Quilt Con Day One

It's Day One of Quilt Con 2017.

It's pretty important to have a good breakfast before these events.  You're not sure what kind of food you're gong to get and at what price.  I bring a muffin with me which is usually my lunch along with some snacks we have in the booth.  Some people don't have breakfast and they must be nearly famished by the time dinner rolls around.

Anyway, the first agenda item yesterday was the awards ceremony.   All I can say is WOW.  the quilts are stunning. And even better news, TWO of my friends won prizes.  I'm not going to get the categories straight, but Marilyn won first place for piecing for her quilt - I'll get the name and post a picture on Facebook.  It's an amazing amount of work and I'm thrilled for her. Jeanie also won a prize - second place, but I can't remember that category.  So I belong to TWO modern guilds and one member from each won a prize. Another member has a quilt in the Quiltcon magazine and well, I'm sure there are loads of other quilts that I will recognize the maker of - I'm going over to the convention center early to start my "private" tour of the floor.

BUT the most amazing quilt of all was The Best in Show.  This quilt is spectacular and the pictures don't do justice to it.  I got to present the award to the winner. It was super exciting and we're back early this morning for a photo op!  She is all the way from Australia. Her 98" square quilt represents a Princess cut diamond and it really and truly looks like a diamond!

Then the show started at 10 AM and we were busy in our booth the entire day. It was crazy.  Patti had a demo right at the beginning of the day and we wondered if the attendance would be good.  Nope - she had a packed audience for her demo so that was good. I have a demo today so hopefully, there will be as many people show up!

I sat on a lecture panel yesterday.  I got to do one last year and it was so much fun.  I was super excited to be able to do that again this year.  The theme for this year was Stash Management.  Oh my god.  We had to share photos of our stash and talk about how we manage our stash.  I think a slight bit of tidying went on before some of those photos were taken. There is NO way that I could function in those too neat, too pretty stash rooms. I think the audience appreciated our comments and we all certainly got a lot of laughs and that's what it's all about. My photos which I will post when I get home were raw photos!

After I got back to the booth, it was much quieter, but we still had a steady stream of people until almost the end. I had ONE last public speaking task yesterday and that was to say a few words for the launch party of Fresh Quilts. This is a PBS show about Modern Quilting and we sponsored Season One.

Next up, we went out for dinner.  Marilyn, Nancy, Peggy and I. Oh let's not forget Karen. Who is Karen?  Well, you have to understand Nancy. She will pick up stray puppies, stray women - whatever!  We're standing at the ferry dock waiting for the ferry that we just missed. That meant a20-minutee wait with the no-see-ums driving us crazy. I have bites EVERYWHERE.  We started to chat to the women beside us and next thing you know, Karen is coming with us for dinner. We had a super good time.

It's a long story, but Peggy was staying in a hotel, but ended up staying with a local quilter and it was through her contact that we got a recommendation for a restaurant for dinner.  We went to Savannah Seafood which was amazing. I had the Low Country Boil, which was filled with beef sausage, corn on the cob, potatoes and loads and loads of shrimp.  It came to the table all sealed in a large plastic bag. Yikes!!  But it was good, it was spicey and it was super messy to eat.   A perfect dinner.

During the dinner conversation, the subject of tattos came up. Around the table - do you have a tattoo? Well I couldn't lie.  Karen said that I looked like someone who would have a tattoo.  Seriously????   I asked why and she said look at the shoes that I was wearing (my $16 red Target sneakers!) compared to what the rest of them had on.  Wow - Karen knows her people!!!!  It was pretty funny!

Then back to the hotel a bit earlier than the previous night which was good as I was tired. I got all the stuff sorted out for today and off to bed.

I expect today and each successive day will get a littler quieter as usually happens with any consumer show. I might even get some hand sewing done!  I'm dying to start  making hexies with some scrap fabric that ended up in our booth.

On that note, I'm out of here.

Have a su