Thelma and Louise (AKA Judy and Fred) Hit the Road

In January of 2009 Judy and her mother attended the Quilting and Needle Arts Extravaganza in Statesville. Judy took one look at the vendor booths and the crowds and thought "I can do this".  From that simple thought, our lives were changed forever.  In the Spring of that year Judy did all the things you need to do to establish a business.  Obtained licenses from the City of Concord and the State of North Carolina, built a Web site, chose the name for the business, ordered inventory, established a business checking account, DBA., etc.  She also asked me to take some time off of my job search to wheedle as many invitations as I could to be a vendor at quilt shows.

The first show we were able to get in to was for the Western North Carolina Quilt Guild in late June.  The timing couldn't have been better.  Our daughter Lea, our son-in-law Cid and our three grandchildren were visiting from California.  Lea and Judy went to Hendersonville the day before the show to set up the booth and I followed the next day with my mother-in-law and the 3 kids in tow.  This type of show, referred to as a "Guild Show" is the most common of the quilt shows.  Every two years, quilt guilds have an event where their members display their latest quilts and sewing projects, and have a contest for the best quilt.  Vendor booth rentals offset the cost of the venue and the cost of advertising the event.  The vendor chairpersons are guild volunteers who, as we found out, are well meaning but often clueless about managing vendors.   That's OK though, every guild member and volunteer is a potential customer so we vendors bend over backward to make a good impression.

The Hendersonville show went fine, except that it was held in late June with no air conditioning in the venue. The attendees were literally fainting in the aisles.  Wonder of wonders, we actually sold something!  I had visions of Judy and I sitting in our booth for 3 days with 0 sales.  We didn't sell a lot, but we did sell enough to encourage us to move on to the next show.

Never having been a vendor at quit shows, I was pleasantly surprised at the friendliness of  fellow vendors.  Quilt shows aren't busy the whole time and you get to know your fellow vendors pretty well. Although we are competitors, we act more like co-workers.    

Hendersonville was a positive experience - Judy and I were on our way.