Int. Quilt Festival: Our Black Friday!
So even though Int. Quilt Market was a serious disappointment for us, & pretty much everyone else, we never were in doubt about how Int. Quilt Festival would go... because as I've told SO many people, Quilt Festival is our "Black Friday", and this year was no exception, thank goodness!
Of course our zipper display looked a bit different this time around having just retired THREE of our styles, but that's not the only thing that changed with this show!
That's because this display is missing two other long-standing components that are normally present in ALL of our shows, including our Houston shows.
So can you detect which other two components are missing from this year's Houston display? (Spoiler alert - I'll tell you at the end of this post.)
So how did this year's Quilt Festival go?
- I've been told there weren't quite as many vendors, although I couldn't tell.
- The floor traffic looked normal to me and it was really nice to re-connect with so many of our longtime, favorite customers!
- Festival was about 3 weeks early this year and it was nice to get out and back to our hotel before it was dark. We enjoyed that!
- And on a totally different note, we FINALLY figured out how to use GrubHub during this trip which saved us a good deal of heartache! (I know, we're late to the party, but it shouldnt be a big surprise at our age, right?)
- And lastly, but most importantly, it felt kinda sad as we were flying out of Houston on Monday morning, to think that after 18 years, this might be the last time we make this trip. You see my husband has a progressive neurological disorder, and increasingly, this means that the load in, set up, take down & load out responsibilities rely totally on me for these shows, & sad to say, that just isn't sustainable. For now, we'll just take it one show at a time... because I'm coming home with what I fear is a pretty serious back injury. It was a pretty miserable (and painful) 2 weeks in Houston for me, and I can't wait to get to the doctor when I get home to find out what's going on!
But on a more positive note...
LOOK who I ran into in the elevator at our hotel!
None other than 16-year old "up & comer" Lorelai Kneucker of Pigs in a Blanket Quilting! I was blown away with this amazing quilted dress she designed for herself. And please take note of her name, because once I checked out her website, I am SURE that as talented as this young gal is, this is a name you'll definitely be hearing more of, in the years to come! What a TALENT!
And finally, as promised!
Here's the two things we changed about our Int. Market & Festival setup!
- Instead of changing the dingy white drapes given to us, we kept them up. We normally change them to black, but not this year.
- Our normal M.O. is to put up string lights on our perimeter bars, but this feature as well as changing the drapes require a good deal of up & down work on a step ladder, so I decided to forego them both.
And now.... it's YOUR turn!
So... could you tell from the booth pictures that we left the black drapes and perimeter lights at home this year? What's your verdict on this?
And if you have comments you'd like to share, suggestions you'd like to make, or questions you'd like to ask about our booth display or the Festival in general this year? If so, please feel free to leave either or both in the space provided below.
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