Soon the sun will rise and Prairie Quilt gang will take off to set up our booth at the OKC Winter Quilt Show. There is so much time invested before we ever arrive at the fairgrounds, planning what we are going to take, laying out a floor plan for our booth – which always ends up being altered, scheduling staff so the shop is covered and at the same time covering the booth. There must be some “carnival” in me because I somehow love the packing, loading, unloading and construction and then reloading after the show. To see an empty building created into a quilt show in a matter of a day is still exciting to me.
We rented a 26′ truck and have it strategically packed to hold all our products. Each day of the show we fill our cars and personal trucks full to restock from the previous day’s sales, continuously bringing what we think our customers might like to see.
It is always nostalgic for me to do this show, we do several shows throughout the year, but this one is special to me because this was once “my” show. By that I mean that I created this show, was it 12 years ago, 13 years ago? The years fly by. The first year the only staff I had was myself and a part time high school girl. My mom and sisters from Kansas came to help with set up and a few wonderful ladies volunteered. How I accomplished all that work with so few people I will never know.
I really did wonder if anyone would come to the first show, boy was I surprised when I saw a line outside of freezing ladies waiting to get in, the line wrapped around to the side of the building. I ran the show for eight years and loved doing it but as my business at Prairie Quilt grew I found it harder and harder to handle both the show and the shop. It left me very little time to enjoy my personal life so I made a choice to give one up. I decided to sell the show, once I made the decision I felt a huge sense of relief, the work of putting on a show that size was daunting and the work is all year long, not just during the show.
I love to be a vendor at this show, I still get to see all the friends I made those many years before, but I do not have to deal with the huge responsibility of producing the event. I hope you will stop by our booth and say hi, we usually have chocolate for all of our friends who stop by. It should be a great show so start your year off right with beautiful colors, textures and quilts to inspire you.
We rented a 26′ truck and have it strategically packed to hold all our products. Each day of the show we fill our cars and personal trucks full to restock from the previous day’s sales, continuously bringing what we think our customers might like to see.
It is always nostalgic for me to do this show, we do several shows throughout the year, but this one is special to me because this was once “my” show. By that I mean that I created this show, was it 12 years ago, 13 years ago? The years fly by. The first year the only staff I had was myself and a part time high school girl. My mom and sisters from Kansas came to help with set up and a few wonderful ladies volunteered. How I accomplished all that work with so few people I will never know.
I really did wonder if anyone would come to the first show, boy was I surprised when I saw a line outside of freezing ladies waiting to get in, the line wrapped around to the side of the building. I ran the show for eight years and loved doing it but as my business at Prairie Quilt grew I found it harder and harder to handle both the show and the shop. It left me very little time to enjoy my personal life so I made a choice to give one up. I decided to sell the show, once I made the decision I felt a huge sense of relief, the work of putting on a show that size was daunting and the work is all year long, not just during the show.
I love to be a vendor at this show, I still get to see all the friends I made those many years before, but I do not have to deal with the huge responsibility of producing the event. I hope you will stop by our booth and say hi, we usually have chocolate for all of our friends who stop by. It should be a great show so start your year off right with beautiful colors, textures and quilts to inspire you.
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