Portland to Sacramento

 

Another show has come and gone.  This one was a little different from other shows because we changed our method of travel.  You will remember a few weeks ago we drove to the show in Tacoma, WA, now that was an adventure with the truck breaking down.  When we finished the show we left the truck and trailer behind.  We went to the Seattle airport and flew home.  You have to think about leaving your truck and trailer 2200 miles away with people you really don’t know and hope everything will work out.

Well a week ago we flew back to Seattle.  I found an airline I will never fly on again. My few words of advice are Frontier is terrible.   The hotel picked us up and we retrieved the truck and trailer, spent the night, got up early and drove to Portland and did the show there.  We also picked up our supplies from the last West Coast Independent Contractor.  So the trailer is full.  We already had a lot in the trailer because it will not go home for another month.  It is really full now.  If you live on the West Coast and think you would like to do shows for Quilter's Rule contact me.

While in Portland we were asked if we would come back in a few weeks to do the machine show.  But alas this was our one show in Portland this year.  So if you missed us in Portland, the internet is still available.  There are so many shows in the same locations next year we have decided to only do one show in a Metro area.  The market can only be sliced and diced so many ways.

Yesterday we got going about 8 am and drove south to station the truck and trailer for PIQF in October. We went by the land my In-Laws owned, it has all changed. Everything is gone and a Walnut Orchard is in its place. All things change.  Today we will visit with my brother and then take the train to San Francisco to take an early morning flight to Milwaukee by way of Houston.  Except for baggage charges I am not sure I understand how airlines work. 

Tacoma, WA

I have not written for quite a while.  I guess you would say I have been in a funk.  At any rate, there has been nothing to say for a while that I thought would cheer anyone up.  I really don’t know that there is a lot to say to anyone right now that would cheer anyone.  So what I have to say is not designed to do anything other than tell you what I think.  Please read the rest of this blog.

Quilter’s Rule is in Tacoma, WA at a show and we are readyl.  Getting here was a trial at best.  First there was the just over 2000 mile trip to get here.  Originally I had thought to just follow Interstate 94 to Interstate 90.  It is a bit further than just taking I90 but there was the bucket list reason, I could knock of 2 more states in my quest to drive through all 50 states.  Well now I have seen North Dakota and Montana.  Both are very long drives.  While in Montana I decided to take HWY 12 across from I 94 to I90.  I could make up the extra miles it cost to see North Dakota.  Everything went fine until the Suburban lost an idler pulley on the serpentine belt.   Lost the fan, power steering, power brakes and air conditioning and of course the engine over heated.   I am not in the middle of nowhere, but I am certain I can see it.

Not to worry, just call AAA and get towed to a garage to fix it.  Right!  I knew exactly where I was since I was standing next to the 102 mile marker on the Highway. Should be easy!  Well, it turns out that maps really only have useful mile markers on Interstate Highways and AAA doesn’t know where the mile marker is either.  That’s still OK because I know where I am and tell them.  Trouble is AAA can’t find a garage closer than Billings that can fix the car.  Oh, and even though I have towing service for a trailer, AAA won’t tow the trailer unless it has living quarters, because I purchased the service for my wife and her horse trailer if she broke down on the road.  Her trailer has living quarters.

Plan 2.  Call the office and have Karis do a search for auto parts stores near where we are stranded.  Since Patricia is burning her way through her cell phone battery at an alarming rate searching the web and I want to keep my cell which is half full for other possible calls we need to make to get out of this situation.  Well, Karis found a Napa Store with the part I need about 30 miles away.  So how does one get to a store 30 miles away with a broke down car? I am nearly positive there is no taxi service.

About now a rancher in a pickup pulls over and asks if we need help.  I explain what we need and where the part is located.  He asks, can I drive you to town and get it?  Strange why would anyone drive 60 miles to get a part for someone he has never met? But I say sure!   In the end we decide Patricia should go and I should stay with the car.  The situation does not seem good no matter who stays or who goes.  Anyway Patricia pulls off and I settle in to wait.  About 5 minutes later and I am regretting my decision Patricia is calling me and asking if I need antifreeze.  Come to find out the town I was looking for was not 30 miles away it is 2 miles away.  I could have walked.

The long and short of all this is with Jim’s (the rancher) help we put the car back together. We met a wonderful person.  It turns out Jim owns 12,000 acres, raises cattle and would not take anything for helping us. I realize I have lived too long in a place where I think of the bad first and the good too late.  I also realized I do not always know where I am.  It is time to rethink what is important. I have learned a lot on this trip.

Tell me what you think!

I have just spent two day driving from Wisconsin to Utah for the Home Machine Quilting Show. When you are in a car for over 25 hours there is not a lot to do except read, think or drive. Oh, yes there is the inevitable snacking.  And I did see more snow on the ground than usual for this time of year.  The farmers are way behind this year.

Since you are not interested in what I snacked on or what I was reading, let me tell you what I have been thinking about!

There are a lot of new shows being announced and will be in the marketplace in the next two years. AQS and OCS have both announced multiple new shows.  Quilts, Inc. has reopened Chicago and MQX has announced Springfield.  Other shows like Quilting with Machines are closing citing too much competition.

1                   From the consumer’s point of view this is probably a good thing.  More shows offer more choice some will be in new locations and closer to their homes and they can get to the shows with less expense.  Will they spend those savings or pocket it? Will they attend more shows?  Will spending increase?

2                   From the vendor’s point of view there will be increased expenses to attend all these shows.  Some of them will be in locations that have been overlooked and that will be a good thing.  Will revenues increase sufficiently to justify the increased cost of attending more shows?  Will vendors attend more shows?

