Countdown!

I have started my countdown to Quilt Market. One week from today I will be on my way to Houston. Unfortunately I will not have my own booth at market but I will be working for Alexander Henry Fabrics, my favorite fabric company. I have been lucky enough to work these shows with them since I worked in the studio a few years ago. I love going to market each year, I always look forward to it. Like many crafters trying to make it in this industry I have a "day job" to make money until my crafting job can become my full time work. Working as hard as we do can sometimes make it hard to keep up the enthusiasm for my work and the creativity to keep going. Each time I go to market or any other industry show it renews my enthusiasm for what I do. There are so many great people that you meet, not to mention all the most amazing, new fabrics.

I think one of my favorite parts about Quilt Market is the booths. There are over 500 vendors and no two booths are the same. The big companies always do a great job and have beautiful booths but I love to see the small ones the most. You know when you walk by these booths that the owners/designers are there working the whole show to get their patterns and work out there for everybody to see. I can only imagine the work they put into each and every detail of their display to make sure it looks just right. I hope to one day have a booth at market so I love walking around to get inspiration for what my booth will look like.

This is my first market since I have become more serious about my design business so I hope to take LOTS of pictures and meet as many people as I can. I know I still have a lot of work to do before I get to that point but it can't hurt to get started now. I have printed off the list of all the exhibitors and I plan to narrow down the list to all the booths that I want to hit while I am there. This can be tricky since I am technically working while I am there. I have to fit my wandering around into my lunch hour and the little bit of time before and after the show is open. So I am working on a plan to get as much accomplished in the short time that I can.

Here is a pretty dorky picture of me in the Alexander Henry booth two years ago at market, with my cute skirt that I made out of Mocca by AH. Are you going to market? Have you ever been in the past? Let me know!