk past the doors and someone opens it - there's this HUGE blast of cold air and we were about 10-15 feet away from the door.  It was like walking past the refrigerated section in the grocery store. 

Have a super day!!!!


Ciao!!!!!

I did see the Van Gogh display by Cherrywood.  WOW is all I can say.  There are some amazing quilts and this is the display that will be at Seaforth, Ontario at the end of November.  Make sure you get out to see it.  I noticed that some used the same quote that I did!  There were a couple that I thought mine was equally as nice, but what the heck - I'm a winner just getting it done!