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Vending at Quilt Shows

sewhappy

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sewhappy Advanced Member

sewhappy

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Since we did Market in May, I have been vending at local quilt shows and & have had a wonderfull time!! The customers are quilters and not just shop owners. They are there and in great moods-they are not trying to figure out what their customers will be buying in the next 6 months to a year!! NO stress at all!!! They have been a wonderfull group of women and some men! The last quilt show I did was last weekend in Idaho. This group fed us, offered to help us set up, offered to booth sit, came around & offered us Ice Water, pop, and even coffee. Just one of the most gracious groups I have come across in a long time! One group in Montana even offered us their houses to stay in! But the most remarkable thing is they are truly nice people, in that I never heard one negative comment from any of these women. They were truly happy for whoever won what ribbon. I thought that was really amazing, lets face it, a very large group of women and no "snipe" comments? That's rare. Even as they were lining up to get their quilts after the show and facing a wait time of at least one hour, (the line was near our booth as we were breaking down) I thought to myself "oh no, Now we are going to hear it" But no!!! Just general conversation and congratulations to each other!! It was so very refreshing!! So any way I am now hooked on vending at quilt shows! We did very well. When asked if we were going to come back next year, we answered YES, YES, YES!!! I did enjoy market, and we were very successful but it was VERY stressful and VERY expensive! I tell people that if you sneezed in your booth they would charge you! LOL

So please, let me know when your next local quilt show is! I would love to vend there and meet more of you!

Sewhappy:):):)

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vlrad Advanced Member

vlrad

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There is a rather large quilt show in Spokane in Oct 17, 18. &19th. Held at the Fair grounds, which I thought was great last year. I live in North Idaho, 30 miles away, but I do have a spare room! John Flynn had a booth there last year and I think he is from Bozeman. I know it is a bit of a trip.

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sewhappy Advanced Member

sewhappy

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Oh Vicki-

That is so nice-I wasn't dropping a hint. The offer is so kind!! I will check into the kids schedule and all the other things and I hope to get there!! John Flynn lives in Billings It would be great to meet both of you!! I love Spokane and Spokane Valley! Have you been to the Quilting Bee? One of my favorite shops!!

Thank you!!

Sewhappy

P.S. The dates are great! The kids have that as a long weekend for teacher conference meetings! :):):)

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sammi357 Advanced Member

sammi357

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Thank you for the nice compliment about MT! :cool:

my quilting friends and I love to see booths, all the new ideas and cool stuff. Sewing folks are just nice people!

I'm in Billings, and we are lucky enough to have several LQS's as well as machine dealerships in town. How cool is it to have local service people available?! (even home phone numbers...for example, for the night my very large dog knocked a FULL glass of iced tea into my BRAND NEW serger...!yeek! HELP! lol!)

There's Back Door Quilt Shoppe, The Bernina sewing center, Billings sewing and vac, and they all carry lovely collections of fabrics as well as machines. Sewing Center West has machines We have a JoAnn's and a Hancock fabrics, too. not to forget, we're lucky that our two local Wal Mart stores have not completely stopped carrying some fabrics yet. (i'm sure I'm in trouble for forgetting someone...!)

http://www.backdoorquiltshoppe.com/

John Flynn is from Billings, and has a great enewsletter.

http://www.flynnquilt.com/

(Not to miss is his tutorial on how to diagonally piece a quilt back.)

You can sign up for that online, as well as for Laura Heine's newsletter

http://fiberworks-heine.com/

so many quilts, so little time!

sammi

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RitaR Advanced Member

RitaR

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Well shoot, what if someone else, like LindaR takes our spot for next year,, Oct. 2009... in North Carolina.. by golly.. lol, still homesick for Wa and OR.. however.. we have a small show, no vendors yet... wish we could, however space.. was tight last year..

Don't think we'll be flying by Billings on our way to or from CA, OR & WA next year or not.. cant see the map in my mind, if I could find it.. lol.

Linda, hope you get her to your place as well as the others mentioned. spokane, etc.

Maybe another location in NC will contact her.. in fact I have an idea.. will contact Sue if anything works out.

RitaR

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Saundra Advanced Member

Saundra

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Sew Happy, welcome to the world of quilt show vendoring. My DH & I have been doing this for about 6 years. You are right....such nice people to work with. They fall all over themselves to help and see to it that all is well. It is the most fun we have had......quilters are such wonderful people. The work is hard, but worth it. We do about 25 shows a year and go all over. Good luck to you....Saundra

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