We're coming home!

Oh boy - I'm totally out to lunch.  Last evening as we were getting ready to tear the booth down, I mentioned that the clocks were supposed to turn back.  My colleagues very politely told me that it was the previous night that the clocks were turned back!  With all the technology today and everything automatically turning back, I was totally oblivious to the change!    I thought it was pretty funny. Everyone makes a big deal of it and I never even noticed.

Although the last day of any show is always slow, yesterday seemed to be slower than usual.  But we still had people come through the booth. It did allow us to get out a wee bit more and well I shouldn't have because I spent some money and I'm going to blame this one all on Marilyn!  She told me to visit a particular booth because of Shelley and well, Shelly and I had a great conversation and I found a few cool things in the booth. Now to find time to make these things!

The other thing I noticed and this was probably a good thing was that a number of items that I wanted were sold out by the time I got there!!!!  One of the things that I wanted was sold out and I have to say that I did find it in the booth that Marilyn and Audrey had pointed out to me!   And now I'm the proud owner of three yards of a cool print that is 54 inches wide.

I did manage to get to see all?  of the quilts.  But a fast look through. There were some amazing quilts and I was very impressed.  I was standing in front of Marilyn's quilt, the name of which I cannot remember and this is what I heard.  A couple of people came by and said "that is so creative. I would never think of doing that with that fabric."  They were VERY impressed and so they should as Marilyn is a very creative and talented lady and I would aspire to be more like her!  She also has a heck of a lot more free time than I do!

By Marilyn Farquar

It's very cool with those tiny touches of red.  This is the one that was chosen for Judges Choice by David Taylor.  A pretty cool honor!

So I have to do some name dropping - sorry. But Jenny walked by our booth yesterday and waved to me!  Yep - I didn't have my glasses on at the show so I wasn't 100% percent it was her and thought - if I wave, I'll look like an idiot, but she waved to me and I waved back!!!  I've got stuff to do for her so that is exciting and I guess I made a good impression.  I went over to see Victoria Findlay Wolfe - well I was just wandering past her booth and she said HI.  We had a great conversation.  I did see Angela Walters wandering the floor on several occasions, but I didn't stop and chat with her. Hmmm - who else?  Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr - I spoke to Weeks and was going to have a further conversation, but that didn't happen.

Anyway, that added some excitement to my day so that was great.

I installed EQ8 yesterday on my laptop so I'm good to go. I'll have something to entertain me today as it's a travel day! Can't wait to try out some of the stuff that I learned from Barb Vlack. 

It was a long haul to be away that long, but all in all, it was a very successful show. Well, two shows.  I made or advanced some very important contacts, got loads of work to do to follow up.  Oh yes - forgot to mention that I had a great conversation with Patience Griffith who writes a book series about quilts (romance). And I also had a brief chat with Arlene Sachitano who also writes novels about quilts (mystery).  I saw a ton of books that I would love to own. Most of them were historical books or picture books of quilts. But I didn't buy any because I already have a ton (or two) of books and I really need to start reading my books and messing with my books so I can appreciate them more and then I won't feel so bad if I buy a few more.

The show closed at 4 PM and we made quick work of getting that booth down. There were six of us in total and we were finished, the crate doors closed and final paperwork done by 7:30 PM.  There are a lot of things to pack up and store and it all takes time.  And I got to shrink wrap the pallets! Along with Patti.  You learn something new every day!

I'm all packed and going home probably a wee bit lighter than when I came down as I had a big quilt top in my suitcase. All of my purchases went on the crate.  I think I ended up with three small boxes of stuff. How did that happen?  I'm not sure what was in those boxes but I'll sort it out when we get back to Toronto. It's going to be fun to unpack those crates as instead of having all the same thing in one spot - I think it's in several spots!  That's what happens when you do two shows back to back.

On that note, I'm' out of here.  I have 2 1/2 hours to kill before the shuttle comes to pick us up to take us to the airport. Hmmm - I guess I could do some e-mail.

Have a super day!!!!!

Ciao!!!!!

PS -- while it may have rained at some point, we never had to deal with a rainy day. But the humidity is a bit crazy.