3                   The show promoters where locations double up might see dilution of attendance or vendors who cannot handle multiple locations or who do not want to return to the same area relatively soon after they were there previously.  If there are more shows with contests, will sponsors step forward with more money?  The logistics of moving quilts will get more difficult.

4                   The baby boomer generation will start to retire in earnest over the next 10 years.  The stock market is booming right now.  But there is a sense of uncertainty that has depressed consumer confidence and spending for years.

5                   The work force participation is lower than it has been in many years.  Where is all that money coming from to support these people? Taxes? Savings? Charity? Family?

6                   Our industry is not based on need, it is based on want.

I have formulated several scenarios of how this will play out.  Before I share them, I would like to know what your think?  So you can respond directly to this post or if you would rather have your identity preserved respond to my email at jim@quiltersrule.com  Let's start a conversation.

I would like to know if you are a consumer, vendor or show promoter.  Personally I work on two sides of the problem as a vendor and a show promotor.

Lancaster, PA

Where does time go?  Today is Wednesday and the show opens in a couple of hours.  Let me catch you up on the last couple of days.

Monday we traveled to Lancaster, with a stop in Chicago so they could pick up an 18 wheeler laying across all the east bound lanes.  Picking up the wreck turned the whole road in to a parking lot for several hours.  Finally got to an exit and we detoured around the wreck.  Downtown Gary, IN is not my favorite place.  Then it was off to Richmond IN to visit with a vendor who supplies us with mat material. 

We left home at 4:30 Am and it was now noon and it has not stopped raining.  In fact the entire drive was in the rain.  We should be thankful that the weather was in the 50’s.  It could have all been snow.  We accept our blessings for the little things in life.  We finally arrive at midnight.  Checked in, and got a short 6 hours of sleep.

Set up went very smooth.  But as most of you already know, the Host Hotel is not available for us for the next three years.  In fact for the next several year many of the hotels in Lancaster are tied up with events not associated with quilting at the same time we will be here.  So we are seeking a new home in Lancaster.  We believe we have found a new location but we have not signed a contract, so it is not in the bag. 

Met with some local leaders we will be working with next year.  We will be making an announcement about that shortly.  But today the show opens.  The quilts are great, the vendors are ready and don’t forget Friday evening for our Gallery Tour with the Curators.

Home from the MId-Atlantic

Well we arrived home yesterday after 16 days on the road.  Was the trip a success?  I think so. 

This trip out we did a retreat and the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival at Hampton.  Hampton was an interesting show.  There seemed to be a lot of people there, the number of sales were not down, but the total sales were off the mark a bit from last year’s average.  Many of the folks who live there are in one way or another connected to a pay check dependent on the Federal Government.  Sequestration has scared many of them to the point they were willing to come to the show and look around but not really ready to spend a lot of money.  Oh well, next year is another year.  And sequestration starts tomorrow and the news cycle will start reporting the world did not end.

We left Hampton and went to Lancaster to check on a few details for our show there this year and of course of the next several years now that AQS has signed on for three more years.  The dates they choose happen to coincide with the week that many Pennsylvania school children are in Lancaster and soak up a huge number of rooms in the hotels.   Should make finding lodging an interesting problem, for example the Host is full for next year already. 

Leaving Lancaster, we started to hit rain in western Pennsylvania and the wet snow started in earnest in Mid-Ohio.   We were just inside the Indiana line when we pulled in to a rest stop and realized just how much ice had fallen.  We slipped back onto the Toll Way and then exited at the next exit to sit the rest of the storm out.  Well it was still snowing the next morning but the salt was working and the roads were in much better shape, plus everyone has slowed down a bit.  So we were home by 1:30 PM. 

Saturday it is off to Iowa for a wedding.

Hampton, VA

Just put the finishing touches on the booth in Hampton, VA.  For many of our friends this is their first show.  Not sure what it make me feel like since this is our fourth since the New Year.  It was a little cool this morning, but now it is sunny, windy and about 50 degrees.  In about three hours we will need to be back over for the preview. 

We are looking forward to a good show.  There was TV advertising on this morning.  So maybe!

Our Quilts of Valor Challenge is hanging at the front of the 400 row so go by and take a look.  I will try to post some pictures later on this evening.  Stand by!  Don’t miss out check out www.quiltersrule.com for the rules for this year. 

Raliegh, NC

Saturday Patricia and I finished a Quilt Retreat with Memory Lane Quilting at Greenbo Lake State Park, KY.  I was not expecting too much and was pleasantly surprised by the response to our products.  Just 16 participants and three teachers, but everyone got personalized attention and they had all their questions answered.  That made everyone happy.

Sunday we drove over the West Virginia mountains and down and east to Raleigh, NC.  We had it all, rain, snow and wind, then sunshine.   About 100 miles from finishing we found a Girl Scout Troop selling cookies.  Add milk and we had a late lunch. Really healthy and all that!  But it did bring out the sunshine even if it was a bit cool.  Not cold by our standards, but cool enough to need a jacket, which I forgot to bring on this trip.  But I brought two on the last trip and never put them on so go figure.

Today we are in downtown Raleigh sitting in Starbucks hoping it will warm up enough for a stroll around the city center.  Since there are trees blooming this cold snap has to be unusual.  At least there is no snow on the ground, just some ice in the shady side of buildings.

This afternoon we will head for Hampton, VA for the MidAtlantic Quilt Festival.  Then home for a week before the Lancaster Spring Quilt Show.