(Warning:  Long Post Ahead.)

Well, by now, you’re probably sick of reading quilt market posts all over blogland.  I’m always slow since I don’t take my laptop with me and I’m so tired when I get home.  Market was tons of fun, but a lot of work too.  Kellie opted for a double booth this time and we went from this

to this.  Good thing she had a double booth — it was crowded like this a lot.  I didn’t manage to get a good empty-booth shot.

Poor Shandi wasn’t able to make the trip (not going to trust my baby to any shipping guy!) so Kellie brought a new light fixture from Australia.  Isn’t it pretty?  All those little flowers are cut out of plastic and we put it together the night before set up.  I’m wondering how she made the trip home — it seems like she must’ve been squished.

Anyway, on to the people.  My first encounter was a total surprise.  My sweet blog friend Karin couldn’t come to market, so she sent me a present, hand delivered by a friend that works in a quilt shop with her.  Look at this beautiful necklace, hand made by Karin!

What a thoughtful gift.  I had no idea that Karin was sending me something and it was such a nice surprise after two days working to set up the booth.  Thank you so much Karin — I LOVE it!!!

Then, I was thrilled to meet Flat Nat, all the way from Australia.  I’ve read about her with envy, so I was so excited to actually meet and hold her.  (I might have whispered sweet nothings into her ear.)

And look who she brought with her — her mother Natalie and Leanne.  Soooo fun to meet these two — they stopped by several times during market and they’re both just as sweet and cute as can be.  I felt like the booth just lit up every time they came by.

The next few days were a big blur and I get a big fat F+ in remembering to get the camera out.  Beth was my first invisible friend to stop by and luckily for me, she came back to visit a few more times ’cause it got busy in the booth.  What a cutie!  And what a surprise — I had it in my mind that she’s short and blond — haha — she’s tall and brunette!  It’s so cool to meet imaginary friends in real life!  Another surprise was Penny.  She always posts about outdoor trips with her hubby so I pictured her more as the rugged outdoor type.  She was so amazingly soft-spoken and pretty with her cute curly hair!  (Hi you two — thanks for stopping by several times — I so enjoyed talking to you both!)  I also had fun meeting Sheree (Penny was her sidekick) — her booth was right next to the ladies room, so I waved as I ran by.  Shortly after meeting Penny, Jackie came along.  Jackie and I have e-mailed for years (ha! — that’s blog years) so it was super fun to meet her too.  There were lots of others too — Elizabeth, PKM (apparently before her accident), Kathy, Pat, and probably a few that I can’t remember (I’m sorry — you can’t expect much from someone who had to crawl around on the floor as much as I did!  Aaaccckkkk! And  Sharon!  How could I forget Sharon???  She was wandering around with Nancy NoBlogBlogs and I practically accosted her when I saw her!)

We also had a steady supply of the famous too.  Brandon Mably was absolutely smitten with Kellie’s designs.  Early Saturday morning, before Jan and I arrived at the booth, he brought Kaffe by for a visit.  Kellie was on the ceiling the rest of the day!  I only got two pictures of the famous with Kellie.  Here are the Piece O’ Cake girls — I’ve loved their designs for years and I’m so sad I missed their booth.

And Jane Sassaman — just as sweet as can be.  (Ok, I do have one more picture of Kellie with someone, but I have no idea who it is, so I can’t post it and embarrass myself — you know, in case it’s someone REALLY famous!)

Kellie’s booth was in prime real estate territory.  Right in front of us was Anna Griffin.  ANNA GRIFFIN!  Ohhh, the eye candy!  Her booth was gorgeous — walls at each corner so that guests entered the booth in the middle of each of the four sides.  There was a beautiful big vase of fresh flowers in the very middle of the booth.

Each outside wall had an idea board for each of her four fabric lines.  This is the wall that was directly across from us.

It contains her new Christmas line, due out in May 2011 — I think it’s beautiful!

Kitty-corner and behind us was Kaffe Fasset’s booth.  During a quiet moment, Jan and I ran around to his booth.  Jan managed to sit down and have a little chat with him.

What a nice man!  He was working on a needlepoint of a fish.

And isn’t his booth beautiful?

Kitty-corner behind the Anna Griffin booth was Michael Miller.  They always have a fun time and this time, they had one of those booths where you grab a bunch of paper.  I have no idea what it was for, but this guy was having a good time.

I loved the big mannequins in the Michael Miller booth.  And see those big porthole windows at the top of the picture?  That’s where people stand and take all those aerial views of quilt market.

Like this one!

