Spring Market - travel day

Here I am in my hotel room in St. Louis!  And yes all my quilts got done.

I finished the quilting on the big quilt (after I had a small ripping out session). The lesson here is never attempt something that you're not 100% sure of especially when there is a deadline! The binding got put on (I'm getting super fast - did you know that I sewed the binding on by machine and it probably took less than one hour.  Both sides and the quilt was 80 inches square!  The sleeve got made, but not sewn on. I was leaving that for when we got to market. A big thank you to Shirley and Hania who sewed my two sleeves on!

I was up super early so I could pack. I know - there literally was no time to do it before.  Then I was off to the airport. Our flight was uneventful except for the landing. It was windy in St. Louis and I swear that plane tipped upon landing. Thankfully it was righted before any damage was done and we were at the airport.

There was quite a contingent of us (thankfully the plane did make it or well you wouldn't be getting new fabrics from us!), so we rented a bus to get us to the hotel. Very efficient way. Did you know that St. Louis is a city divided?  Apparently, there is one street that sort of separates the high income and low-income sections. I must say that there is a lot of abandoned buildings here.  Hmm - could buy one, fix it up and have an amazing loft space!

We arrived early in the day which was a treat as we don't usually get to our booth until the afternoon.  However, I discovered that our crates had not arrived!  Yikes, that's not good.  A little investigation and it appears that our truck driver was a little bit delayed but everything was good and soon we had those crates open and rushing around like bees to get everything set up.

And I'm already scouting out, chatting up people, working out deals and arrangements for future events. I love coming to these shows and it technically hasn't even started yet!

But around 5 PM, I said, "that's it for me".  I was tired and just not functioning anymore.  I had to pop out to pick up a quilt from someone anyway. Once I had walked down to the hotel where they were taking a class, I thought I'm very close to the Arch so I'll just walk on over there.  Wow - that is such a cool feature/sculpture/structure?  It's huge and you can go crazy looking up at it.  Apparently, you can go up in it, but as I was on my way there, a lady told me that the tickets were all sold out for today.  No worries - I didn't have time, nor did I want to. But I took a few pictures.

The rest of the gang was meeting up soon and so I walked back to the hotel to meet up with them.  It was super windy and I was certain that I was going to get caught in the rain. But nope - no rain. It's a bit humid here, but not bad.

We went out for dinner but again, I didn't linger.  I mean really - don't these people get tired of being with each other all day?  I need a break! I like my solitude!

The temperature in my room is bizarre. Of course, it's set to FREEZING when I arrive. I turn the fan down and make a couple of adjustments, but it's cold when the air conditioning is running and HOT the moment it stops. It's crazy.  I didn't sleep well last night and usually wake up with a headache the first night in a new room. My head is pounding right now which isn't fun. But hopefully once I get up and moving and have breakfast, I'll be OK. Oh and the sheets are so tightly tucked in, I can barely get them out!

Anway on that note, I'm out of here to have a shower and get on with the day.

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!