The Wire Thins - Two Weeks and Counting Down

Two weeks to go before I trust United Airlines to actually get me where I need to go this time, and I am strangely calm. I attribute it to being a newbie to exhibiting at Quilt Market, and therefore too stupid to know how panicked I really should be.

I'm going to save all my best nervous breakdown skillz for Kelli and Kathy, my market helpers, or, as I like to refer to them in my own head because they both live on the west coast, my Westie Besties. And now it's out and we'll see how they like that title. Kelli, whom you also know as Market Slave West, has been on board with this whole thing since January or so. Kathy just got on the train this week, and I am so insanely grateful to have her. Kathy is a member of Northwest Quilters quilt guild in Portland, and is exactly the person with a car Kelli and I needed to help schlep all of my boxes from the hotel to the convention center and back again. Kathy teaches classes for shops and her guild and is as excited to get into market with my credentials and shop, shop, SHOP as you might imagine and then some. I'm kind of picturing myself having to sedate both of them either right before or after Sample Spree, actually.

Side note - Did you catch that up there? I have CREDENTIALS, hotties. Don't mess with me.

Besides shoring up the Westie Besties, this week has consisted of the following:

Shipped three boxes of patterns and marketing materials to PDX hotel.

I want to bring NONE of this home.

 Finishing up the binding on the second to last quilt I decided needed to get done and come with me.

The pin in the upper left proves it isn't QUITE done yet.

Whipped up some pole condoms for my booth. Practicing safe boothing is very important to me. The fireproofing spray is proving very elusive and I'm starting to worry a bit that I WILL be the person who burns the convention center down if I can't comply with their bizarre rule that all booth materials must be fireproofed, but the actual quilts and fabrics and threads and yarns and ribbons, etc that everyone is hawking don't have to be. Never mind all the paper products (patterns, invoices, etc) that will be in house. I do love logic.

Name a four letter word to describe the fun of inside-outing 36 feet of 2 1/2" wide tubing. Yes, that is the one.

 Adding the embellishments to Market Slave East Renae's "Sunflower and Sky" sample she made for me and in the process became converted to batiks. Woo hoo!

Not sure why this is blurry, but it really is lovely in person! 

 

 

 

 

Made first of two storyboards of how to put together the blocks for the two quilts I will highlight in my Schoolhouse - "Kickin' Stash" and "Taking Names." Since both have a way to make the blocks both "planned scrappy" and "completely scrappy", each storyboard shows one way on one side and the other way on the back. I've even rented an easel to put these things on. I am out of control.

I kind of felt like I was making a 5th grade science project.

The one thing I just have not been able to do was actually make the quilt in my head for my guild's "Calendar Challenge", which is due this evening. We were to create a 16" x 20" quilt representing our birthday, and the best one from each month as determined by vote this evening will be put together into an actual calendar. I LOVE this idea and think it may have been the best challenge ever, and I have run two of them in the past. However what with the crazy of the last few months, it just didn't get done. And I had the best idea too, which included this poem:

Celebrate Quickly!
The shortest day of the year

Is all about me.

Because of course my birthday, December 22, is also National Haiku Day.

I'm hoping maybe Judy will let me make it up by the show and still get included in the display even though I can't win for December's calendar entry. Even though we all know I WOULD have had I gotten my act together. I'll try to post some photos of the winners soon!

For those still stuck on "pole condoms", this is what I am talking about:

See the fabric scrunchy looking thing on the top pole? It just makes it prettier.

Photo of Bonnie Sullivan's booth from a past market. And now you have learned something today.