Shoot for the Moon #15

Two days ago I celebrated my 48th birthday. I traveled to Columbus Ohio and gave two trunk shows at Quilt Beginnings in Columbus. The shop is great – in fact the owner has two shops- both are great.  We are still in Ohio watching my two older boys swim at Ohio State.  It is 2 in the morning on July 5, 2009. I cannot sleep so I might as well blog. Sitting here writing I have realized that I am fulfilling another part of my dream/my shooting for the moon. In the last ten days I have lectured and gave trunk shows in three states – Delaware, Pennsylvania and now Ohio. I got an email last week to speak in CA! I guess it is really happening! Being here in Ohio I get very connected quickly to the quilt shop customers and to some of the owners. Cathy is the owner of Quilt Beginnings and she is sharp as a tack and has a great business. I have already received positive feedback via email from her customers . While I am hanging out in between swim sessions I get bored quickly! So I decided to make my first State Stamp. It is OHIO! I think Cathy will do very well with this stamp. I will send it to her tomorrow via email. See pix below. What do you think? I think the State stamps will incude the state bird, state capital, state flower, state tree and any other things I can work in. Sometimes you get a strong vibe while you are in the place you are designing something about. I am in Ohio with a few books and a computer so I made this new state stamp.

This is just a sketch. I will work on the pattern next week at home. I need to do MD and TX as well. I need to rest and take a break but once I get an idea for a new pattern I need to make it!It is amazing that I have been working hard at this business for over 4 years and I am even more jazzed about the whole thing that I was a few years back! How is that possible? I guess when you finally find your passion it all starts working like a fine oiled machine. But I need to remember the machine needs to be refueled  weekly and needs some downtime.

Next Tuesday they are starting our new studio/garage. That was on my vision board. I am telling you vision boards and mission statements have extraordinary power! It is crazy that things seem to be coming faster than ever! I guess you can not dream too big.

So when I reflect on the continuing efforts of shooting for the moon I have come to the conclusion that it is a constant trial to keep balance. I have not made time to walk and exercise in 4 weeks with all the work and travel and that needs to change. I do not feel as god as when I exercise. So tomorrow is the day I will start back on that routine.

I also am questioning what can Zebra Patterns become? How many patterns can I really sell? It was only last fall that I was printing 24 – 36 patterns at one time. I am now printing 100 at a time and I am starting to do 200 for a few popular patterns. That is the part of the whole equation that is so mysterious. I know that quilting in 2006 was a 3.3 billion dollar business. Did you know on average 1 in every 19 homes has a quilter? Isn’t that nuts? I have booked at least 5 speaking engageents in the past two weeks. I have two emails waiting in my email folder for when I get home. Crazy!

Gary tells me to just focus on creating and teaching and lecturing. That is good advise.  If there were only 50 hours in every day! And ten days per week would help too.

Okay I better sign off as I have to get up for the next swim session in 6 hours- yikes! Would love feedback on the Ohio stamp.

Shoot for the Moon #14

Who knew shooting for the Moon could be so involved! I know I have been working towards this “growth” moment but it is really going crazy. The Zebra Name is getting out and orders are coming in.

Big Decision

We made our first big decision. We decided to let Keepsake Quilting carry our patterns in their international retail catalog. You might say – What decision? Isn’t that great? Well – yes and no. It is great that they saw me in Pittsburgh and that they invited my to be a part of their catalog. Apparently it is not easy to get in to it. Well I was asked at market and they called early last week. The deal is that they want wholesale pricing LESS 30%! Whew – that is a bit steep. We took a breath and made the decision to give it a shot. Their first order will be between 90-120 patterns of each pattern. They chose the Citystamps (copy-write). That is ok – but if the pattern sells well it could mean reorders of hundreds and maybe even thousands. Sounds good – huh? But guess who has to fold and stuff all of those for a much reduced profit? Well I posed the question to my family and they all said they would help fold.  Zebra is approaching a crossroads. I have researched the cost of going to a large commercial printer. That does not make sense until you hit the 1,000 unit mark. This could be that time. If so – they would print and fold, I would just assemble. We will see. I want to sell a ton of patterns on one hand – but then again do I really want to sell thousands? Guess I will see real soon. The decision was made in order to expose my patterns and name nationally/internationally. We did decide to pass on getting set up with distributors for now. They too want 30% of the bottom line.

