It has been a busy week here in Orlando at Bernina University. We opened the Merchant Mall at 7:30 am yesterday so the dealers could do their last minute shopping. (That was a bit early after a couple of leisurely mornings… yikes!) I had a lovely spot in the hall with great neighbors, so it was never a dull moment. Here’s a photo of my space.

It was a lot less space than I have at Quilt Market, so I had to really pare down my samples and display. But I had plenty of room to demonstrate the new Design Magic stenciling process and had a wonderful time talking to dealers, shop owners and educators.

The sample on the table is my new (free) Magic Mat pattern. I love to give away a free easy project at this type of event. I’ll be posting an entry on the Magic Mats shortly, so stay tuned.

Saturday brought a special treat. Brewer Sewing invited about 50 shops from the area who were not Bernina dealers to visit the Merchant Mall. As soon as the door opened, two lovely ladies made a bee-line for my space. Much to my surprise, it was Diane Smith (FiberSmith) and a friend. Diane was one of my original Florida customers. We have spoken on the phone and sent loads of messages back and forth over the years. It was truly a treat to have the opportunity to finally meet in person!

Well, I’m off to the airport and hoping for an uneventful flight. I see that our friends at Delta have oversold the flight, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I don’t get bumped… Here’s hoping this bording pass does me some good!

I’m in lovely Orlando for Bernina University, the annual training event for Bernina dealers. Most of the dealers are from the US, but a number of Canadian and other international dealers also made the trip.

I’m an exhibitor in the Bernina Store area — it’s like a mini trade show that features a number of vendors that are suppliers to Brewer Quilting and Sewing Supplies. Much like Quilt Market, it’s a chance to visit with and provide product information and quick training to shop owners — in this case, mostly sewing machine dealers.

Most of us flew in on Thursday and got our areas all set up by the end of the day. Friday was a free day for the vendors until the Grand Opening of the Bernina Store, so Joan Ford and I took advantage of the day and hopped a bus over to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. You got it — we went to Disney!

This is my first trip to Florida, and I was not sold on the Disney idea. But I have to say I thought it was amazing, even with temps in the 90s and tons of humidity. We went to see It’s Tough to be a Bug, the African Safari, rode the new Everest roller coaster (ugh!) and finished our day with the Lion King show.

Everything at Disney is in the details, right down to the spider theme 3D glasses for the Bug theme theater, to the frog pattern tiles on the restroom floor. Everywhere you look, the details represent the section of the park you are currently in. As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure you could figure out which part of the park you were in without a map if you just looked at the details. It really is amazing.

I’m off to work for the day, so I’ll post more about BU later.

The Houston Quilt Market ended just 2 short weeks ago and we are still shipping orders as fast as  can — so we’ll call it a huge success. It was fun, it was exciting, and it was exhausting! I was blessed to have Susan Stein and Nancy Kazlauckas with me on this trip, and I certainly don’t know what I would have done without them. Here’s a short synopsis of our trip. (I wish I had some photos of the booth while it was mobbed with shop-owners –but we were much too busy trying to help everyone to worry about photos at that point!)

Our first day started with 4am wake-up alarms to get to the airport in time for our flights. (When you use miles for tickets, you don’t always get the choice departure times…) Fortunately, our flights were smooth, we got a car that fit us and our bags, and all our last-minute shipments to the hotel were waiting for us. We arrived at the convention center and my pallet of freight was right in front of the booth (yeah!), so we were off to a good start. (Yes, I always hug my boxes when I arrive!)

The weather was steamy on the day we arrived (mid-90s and about 100% humidity), so booth setup was challenging. It was just plain miserable in the convention center. Needless to say, the task of steaming the curtains was not popular with any of us that day.

But, once that nasty job was done, the rest of the booth could be assembled. Nancy and Susan are not my usual trade show companions, so setup took a bit longer, but by the end of the 2nd day, we got it all put together and looking good. Setup is always a little strange — you put the booth together, then take a bunch of stuff down for the Schoolhouse sessions, then put it all back up again, but somehow it all comes together and you reward yourself with a very nice dinner.

Here’s what it looked like when we got it all put together…

We have a “play table” in one side of the booth where shop owners and others can sit down and try out the paints, rubbing plates, and stencils.

And in the other end of the booth we have product for sale and a place to write orders. And once the door opens, it can get busy in a big hurry!

In addition to the regular hours in the exhibit hall, I taught classes on Sunday and Monday morning. I love the classes, but the 8am starting time is a bit of a killer — especially on the last day of market.

The last day is always a long one, because we have to pack up everything and get it ready to ship home. It was raining that afternoon, so my cartons were delivered to the booth after a soaking shower — thank goodness for strapping tape! Needless to say, we were truly tired and hungry by the time we walked out the door.

It was a wonderful market. We met lots of wonderful new friends, got to say hello to our long-time customers, and had a great time showing off the new paint colors and stencils. (But I have to say I’m truly glad this only comes twice a year!)

I’m off to Houston on Thursday for International Quilt Market. With classes to teach and very long days on the convention floor, I don’t expect to have much time for blogging until we get settled in again after market. (And then I hope to take a short vacation!)

Fall Market will be an exciting show for us — we get to introduce the new paintstik colors and our new line of stencils. Here’s a peek at the new ad that Matthew put together for the December issue of Quilting Arts.

I’ll get back to the regular posting schedule by the end of October. Until then, happy painting!