Houston Quilt Market - Day 1

Setup day at Market. There are over 20 aisles each with over 50 booths! This is one seriously big show. I am really glad I have hired a scooter to get around as my poor feet would not cope at all. It already earned its keep today when I scooted back to my hotel room and managed a quick swim to refresh and renew myself before the Sample Spree.
This is what a small section looked like this morning but tomorrow it will be full of people and gorgeous products.

I was up at dawn to go to a lecture at 8am. While I was sitting and listening I also went through the massive Schoolhouse schedule to plan my day. Every 20 minutes there were about 20 different presentations to choose from. It was exhausting! I think I went to every session except one while I had lunch. Lots of new products and ways for stores to sell them. It was, obviously, geared to shop owners but designers were there in force too. I found myself sitting next to some really great ladies and have already lined up meetings for the next few days. My mind is absolutely swimming/flooded with different ideas already and it is only day one.

Schoolhouse went to 6pm and then at 8pm (till 10pm) it was Sample Spree. Now I wasn't sure what to expect but basically there were hundreds of Market traders selling everything from fabric sets to pattern packs to embellishments at special prices. I understand that there were a lot of bargains and that you could buy regular products at cheaper quantities to then sell in your shop. There were some very very full bags by the time I left.

There are lots of Aussies here and doing us proud. Here is Kim Bradley and her husband Dave. Kim had a terrible fear of flying and it was a really big deal for her to come all this way. She survived and I think now may have the travel bug. There will be no stopping her now. She has her really clever quilting and applique templates here and I am sure they will do really well.

Sarah Fielke is here with her new fabric line and patterns. I know that they will be really popular too.

Tomorrow another lecture at 8am and some appointments and I will start to go up and down the aisles slowly.