Friday, May 4, 2018

The Life of an Itinerant Quilt Designer

I cannot believe that it has been over a month since I wrote a blog post.  What the heck have I been doing???  The Lynch household has been turned into an order fulfillment center.  Mini Mosaic quilts have taken off and have become in great demand.  It started with my episode on The Quilt Show and it just snowballed from there.  They sold out in 2 days, and then people went to their local quilt shop who then went to their distributors OR they came to my Etsy shop.  We are finally seeing the light.  I know everyone at the Post Office by name and they know me at FedEx too. There are no more boxes in my foyer, well almost none.
We did head to Kentucky for the AQS Paducah quilt show.  Although I brought Curvalicious, I focused on my Mini Mosaics.  I just can't get enough.

 I was by myself in the booth (while my husband was filling orders st the house where we were staying) and not able to do many demos, so I brought a virtual assistant!The good news about a VA is they don't talk back, they don't need a potty break and they work tirelessly.  My VA was a video I created demoing Curvalicious and the Mini Mosaics.  I brought a TV and ran the video  in my booth on a loop. (Thanks Rich and Dina.)

Because I was tied to my booth, I really didn't get to see any of the quilts or the vendors. I was located in what they call The Pavillion, aka the bubble that kind of looks like an enclosed tennis court. I did get to see the Van Gogh Cherrywood challenge, because it was located in the Pavillion.  There were lots of quilts and it still amazes me the amount of creativity inside quilters's brains .  The challenge for next year is based on the singer Prince.  I think you can guess the fabric color.


I made sure that I had some extra time after setting up my booth to visit Hancock's of Paducah. This is the largest quilt shop that I have ever visited.  Since I was there the day before the quilt show started, it was not super crowded. Based on experience, I know that you need to go there with a plan.  My plan was to load up on batiks for my Mini Mosaic kits.  SUCCESS!!!!


There is a story that I have to share.  Last year a group of quilters who met each other all over the world, stopped by my booth.  They decided to do a challenge using Curvalicious.  They showed up at my booth on the first day.  Three of them had finished their challenge. I only had a chance to photo one of them and she surprised me overwhelmingly. Her challenge was gift wrapped and I was warned to be very careful.

She didn't make a fabric Curvalicious quilt, but she made one out of glass!! She was so excited to gift it to me and I couldn't believe my eyes.  It was a votive candle holder.  

She spent hours and hours learning how to work with glass and to make it into a Curvalicious shape.  I have never received anything like this.....ever.  The two other challenges were quilts that were so unique, but no photos!

It did take me 2 days to unpack the car once we got home and five more days to bring everything down to the basement.  Now that we have caught up filling orders, I can return to what I really love to do.  I have a couple of Mini Mosaics waiting to be quilted.


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5 comments:

  1. Love how your booth looks and all the mini quilts, I can see why it was so popular. I also like the Van Gogh quilts, really beautiful and creative. That is really a treasure and so special, since she made it just for you.

    Debbie

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  2. Whew! Cheryl your Itenerant Quilt life boggles my mind. The candle holder...how cool and sweet of your student I hope you suggested a mosaic gift! Wouldn’t that be awesome in glass!

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  3. Wow! This all sounds exciting....and exhausting!

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  4. Hi! I am binding my heart mosaic and I love it. Next time I will back with a neutral fabric since when I tried matching the red backing with red thread it appeared on the front - I was able to take that out - and my quilting on the back is not perfect but I will get better! I have already made a blue crab and can't wait to finish it so I can start the bicycle. See what you started?I

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