Paducah Day Four

It was a day filled with excitement. Much excitement. I went back to the booth that I was trying to buy my kit from and I got more details on the big theft the day before. This person stole over $400 in merchandise from this one booth.

Leanne got a booth award from AQS for "most stolen merchandise!" It was a joke of course, but what a shame.

So how did they catch the thief? Later in the day, I was chatting with another store owner. One that I deal with and she filled me in. It was her eagle eye that helped catch the thief. I had made a cute little bag for her booth from Northcott fabrics - I'll post pictures tomorrow - I don't have time today. At one point, she looked up and noticed that the bag that I had made was missing. Actually, two items were missing from her booth. She alerted a friend of hers who said she would scout the aisles looking for someone suspicious.  And because the dome is smaller than the main center and not quite so crowded, she zeroed in on a woman. She followed her and watched her acquire a few items from another booth. The friend tapped her on the shoulder and asked if she would like to pay for those items and apparently at this point, the thief started to bolt. She left her bags at the door - probably couldn't get all of it through the airlock door quickly, but then came back in to claim what she had bought from the bags!!!  She said she had actually purchased some of the stuff and might as well take it!   It would appear that she pilfered three of those AQS shopping bags and proceeded to fill them with goodies!  A get away car was waiting for her outside the building. I believe she got away, but they got the license plate.  If it wasn't for my missing bag, Laura's eagle eye and her friend's detecting skills, the woman would have gotten away!

I'm still in disbelief over it.  But she wasn't very smart. How many people buy THREE of those AQS bags?   Seriously??  Maybe one, but not three!!!   I doubt she learns a lesson. The police said there was likely a gang of them and they work together or apart. Are they quilters?  No idea.  I remember the woman - if you're going to be a theif, you should blend into the crowd. This woman stood out because she had a dark sling with an elastic bandage on her arm. It was quite distinctive.  And when she got caught she says "I have cancer!"  Really? so all cancer patients are allowed to steal?   A real nutbar!

The other excitement was in the main building. This was a comment overheard by one of my colleagues "it looks like the last of the quilt row that fell down is now back up!"   NOT something to want to hear at Paducah. Apparently some quilter was trying to get a picture of the back of a quilt and got too close and knocked over one of the metal stands and the dominio effect happened.  Seriously????   Did no one see what she was doing?  Do they not see the signs and chains on the poles?   People need to get more aware of their surroundings.  I've had this happen to me at a quilt show. I was the convenor and one entire row of quilts got knocked down. I do believe a kid was running around and hit the end pole and down the row went. I watched it and nothing I could do. An entire army of people came out to help and within minutes that row was back up!

Even more excitement in front of our booth. The day before a couple of quilters had asked Rich to take a panorama shot of them in front of Victoria's quilt - you know - the 30 foot one. So he did. There were about three of them. So I decided to get a shot of me in front of the quilt. It's pretty cool.

The group came back yesterday because the picture didn't turn out right. There were SEVEN of them this time.  I told them they better hurry because Victoria was doing her last walkabout in a few minutes. As they were lining up, who walks up but Victoria. So we got her in the picture as well!!!   It was great fun.  I did one shot for them and it didn't work. Then I realized part way through the filming how her camera worked - it was different than mine and we got a super picture with Victoria. She is a super sport and such a lovely person!  I'm trying to upload the pictures so you can see.  What a lot of excitement we created at the booth!!

We had a steady stream of people come by the booth even on the last day so that was good, although I did get out and had a whirlwind tour of the entire show. I should give lessons on how to do Paducah in one hour! And I still had time to chat with people.  I would like to spend more time, but I'm there for a reason and I don't like to be out of the booth for long periods of time. Still, I got to see everything I needed and I made a few purchases as well.

As we had a flight out last night, we had to leave our colleague to tear down the booth as we had to leave just before the show closed.  A two-hour drive back to Nashville where we returned the car and I packed everything into the suitcase. Amazing how much you can pack into a little carry-on bag. I had three tote bags, a pillow, my Paducah purchases and all my clothes!  I know how to pack stuff in!  I'll be taking pictures of everything and posting as I have time.  I'm so far behind in pictures!

But wait - there's even more excitement!  We got to the airport, checked in and zipped through security. Had a bit to eat. The airport  - at least the side that we are on is looking pretty empty. We get to our gate at last with a half hour to spare. Of course, the plane is late. Then we, at last, get on. It's a small plane so all the rolling bags had to be Sky checked (leave your bag at the gate!).  At least it wasn't raining this time. Then we wait and we wait. All of a sudden, the co-pilot is helping load the bags onto the rolling rack?  Double dipping???   He gets back into the cockpit and we wait a bit more. Then he rushes into the plane and takes some bags from the overhead bins. Not enough weight in the back of the plane so they move some of the crew luggage into the cargo area. Yes - there were a couple of United jokes at that point.  Two rather large people got up and I thought they were being moved to the back of the plane. I'm not sure what was going on there.  The pilot was up as well, moving stuff around. It was pretty weird. At last, we take off, but we are now 1 1/2 hours late!  We arrive in Toronto (I missed the beverage cart because I was asleep and I was thirsty!). Of course, we have to wait for a ground crew to fix us up at the gate.  I arrived home and was in bed by 1 AM.

That was a lot of excitement for one day!  I told Patti that our travel woes were all her fault and I'm not going to fly with her again!

All in all, it was a fun show. We did what we were supposed to do and had fun, shopping, got to see amazing quilts. But I'm glad I'm home and today after I volunteer at some dog park event, I'm going to start to work on an urgent quilt for a magazine.  And I have a funny feeling that TWO different magazines picked up the same quilt and now I'm going to have to design a new one and make it fast as well.  I'm not sure how that happened, but I'll know on Monday.  ACK!!!!

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!

I'm waiting for my pictures to upload so will try to post them in tomorrow's post!