Scheduling

I have also learned about scheduling! I have been teaching/lecturing for the past 2-3 years. Last week it worked out that I had two lecture/teaching sessions in Delaware on Monday-Tuesday. I came home Wednesday and went to a Biance concert. Man is she amazing! Then Thurs-Friday I went to Phillie and gave two lecture/classes, followed by a local class Saturday. Can you say over scheduled?  If that were not enough we had 12 twelve year old boys have a camp out Saturday, we had 18 fourteen year olds painting tee shirts this afternoon and we have 10-15 seventeen year olds coming to hang at the pool tonight. We have cooked over 6 dozen hamburgers and 8 packages of hot dogs. The tough part is when you lecture for guilds they are booking you 1-2 years in advance. Local classes are booked about 4-6 months in advance. I think you have to limit engagements to a maximum of one per week when you are trying to run a business, raise a family and keep a house. At least that is what I am going to shoot for.

Biance Concert in DC 2009

Houston

This week I will fill out the paperwork for Houston. We will do the Market and the Festival. I am hoping my sister in law Patti or my friend Nancy will come and help. Gary must stay home with the boys. I think I will sign up to do a schoolhouse too. That is a private 15 minute session where you get to pitch a product to the buyers. I will pitch my Block of the Month programs and my stamps.

Guess I need to go get some more hot dogs ready – the teens are coming any minute.

BEACH PATTERN CORRECTIONs!!!!

I hate that I had an error! SORRY! The error is not tragic – but it is in wording and some omissions. On the Beach pattern on page 2 under the “cutting” section it says to cut the Mid-grass area and the Lower grass area. That is wrong! It should read Water and Sand. The measurements are correct – I just forgot to change the wording of the land parts! Sorry! Also below in the assembly of background there is one part that says trim to 18-1/2″ that should be 19″. Please feel free to email me and I will send you corrected instructions. Below is a visual of the mistakes and corrections.Any quilt shops – I will replace instructions at no cost – please send me an email with how many you need. Also on the front page some of the materials were left off. They are listed below. On the BEACH Stamp page in the zebra pattern store are links to correction pdf files.

Corrections to Materials List

Shoot for the Moon #13

In order to get the Zebra name out in the National Market it is necessary to get your work displayed in all different ways. Shooting for the moon often involves buck shot – -  in which you have to shoot and the bullet needs to scatter in many different places! Going to market and entering National Competitions are a few ways – but writing articles for magazines is yet another. Last Fall I made some art for the Quilting Arts 2010 Calendar contest. The theme was “Fresh picked”. I decided to do Strawberries and kiwis – two of my favorite fresh picked fruits. I posted about this competition several months back.Check them out(post on March 5, 2009 and Feb 28 involve the new technique I invented) . My Feb 28 posting describes the Digital underpainting and oversketching process.  My strawberries and kiwis did not make it into the calendar however Pokey Bolton and her staff were interested in getting me to write a magazine article about the technique.

I have been working feverishly on the article for the past week. I made four new art quilts measuring approximately 16″ x 21″. They are all sketches I played with in my art journal and then turned them into quilts. See the four new quilts below.  I have also included a snapshot of my art journal that I scanned into the computer. It is an interesting process and is exactly the desire effect I was after. I am starting to work on some larger sketches now to make two or three large quilts in this style.  I will mail all my work to quilting arts magazine tomorrow. Hopefully it will be published in the next issue as they stated. We will see!

Sketched image of Rebecca scanned into my computer

Rebecca

Annie

Debra

Liz

Shoot for the Moon #12

Well today was the day I finished writing the directions and making the patterns for “In the Beginning” – the Judea/Christian quilt. Thank goodness it is done! Writing the directions is absolutely the worst part of making a pattern! It is especially daunting when you have to write twelve of them! It has been hanging over my head for weeks. When I write patterns I have to work in quiet. No fun music or tv to distract me. Working alone I have to write the directions and read and reread the several times. It is weeks like these when I say – “Why am I doing this again?”. I guess I just need to build my business up to the point that I can have a full time editor of patterns. That is a good vision! I think I will add that to my vision board.

Do you have a vision board? If not you should have one. Everyone should have one.  A vision board is a space that you gather pictures or images of things that you want to achieve or aim toward. I had a picture of a new large studio on mine about two years ago. Guess what? We are under contract with a construction company to start the free standing garage/studio any day now. We are just waiting for permits. Also on the vision board was Market – guess I can check that off too. My vision board is electronic. I have a file on my computer. Sometimes I print it out and keep it in front of me. Vision boards are powerful things- you should make one and see for yourself. I think the mere act of stopping and organizing your thoughts and putting them down in a collage is the first step in achieving your goals. You can clip images and words from magazines or from the Internet. A vision board does not have to be practical. The sky is the limit!

Maybe I will update my board tomorrow in my studio and post it on my blog – what do you think – is that of interest to you?

I have been getting many calls from magazines looking for me to advertise with them. I am not going to do that at this point. Direct marketing is a better use of my time and money. I received a big box of goodies from Krenik – a fancy thread and ribbon company. I can’t wait to dig into that! I will surely give you all an update. They have fusible ribbons and threads. They have dimensional threads and a huge selection of metallics. Yummy!

