Quilt Market re-cap & recovery
Quilt Market is the quilt industry trade show that happens twice a year, fall always in Houston Texas followed immediately by the Quilt Festival, and each spring in a changing location. This was the first time I had my own company booth at Fall Market and it’s pretty daunting when you are a one-woman company! Fortunately, I have lots of support from friends, professionals, and my go-to guy, my husband 🙂
So much effort, energy, business, and at the end of the day, fun. It takes a bit to get back to normal! Here’s what you start with…
Not very inspiring, is it?! Everything else has to be hauled, shipped, rented, or bought on site. To make something wonderful, where people want to be and ultimately buy. This is a business after all and if you don’t make money, you can’t make more patterns, quilts, fabric, books, or whatever you have to offer.
Some shots of my booth after setup…
One of the downsides of having your own booth is that you actually have to be in it – all the time! Which makes it hard to get out and around to see other booths and all of the other sights. It’s kind of a trade off in many ways. So I did run around the show in the mornings before the floor opened. At the end of the day, I’m just too tired to even enjoy. Here was the view from my booth – business was hopping!
Besides the opportunity to meet lots of new industry faces and catch up with friends and business partners from before, I introduced three new patterns and the second installment of the Lab Manual Series, String Theory 2.0, which are now available to shops and directly on my site as well. More on those soon but they are all now available!
And before you know it, it’s over and everything comes down in a flash! Just like it never happened…
After the wheels touched back down on the runway in Washington State, I hit the road for my last two travel teaching/speaking trips of the year – and now, THANKSGIVING! How can that even be possible?!
Happy quilting,
Tonya
Stash Lab Quilts 