Spring Quilt Market 2009 – Friends

5/25/09: Hey everybody, I’m going to spend the day with my family and select the winners tomorrow (Tuesday, 5/26).

Going to market with a friend is WAY MORE FUN than going by yourself. Looking at fabric, eating, and general aisle roaming is just better with a BFF by your side. Of all the pictures I took at market this is the only one of my good friend Jone Hallmark. She’s taking in the amazing ambiance of the fabric art at Alexander Henry.

Several amazing moments of serendipity graced my market trip. First, Jone and I discovered we were both on the same connecting flight into Pittsburgh on Southwest Airlines. She flew in from New Mexico and I flew from Seattle. We met up at Midway and chatted non-stop all the way to the departure gate. If you’ve flown Southwest you know how you can check-in online up to 24 hours before your flight and get a boarding pass (all random, numbers are assigned on a first come basis). At the airport, you line up according to the number on your boarding pass. When they made the announcement to board we figured whoever got on the plane first could save a seat for the other. Well, we both look down at our boarding passes and Jone’s said A23 and mine said A24. What are the odds of that? Absolute chills. A little reminder from the universe that the journey was on track.

The other amazing part of market is meeting up with online friends. Celine Perkins and I ‘met’ in a Yahoo group. She runs a very successful pattern business (Perkins Dry Goods) and has been a generous and amazing mentor to me. It was such a delight to get to meet her in person. Now if those customers would have just stayed out of the way we could have visited longer!

Serendipity Moment #2. Before going to bed Friday night I made a list of the things I absolutely had to do on Saturday before my market experience came to a close. I wrote Kay Mackenzie‘s name down. I didn’t know how I’d find her but I planned to go to her book publisher’s booth to start the search. Well, late Saturday afternoon I stop in a bathroom in the outer area of the convention center. I look up and right there next to me drying her hands is Kay. OK, 20,000 people attended this show. We exited the bathroom to chat and Kay mentioned she still needed to meet Susan Brubaker Knapp. Susan and I shared dinner Friday night and I had her number on my cell phone. As I pulled out my phone to call her Kay let out a scream and guess who was standing right there. Susan! Seriously, what are the odds of that!

Susan’s very talented friend Janet Lasher took this fabulous artsy photo of us.

Susan found out two of her quilts were selected for the Quilting Arts 2010 calendar including the cover! She also has a new book coming out with C&T. I’m pretty impressed with her if you can’t tell!

Susan’s quilt Lepidoptera was displayed in the Aurofil thread booth. It’s unbelievable. She wrote more about the process of creating that quilt on her blog.

I also had the pleasure of a number of other chance meetings with online friends. One of the benefits of plastering your own mug all over your blog is that people recognize you when you’re out. This is a very good thing at market. I had lunch one day with 3 lovely gals from Yellow Bird Art, chatted with Amy of Mrs. Schmenkman Quilts, Jen Eskridge of Reanna Lily Designs, talked with Mary of Confessions of a Craft Addict, and stopped in to say hello to Patsy Thompson and her quilting DVDs.

Whew, and that was my market.

There’s a Free Shipping Promotion going on at Pink Chalk Fabrics through midnight Monday. I’ll draw the prize winners Monday morning. Wishing you all a fabulous weekend!

pink chalk fabrics ~*~ new arrivals ~*~ free patterns ~*~ on sale