Fun in New Hampshire and then "the Bad Trip"

Our next Quilt Show turned out to be our favorite ever.  Each August, The World Quilt Competition has a stop in Manchester, New Hampshire where the competition quilts are part of a large quilt show.  Our profile was rising at this point and we were invited to become vendors at the show.  I had visited New England once and Judy had never been, so we decided to accept the offer.   Right away, our friends warned us to stay away from I-95 and to take I-81 through Western Virginia instead.  The drive was beautiful.  We went through Pennsylvania to Binghamton, New York, East through Albany and Route 9 through Vermont.  Route 9 through Vermont was amazing.  I can only imagine what it's like during leaf turn.  We'd booked a room at the Show hotel, so all we had to do each morning is go down the elevator, have breakfast at the hotel and walk into the Exhibition Hall.  It was like being on vacation.

Two new things happened at that show.  For the first time we had a line of customers in our booth waiting to check out.  Judy was ecstatic! Also, we sold out of some of our fabric.  Judy had purchased fabric panels designed by Stephanie Brandenburg (see photo).  When they arrived at the house I said "You've got to be kidding.  Who's going to buy that?"  Judy just smiled and said "Just let me buy the inventory, dear.  You stick to driving the truck and setting up the booth."  Naturally, we sold out of the panels in New Hampshire.  Judy was nice enough not to say I told you so, but I know she was thinking it. We left New Hampshire thinking "We've got this quilt show business figured out".  Hah! I'm sure the quilt show gods had a good laugh at that one.

A month later we were scheduled for shows on consecutive weekends.  The first was in Cincinnati and the second in Philadelphia.  It would require us to be on the road for about two weeks.  We made it to Cincinnati after driving through one of the worst thunderstorms I've ever experienced.  At any moment I expected to be washed off the road, and/or a tornado was going to land on our truck.  It was a portent of the trip.

Across from our booth in Cincinnati was a vendor from Michigan.  Their booth was 5 times the size of ours and stacked from floor to ceiling with fabric.  I asked them how many bolts of fabric they brought. "About 1,500"   To give you some perspective, our quilt shop in Concord has about 500 bolts.  We hoped that people who went to their booth would shop at ours also.  No such luck.  Believe me, there is nothing worse than watching someone across the aisle make sale after sale after sale while you sit there and watch.  Sales weren't terrible, but it feels much worse when someone is selling more in a day that you are at the whole show.

So we packed up and headed for Philadelphia hoping that show would be better.  It wasn't.  What happened there will require a whole additional post.  Stay tuned.


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