We Hit the Big Time - and It Hits Us!

At the end of my last post, Judy and I had completed our first quilt show.  We did a few more shows and started developing our "war stories".  Near the end of  day one of a two day show in Statesville, the promoters announced that a major snow storm was approaching and we should get the heck out of there.  The snow was just starting when we began loading out, and by the time we were done there was  3" of snow on our vehicle. Judy is a native Californian.  Not only does she hate the white stuff, she doesn't understand why there's snow at less that 10,000 feet.  At another show the guild needed walkie talkies to open the front door, since opening the front door and back door of the venue at the same time would cause a strong wind to come through and blow down the quilt displays.  At another show the emergency exit door was in the middle of our booth.  I called that one "boothus interruptus".

Our sales were increasing, but were not what we wanted.  My job search was going nowhere fast so we decided that I would focus full time on our business and we would become vendors at "The Big Shows".  "The Big Show" is a whole different animal from a guild show.  The shows are in large convention centers, have anywhere from 200 to 500 vendors, and attendance between 20,000 and 60,000.  We'd be competing against the retail divisions of multi million dollar fabric and thread companies and some of the largest quilt shops in the country.  Our adventures at these shows is going to require several posts.

Our first Big Show was the American Quilters Society (AQS) Show in Knoxville, Tennessee.  It was there I learned the term "marshaling yard".  The loading dock at the Knoxville Convention Center is not big enough for 200 vendors to use at the same time, so we had to go to a marshaling yard about a half a mile from the convention center.  You wait in line until you're number is called then you drive to the loading dock.  By that time, we had purchased a 5' by 8' trailer to carry our stuff.  Waiting in the marshaling yard was like a cartoon, with my little bitty trailer flanked by the large trucks and trailers of our fellow vendors.  If I drew big eyeballs on it, it would be the little trailer that could.  When we made it to the loading dock, we received help unloading the trailer from prisoners who were doing community service.  When I wanted to tip the guys, I was told to "give the money to the boss, he'll dole it out."

Since we were first time vendors, we we were assigned
a small booth in a far corner of the convention center.  Before the show opened each day, I was able to look at the quilts that were in the competition.  I was totally blown away by the skills and artistry of the fabric artists who had quilts on display.  If you're ever in a city with an AQS show, I recommend that you attend just to see the quilts. There will be an AQS show in Charlotte the end of July.  Another thing I'll never forget is an exhibition of quilts for and by victims of AIDS.  I got very emotional and had to walk away.

The show went well.  The instructors from the AQS took a liking to our dupioni silks and we sold a lot. Only one slightly embarrassing incident.  A customer made a purchase and gave me her credit card.  When I asked for her ID, Judy said "That's Alex Andersen (you idiot) you don't need ID."  As you might suspect, Ms. Andersen is a who's who person in quilting.

One thing about Knoxville, the restaurants are fantastic and very reasonably priced.  It was a fun show. Most importantly, we realized that we could successfully compete against the big guys.