Sewing and Beyond with Mary Anne Ciccotelli

Last Fall I was contracted to teach 3 classes and one lecture at the Home Machine Quilting Show (HMQS) in Salt Lake City, Utah.  A couple of months later I got this CRAZY idea that we should also get a booth and vend at the show.  I am not quite sure why I thought this was a good idea, but we (me and my very supportive husband) committed to this.  So, for the past few months I lived and breathed (except when I was distracted with some other major events – more about them may be coming later) getting ready for this show.

Here is our booth all set-up and just waiting for the fun to begin.

My first class started at 8:00 am on Thursday.  I had sixteen wonderful students in my Disappearing Rainbow class.  We had a great time (sorry no pictures because my camera was in some bag somewhere).  Juananne did post about the class on her blog.

The show had been open for a few hours before I even got to be at the booth to see how things were going.  My husband is so great – he took care of the final set-up and selling while I was teaching .  After my class was over it was off to present my lecture –  “The Legacy Lives On – Six Geneartions of Quilters”.  What a great opportunity to share because we had three generations there – Me, Emily (my daughter) and Autumn and Prairie (my two granddaughters).  I showed the quilt (Tricky Squares) that Autumn gave me and the blocks that Prairie is working on.

Here is a picture of some of the venders at the show.

Thursday afternoon – I am finally at the booth.

Saturday morning I taught the Mini-Magic class and in the afternoon a two hour induction into the Hexamanic Club – Let the Hexamania Begin.  My sister Susan, her two daughters (one officially and one to just watch) and her adorable grandson came to this class along with a bunch of other hexagon lovers.

I think the real plus for us deciding to vend was the motivation this gave me to get seven of my patterns published.  Many of them were started, but not finished.  Well now they are finisihed and ready for you quilters.  They will be up on my website very soon.

Here is my best friend and business partner (aka husband).  I could never have done this wild adventure without him!  I really appreicate him taking a week of his vacation time to work by my side.  (The Queen of Projects was in top form and there were some pretty late nights followed by some really early mornings.)

I am happy to report that by being at this show two shops have picked up some or all of my patterns.  In this picture Tom is helping Judy from the Stitching Post in Wyoming with her purchase for her store.  Also, Kate Thomas from Sew Armadillo (an on-line store in Australia) picked up all of my patterns.  Needless to say, I am pretty excited about this.

He was even very good sport and was willing to wear the shirt with my new logo on it.  The logo was designed by my daughter-in-law, Isa Ciccotelli.  She does great work.

Here is the happy business couple on the third day.

The show is over and we are packing up.  I am not sure how those that vend week after week do it.  It is alot of HARD work.

Thank you to Ann Collect and everyone that worked on the show.  It was a wonderful experience and I hope to see you again next year (to teach at least, I have not decided about this vending stuff)!

This entry was posted on Monday, May 23rd, 2011 at 9:27 am and is filed under Fabric Folding, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.