2006 Quilt Market, Day 1

On Saturday, International Quilt Market actually opens...to the public instead of just crate climbers. Let's see, back to the agenda. I think you're going to need another snack for this entry.

Saturday:
8:00-breakfast and walk to the convention center.
9:00-talk with the sales people about where quilts come from. Publications, that is, not really "where quilts come from." That would probably be a long conversation.
10:00-meet my friend Pat Sloan at her booth to walk over to the Hilton to watch her tape a quiltmercial for Quilter's News Network. Unfortunately, she's better at it than I am. Sigh. Oh, well! We still get a great quiltmercial for It's Your Turn! And I don't have to explain to anyone about calling Chippy a squirrel. I'll probably have to explain some of the things I said on-camera, but I can't remember what I said so I'll just have to think fast when they come up.
11-ish-back to the booth to pick up the other Cheryl. She's in a meeting with Very Important People from Primedia/Enthusiast Media about advertising stuff. Not so much quilt stuff, so I loiter to see how long she'll be. Then, I get called to the table and we had the best conversation about quilting. I hope that conversation will spark some great things.

12:00-I stop the Very Important Cheryl mid-sentence so that we can get to our lunch appointment with Mr. Jim West. His company is Sew Many Places. We get over to the Hilton and order lunch. Of course, it arrives at almost the minute I'm supposed to be in the booth for the book signing so I streak away. My club arrives at the booth much later in a black box, a little worse for the wear, but I scarfed it anyway.

1:00-3:00 (with a break for club-scarfing)-book signing with Tammy Kelly for It's Quilt Magic. This was so much fun. Tammy's great with the shop owners, giving class and kit tips. She had a good turnout, too, and gave away all 150 copies we brought with us. Good job, Tammy! (Here are some pictures. I'm so glad I had the camera, my hair was probably standing straight up at this point. If you look closely, you can see Joan the Lazy Girl in the background.)
3:00-met with really nice ladies from Mary Engelbreit and United Media. We had a great conversation about where quilting and crafting are going, trends, looks, sophistication, etc. We were almost flattened by a falling A.T.C. board, but lived to tell the tale.
4-ish-I streak through 5 or 6 aisles (one of which featured Frank from Trading Spaces doing a demo). Went back to the booth to pick up the Very Important Cheryl to try to get her to go back to Frank's booth to get a picture because she has such good luck with famous people (and I really am a dork), but she was all busy with another meeting with another advertising meeting. This time, she sent me on my way instead of bringing me to the table. Was it something I said? I'm pretty sure it was my hair, but I can't really help that.

6:00-the show closes. I've never stayed this long and have no idea how to get home at 6:00-shuttle's impossible and the cabs are worse. We go over to the Hilton to ask for restaurant ideas and then enter the taxi line and wait. And wait. And wait. When we get a taxi, we get lucky and get a nice guy. He takes us back to Josephine's to pick up Cheryl's forgotten binder, then go to a true hole-in-the-wall Mexican place called The Original Ninfa's. And wait. And wait. And wait. But the food was good, the margaritas even better. They call us a cab. And we wait. And wait. And wait. We manage to luck out and share a cab with someone heading back to the same hotel. It just so happens that Cheryl knows her. She has that kind of luck.