I didn’t even come close to seeing all the booths at market, and I certainly didn’t get many pictures.  I always love to get a picture of Anne’s gorgeous booth though.  It was fun to see Anne and her sidekick Anne again.  Next time we need to have a picture taken of an Anne-Anna-Anne sandwich!

And one last picture (whew!) — this must be the nicest designer in all of marketland.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen her without a smile on her face.  Jan and I happened by her booth during set up and she treated us like old friends, even though she had no idea who we were — what a sweetheart.

Ok, that’s enough.  Sorry it was so long!  One more here’s-what-I-bought-at-sample-spree post and we’ll be done.  Trust me, market posts are way more exciting than what’s going on around here — which is a whole lotta nothing.  (Oooh, I forgot, I did get together with the quilty peeps — I’ll have to show you what they’re working on.)

XOXO,
Anna

Man, oh man, another market is over and I’m d.e.a.d. tired!  I got back late Tuesday night and I think I’ve been sleeping ever since then.  Which is quite a feat, since I’ve actually been at work for two days.

Once again, those Australian gulls (translation: girls) wore me out.  (I’m the self-appointed translator for the gulls.  They did much better this time, but there were still people who had trouble tuning their ear to the AustRALian accent.)  Anyway, we had another wonderful time with tons of really hard work and lots of fun.

The week was really a blur and I’m sure I have my events out of order.  The first night of booth set-up, we took a field trip to Ikea.  We’d been working hard all day and we were running late, so we decided to take in the fine dining of the Ikea cafeteria.  We were laughing a lot, but really, it wasn’t too bad!

I’d heard so much about the swedish meatballs on blogs that I had to give them a go (translation: I had to try them.)  Kellie and I loved the lingonberry jam or jelly or chutney or whatever-it-was sauce.  Yum, Yum.  The sauce and the apple (in the corner of the picture) provided the fruit, and therefore made the dinner healthy.

We had to hurry and shop before the store closed.  I’m not sure what Kellie was doing here, but I’m pretty sure no hats were harmed in the making of this picture.

After a blitz through the store, checkout was pretty entertaining.  The gulls aren’t big fans of the self checkout.   Especially the signing of the little box with the stylus part.  I can’t remember what’s different about here and AU but there was something amiss.  I was feeling very international — shopping with Australians in a Swedish store in Houston.  You know.   Texas.  A country unto itself.

Since the gulls were so well behaved and didn’t make me chase them anywhere, the next night I “let” (haha) them have a little visit to Anthropologie. Oh My.  We all love that store.  Look at the super cute paper plate display on one of the walls.

Some of those paper plates are embroidered with food and words.  Too Cute!

Kellie was fascinated by the sunglasses.  Do they have sunglasses in Australia?  Surely, they must.

And Jan was faux-modeling the sweaters.  I tried to get her to buy this cute little number — maybe next time.  Not that I’m telling tales or anything, but we sort of had to drag one little clothes-loving shopper out of there, practically kicking and screaming.  (Anthropologie SLC stock up!)

By now, it was after 9 p.m. and we were hungry so we wandered (translation: limped with SORE feet) the streets looking for food.  Not having a car this time sort of put a crimp in our style.  (The gulls very rudely made fun of me because I don’t know how to use a taxi.  It’s not my fault I didn’t know that the light on the top of the cab means it’s empty — I never need a taxi!)   All this limping and  I was happily distracted by the pretty bow on Banana Republic’s head.  The Christmas decorations were gorgeous, even if I was a little miffed that they were up before Halloween.

Still no restaurant, but we hopped into a Walgreens for lollies.  (Lollys?  Translation: Candy)  At this point, the gulls almost reverted to their old Target wandering ways — they split up and I had to keep one eye on each of them.  Kellie went to the lollies

and Jan hit the magazine rack.  How on earth do mothers of twins do it?  You’d think I’d be better at this by now!

After Walgreen’s we wandered a bit more and landed at P.F. Chang’s for a late dinner.  In the bar, to avoid a wait for a table.  And if you can believe it, two someones tried to pick my cute little twins up.  Sheesh, you can’t take those two  anywhere!  (I think it helped that the someones appeared to be spanish-speaking and they only understood english.  Since the gulls don’t speak english, they were safe.)

So, this was the scene, late every night.  Returning to the hotel, dog tired.  This may have been the night that the cash box almost ended up in the hands of one very un-deserving waitress.

But, that’s a story for another day, this post has rambled on long enough! Next time I’ll tell you all about who I met and almost met at market. (I know you’re just waiting on the edge of your seats. Ha!)

XOXO,
Anna