Quilt Market - Day Four

Oh my gosh - what a crazy 24 hours it's been.

We were up early so we could get our free breakfast at the hotel. I have to say that Shirley really picked a winning hotel (Springhill Suites by Marriott). We had a fabulous room and a free breakfast so that helped to keep the cost of the trip down. Thanks again Shirley for being an awesome roommate!

I had another class in the morning. This time it was on sewing double gauze. It's fabulous taking a class at Quilt Market because the instructors are usually the educators from the company that makes the products so you get all kinds of information and that's what this Market trip was all about - education. I'm thoroughly educated at the moment and need to get some of this stuff down on paper.

I wore my beautiful double gauze scarf for the rest of the day.

We were finished early so I popped down to the Exhibit floor to see more of the quilts. Even though I went as an Industry Professional, I was able to get an Exhibitor badge so that allowed me to get in a bit early. Big kudos to Jen for making that happen.

I took some more pictures, got a chance to see Jackie White's "Meet Maude" piece. That link is to her Facebook page where I'm sure there's a picture of Maude. I don't have time to upload a picture this morning. That entire display was a lot of fun and so neat to see how each person interpreted a special woman in their life. Some were self-portraits, some were family members and some were public figures. All were totally different techniques. It was awesome.

Big bummer - I was certain that I had read that the Cherrywood Challenge (Prince was the theme, purple was the color) was going to be on display as were the last two challenges. But NOPE - that challenge was not present. I was a bit disappointed because I had nixed going to Seaforth to see the entire show because I was certain I would have a chance in Houston. I guess I'll just have to wait for Quilts at the Creek now. That's next July! Just checked the website - OH - the display that will be in Houston is during Quilt Festival and only in their booth so it won't be a complete grouping.

Then I had prepared a list of places/people that I still wanted to get some information from. I ran around the floor getting all the last minute networking done. I played matchmaker with an artist and a fabric company. I hope it works out because I think it could be HUGE!!! 

Had the last bits of lunch that were in my bag from the Food Market which is called Phoenicia in case you ever make it to Houston. I would go there to eat in a heartbeat rather than going to a restaurant where you tend to overeat. And the employees were the sweetest.

I trucked it back to the hotel to get my suitcase. I was going to try and stuff the last minute stuff that I had in my tote bag but thought - why would I want to do that? It was already heavy enough so I decided to check my bag and have my backpack and my tote bag as my carryon.

I got the Super Shuttle to the airport and you'll never guess what happened!!!  There was already someone on the shuttle when it arrived at my hotel. And then we had one more stop and a woman got in and sat beside me - I was sandwiched in the middle. Then she asked me if I had been here for Market. Yep. Turns out that I was sitting beside Wendy Sheppard. When I really looked at her - I recognized her from the magazine pictures I've seen and her picture in her book. She has published three books and has published quite a bit of stuff in magazines over the last 10 years. She has another book coming out, but I'm not going to tell you what that is. You'll have to wait. The link for her books shows a different cover than the one that I'm familiar with, but the book on quilting on a domestic machine is very good!!!

That was super exciting and as we were about halfway to the airport, it started to rain. Not just rain, but it was raining so hard that I was thinking that the road wasn't very visible. Just what you need on the way to the airport. But by the time we hit the airport, it had cleared up or at least stopped raining.

I was in the TSA pre-check line which makes things a whole lot easier. Nothing needs to be taken out of the bags, no removal of shoes and all that. I don't think they even asked to see my boarding pass.

I was getting a sandwich for the flight home when I ran into Gail and Angie from The Hobby Horse. We were on the same flight so when I got back to the gate area, we had a great time comparing notes and even better, we got the entire schedule of classes that I'm going to teach (from January to June) all figured out. Now to find dates to teach them. There is something for everyone and I'm super excited about it.

At some point, an alarm went off in our area of the airport and it was annoying. Everyone was very annoyed at the noise and it took quite some time before it was shut off. Then we boarded the plane and we had an excellent flight all the way home, despite the fact that Shirley tried to scare the bejeezus out of me by watching Flight Mayday (or something like that) the evening before in our room. I survived and I have to say that that sandwich was the best ever. You can build custom sandwiches at this place - forgotten the name and it was very reasonably priced and very good.

I watched Mission Impossible on the way home and just managed to see the last bit before we arrived at the gate. That was a FAST flight home or so it seemed. Our plane landed and I sailed through customs - you have to love that NEXUS card. And by the time I had walked to the luggage carousel, my checked bag was already circulating on the carousel. Now, how the heck did that happen?

Bear came to the airport to greet me and he freaked out when he saw me. Then he quieted down and slept on my lap all the way home. He was supposed to go home this morning, however, when we arrived at the airport at an ungodly hour, they don't open until 5 AM so we had to wait and then they wouldn't take him because I didn't have a valid health certificate. His previous one had expired. Good grief - I know someone who is going to be very unhappy about that, but it wasn't my fault. We came home and went back to bed. Now he's sleeping quite happily on my lap. He'll fly out tomorrow.

On that note, I've got a ton of things to do today and I had better get started. I've got a late start this morning because when we came back from the airport, I confess that I went back to bed. Like I said - we were at the airport at a ridiculous time and I had to be up early to get in a walk for all the girls and boys.

Have a super day!!!!!

Ciao!!!!