Spring Market ... Market Eve

I had to go solo to market this time around. I'm not complaining, because I wasn't really alone. The friend I've been sewing with, Kimberly Bourne of Main Street Market Designs, was unable to make it this time (which was really too bad .. more on that later), and my parents - a.k.a. babysitters - were out of town as well. So, the whole family came along for the drive. Unfortunately hubby was pulled over about a 1/4 way through the next state. :(
We got to our hotel sometime in the afternoon on Thursday. Argyle was a little anxious to get on the elevator and ran to the first one he saw open. I chased after him, and barely made it in the doors before closing and we started moving up .... all the way to the top floor. And then back down again. Stopping just a few floors before ours. The doors open and this cute girl walks in, completely ignoring us. HA! I knew immediately who it was, although I had never met her. I said her name, and she very slowly and awkwardly turned to me. It was the most by-chance meeting ever and would not have happened that way had I not kept up with her own blog where she showed what she would be wearing to market. It was Lindsay from Craft Buds and Lindsay Sews!

Look how cute she is!!
Photo taken from her blog

The funny thing, is we had plans already to meet up at market. Even better that we were staying in the same hotel! We drove over to the convention center together and got checked in, asked where everything was happening and was directed to upstairs. So, we went upstairs, where all the booths were being set up! I kept telling Lindsay how weird it was that they let us up there since they don't usually let anyone in during set up. We had a private view of the next day. I only wish I had grabbed my camera from the car, but then again, I had no idea where I'd end up! We walked around and found the Benartex booth where Kimberly's first line, Under The Big Top was debuting. I managed to get a few pictures on my phone to send to Kimberly, not even thinking to take pictures of anything else, since I would have my camera the next day (I'm kicking myself for that one right now. Luckily Lindsay had her camera and has genorously shared her pictures with me so this post will be more entertaining).

taken with my phone

 Here's some shots Lindsay got of me checking out all the quilts Kim & and I had been making

-- and a few extras --

So after wandering around for awhile, we decided to check on the line for sample spree. Again, we were told it would take place upstairs and on the far side of the convention hall. It had been empty every time we went looking. Finally someone was there we could talk to. Turns out, we were in the wrong place! Lindsay was registered with one of the vendors and had a different pass than me and that's how we got in upstairs. The lady told us we needed to be downstairs for the sample spree line, which was already pretty big. She wanted us to walk down the excalators to the front of the line. I didn't want to be booed. Instead, we went around to the back of the line, still getting a pretty decent spot in line. And turns out, we were next to some other ladies that Lindsay knew too.

Sample Spree line just as we were getting to the escalators:

taken from my phone



Sample Spree line after we got off the escalators:

taken by Lindsay

Once we got to the top, we each went our own way. My first stop was to Lecien. then to Art Gallery Fabrics, where my  card was declined - my bank put a block on my card since I had been using it all across the country, yikes! and so embarassing when you're trying to buy fabric in a hurry! I had to put back about half of what I wanted and pay with cash. Luckily they had more at the booth the next day :) I made it Jaybird Quilts and got her new patterns. and picked up a few things from Windham Fabrics. I already had too much to carry, so it was time to go :(  I think this has been the most expensive sample spree for me. I haven't taken a good picture of my haul yet, just one of my trunk as we were going home. I'll get a better picture of everything soon and post on one of the next posts.

That concludes Market Eve. I am getting everything from sample spree listed on my site, as soon as it's all up, I will let you know! Have a great day! oh, and don't forget to enter the Sew, Mama Sew! giveaway day here.