Now On To Festival

A day and a half after Market closes, Festival opens.  In  between the two shows I expanded my booth from a single to a double.  I laid more of my checkered floor and hung more drapes.

I had to be creative at times.  When we decided to move the lights, the pole needed to be covered.  Good thing I have some Appli-Glue with me!

And, I got reinforcements.  Two of my sisters, Susan and Margaret joined me for Festival.  (sigh of relief)

Festival is a huge show.  Since it is a retail show, there are thousands more shoppers.  Instead of working one on one with shop owners and taking time to set up wholesale accounts and introduce my customers to my new products and my suppliers, I am now selling to the frenzied crowd.  So I needed the help!

OK.  Looks like the booth is ready, bring on the crowd!

 We were very busy the first couple of days.  No time to eat or take a break.  But the weather had different plans.  All night long we were getting tornado warnings and flash flood warnings on our phones.  (Not a very restful night).  Then we traveled into the convention center that morning in a wild rain storm.
I'm from Utah.  We don't get that much rain in a year.  I think there was 9 inches that night, and it continued on for several days.  Needless to say, it was WET.  Many roads were flooded and closed, and there were high wind areas as well.
After parking the car and wading into the convention center, I was completely drenched.  Luckily I had some fabric in my booth.  (Imagine that.)  So I took off my dripping pants and wrapped a length of fabric around my waist.  This was during set up, so after wringing out my slacks and drying them in the rest room, I put them back on before we opened for business.  I did remain bare foot most of that day, as my shoes were soggy.

 Crowds were thinner because of the storm.  I even had time to run upstairs to grab a bite to eat and snap this photo of the show floor.  If you look closely, you can see my booth in the second isle from the right.  Look for my black and white floor.

 If you ever have a chance, you should try to get to Festival.  It is a quilting experience!  Do you see the American flag hanging from the ceiling in the left side of the photo?  Well, that is the center of the show floor.  So you can see that there are a LOT of booths to visit. (understatement)
My dear friend, Janet Platt of Quick Points Rulers had a booth at the show, too.  We live near each other in Utah.  I sent some of my stuff with her in her truck.  She helped me a lot in getting things carried in and set up.  We had hotel rooms next to each other and drove into the convention center together each day.  It was good to have a friend to be with, especially during Market, when I was there alone.

So imagine our surprise when we arrived at the show to find that in all this huge floor space, our booths were next to each other!  Very fun, AND convenient!
 Janet was demo-ing her rulers, and right next door you could buy my "Ahoy Again" pattern or kit that uses the ruler to make the prairie points!

There is also a FABULOUS quilt show hung in the adjacent hall.  We barely had time to run through it.  I wish I could have spent more time there.  The quilts that make it into this show are just amazing!  My niece, Maika had a quilt in the show this year.  I am so proud of her.  Here we are with "Wade's Wave."

Maika hand dyed all of the fabrics in the quilt, and cut it into teeny tiny pieces.  Over 7000 of them.  They are all pieced together, and of course the quilting on this is fabulous.  I wish you could see it in person.

I was delighted with how my booth looked, all bright and cheery and HAPPY!  We had many customers return each day of the show to visit again.  When I got home, I got the nicest note in the mail from a group of ladies.  They said, in part,

"…we all decided that your booth was a highlight.  Bright, cheerful, beautiful quilts, great kits, terrific marketing and nice gals."

What could be better than that?  That is why I do it--I love it!  Thank you so much--Kathy, Laura, Jessie, Suzanne, Kim and Lucille.  I don't know you, but I am glad you enjoyed visiting my booth!