Quilt Market debriefing - Part 4!!

I know right!! FOUR Blogs in a row!! With no "Months" between them!! And no one had to nag!

So let's see....where are we in the Market saga...schoolhouse day!
Jeanne and I did a schoolhouse for Martingale to promote our new book - Here Comes Winter, which releases on June 3rd! We gave everyone who attended a sneak peek of the projects in the upcoming book, and discussed how these projects can work in their stores.

I'm going to give you sneak peek when we get to the end of this post, but for now, lets back up a little bit....this is also the day I got to meet my very very good friend BILL LOCKE, face to face!!

Bill is currently living in Newfoundland, Canada and operates not one, but two quilt shops!! You really do need to check out Bill's shop, which is primarily based on Facebook.  He has an amazing selection of hand dyed wools and projects to go along with it! Oh and not to brag or anything, but Bill sells a LOT of our patterns! Heehehe! And that is how Bill and I met! via email! And we've become amazing buddies! I love him to pieces! But....really...so do a lot of people!

Colleen loves Bill

Gail Pan loves Bill

Wendy and Ramona love Bill

Wendy loves Bill

Gail and I both love Bill!

Bill arrived in time to help Jeanne and I with our schoolhouse! He was the official quilt holder upper! Nothing like jumping in to Quilt Market with both feet!

So here is your little sneak peek for sticking out this blog post to the end!!

These are just a few of the quilts you will see in Here Comes Winter! We are very excited that this book is larger than our previous 3, so you will see many many more projects!!

Believe it or not - Part 5 is coming soon!!
ox
S

Spring Quilt Market debriefing - Part 3!!

I know, I know, you can all hardly believe that I have blogged three days in a row now can you!??
It's just that I have soooo much to tell you about Market and there is no way I can fit it all in one blog posting!!

So after set day, we decided to take a cab over the a shopping area about 5 miles from the hotel. Nice and close, just a wee bit of shoe shopping, a bite to eat, then back for a good nights sleep....or so we thought!!

The evening started out fabulous - a lovely bit of shoe shopping at DSW! Yay! Who doesn't love shoe shopping?!!!

We all treated ourselves to some fabulous new shoes, then walked over to a retsuarant. We enjoyed our meal and a drink, then asked the server to please call us a cab. Well. She looked at us like we had grown two heads!!! She said...cabs don't come out here. Ummmm....excuse me? One dropped us off here....
She then informed us that we were too far from the city....seriously? We were FIVE MILES!! We could almost walk back!! ( not that we wanted to!!) She called a cab company and they reluctantly agreed to send someone out there, but it would be about an hour. Well...ok. We settled in for the wait, and soon the call came that the cab was close. We gathered our shoes (heehehe) and headed out to the front step of the restuarant. After waiting a few more minutes, a cab slowly drove by the side of the restuarant. We all started waving and calling (so excited to go back to the hotel after such a long day!)
and.....he drove away.....!! Can you believe that?!! Neither could we!!! What happened there??
We went back into the restaurant, and discovered that the cab driver had apparently stopped the car along the SIDE of the restaurant and went into the restaurant through the patio / lounge area and asked if anyone had called a cab. To which everyone answered no. He then drove away!
Sad story I know. But wait! It gets better!
So the server felt terrible - not her fault - and called the cab company again. Again with the hour wait. Sheesh!! By this time it's getting to be 10pm and we are tired, and a little nervous about getting the heck back to the hotel!
The server girl came back out and told us that one of the guys working there was just getting off work and had offered to drive us back to the hotel! Some people would be appalled at being driven somewhere in a strange city by a strange man - but not us!! He pulled his little car around and we hopped right in! He was a very sweet young man who then told us about the cab shortage in Pittsburgh! (great story - a little too late!) He wouldn't even take any money from us!! (but we made him! Told him to take his girlfriend out to dinner on us!) And he even gave us his card in case it happened again while we were in town!! What a great guy!!

Sweet guy who drove us home! 

Watch for more adventures.....coming soon!
xoxox
S

Spring Quilt Market debriefing - Part 2!!

So day one in Pittsburgh and it's booth set up time!! It's always wonderful to find our booth space and see our skid waiting for us!! This whole shipping thing is a huge leap of faith!

We decided that because we would be promoting our new book Here Comes Winter at this Market, we wanted our booth to reflect a wintery feel.

We featured our latest Block of the Month - Snow Friends - and WOW! did it ever receive a ton of attention!

We love it, but it was pretty exciting to have other shop owners love it as well!!

This year our booth location was right next to the Martingale booth! We really enjoyed that! Not only to be able to visit the all the amazing people who work at Martingale, but just to be able to meet with people who were interested in our book, direct them where to buy it, and also to mingle with the other Martingale authors!!

Martingale staff ready for the weekend!

Keep watching.....Part 3 will be coming soon!!
xoxS

Quilt Market debriefing 2014!! Part 1

Whew! I think I've just finally had a chance to catch my breath! Spring Quilt Market was absolutely amazing! There were four of us sharing a room in Pittsburgh. Jeanne and myself, Colleen (who came along to work in our booth as Jo was away in Europe!) and Wendy, who owns Fabriculous, a neat shop based in an old church, in Swan River, MB.

Jeanne, Colleen, Wendy and Me!

This picture is BEFORE we got on the plane - so we are all fresh and perky!
We stayed at The Omni William Penn is downtown Pittsburgh. It was soooooo gorgeous and amazing!! If ever you get the chance - stay there!!

Lobby

Look at these amazing chandeliers!

Omni William Penn Hotel

More Lobby

And not only was the hotel amazing, but the downtown core itself was a beautiful array of old building that they seem to have preserved in an all their glory. Pittsburgh is truly a gorgeous city - and if you get the chance - visit!

There is so much to say about our week in Pittsburgh!! Keep watching for more posts!! I am going to make up for my poor blogging by telling you all about Spring Quilt Market in the days to come!!

I promise.....keep watching!! xoxS