Tomorrow I will continue writing the article I have been asked to write for Pokey Bolton’s summer issue of Quilting Arts. I will make three new samples of art based on my sketch book and use them to illustrate my new technique of digital underpainting and oversketching. It is a really cool method.

Again – I can not tell you how happy I am that those patterns are done! This is one of those weeks where shooting for the moon has been a real challenge. I was ready to shoot alright! I was ready to shoot my computer after sitting there for days writing and writing! There are many aspects of starting a business that are not pleasant. Another annoying job is inventory! Gary and I spent several hours doing that this week after the work day. You see I have to have a small inventory that I can carry with me to shows. That inventory needs to be in small totable bins. Then I need my stock inventory. That can be larger quantities in larger bins. But it all needs to be counted and accounted for. We counted over 60 pattern designs and anywhere from 5- 70 patterns per design. Hmm..guess I need to add a book keeper to my vision board. I know there are bean counters out there that are happy as a clam counting and recording – I am not one of those people. Seems as if my staff is growing in my head!

My Ideal Business

All this writing gave me an idea. I should write down my ideal business scenario. Okay -I see an art department. I see 3-4 creative energetic positive motivated designer/quilters working in a large clean space with bins and bins of beautiful fabric. Imagine the walls lined with every color thread in 12, 30,40, 50 and 60 weight! (Might as well go for it – it is my dream) The workers all love to come to work each day.

I see a small office with our in house editor/pattern writer quilter. She is in a homey little office with her fingers banging out accurate and detailed memos, notes articles and of course patterns.

The next office over is for accounting and billing. These happy people (I see two) are counting and adding and billing and are happy as clams doing the business side of Zebra Patterns.

Next I see my office which is roomy and has a large work table. My office is attached to the large design area. I also see a comfy couch and a large screen tv. I almost forgot a big computer area with several large printers. I think the printers should go in their own room- they are noisy and would be shared by everyone. I think the building is getting bigger…because I need a large stylish conference/lounge area for brainstorming and meetings.We need a spot for our dog Lacey – she is so cute. She will be happy in the big design room or on my comfy couch.

Oh and while I am at it lets add a small private comfy room if anyone needs to nap for awhile to get rid of a headache or does not feel well.

Now for my favorite thing -  a fabulous kitchen with a great dining area. Guess we need a cook on staff. I would love to feed everyone lunch everyday. When I was in my twenties and the Computer Design director for a Pre-flight production house I was sent to a company in Minnesota called Purup. I was there for two weeks learning state of the art computers. I will never forget their lunchroom. They had a nice lady that came in and cooked a homemade meal every day for lunch. It was so cool and all of the staff loved it. The lady cooking loved her job as well. Doesn’t that sound like a great perk? We need a big warehouse. I just want it to be clean and room and well organized.

So what will we do in our company? Well of course we will make patterns. We will make dvds and books. We will publish patterns for other quilters. We will have our own line of batiks. We will teach and give lectures and seminars. We will have classes for teens. We will have retreats and quilt shows. Boy we are going to be busy – guess we need a few more employees. So what do you think? Sound like a plan? It does to me! Want a job? Flexible hours – free homemade lunch each day. Until next time….

We are off to a quilt show in Annapolis where we will be vending for the weekend.

Shoot for the Moon #11

Learning…

Who knew shooting for the moon would be so exhausting? I am still recovering from market. I had such a push before market that I guess I needed more time than I thought to recenter. So what has happened in the past two weeks since market? Well we continued to pick up a few more customers nationally via email and we have even started getting a few reorders from the new customers. We have filled all the orders and shipped everything except the “In the Beginning” Collection as I am still writing instructions on those twelve.I have entered into a relationship with Krenik – a thread company in West Virginia. They make specialty threads of metallics and other embellishment like materials. They are sending me a sample pack to use and once I get used to their products I will be endorsing them. My first Art Quilt sponsor – how exciting! I have been in touch with Pokey Bolton of Quilting Arts magazine and I am writing an article in their summer issue on underpainting and oversketching a quilt. This is a process I developed for arts quilts. I followed up with some of the other companies and I am waiting for a response. I was wondering how many of the companies that expressed interest would really follow up. I must say that most have not followed up yet. Who knows if they will. To me – it is yet another lesson learned. I think people get caught up in the excitement of  market and make a few too many promises. That is okay though. While I am mildly disappointed I just chalk it up to “here we GROW again”! This is the way we learn.

I have also taken a step away from the whole process to rest. We went to NYC for some fun family activities. In between market end and now I have given two lectures and attended one for myself. I have to say it was very nice watching and listening to someone other than myself give a lecture. My mother in law is visiting and we have been going museum hopping! We have been to the Visionary museum in Baltimore, a local craft exhibition and few others in DC. It has been a lot of fun. Noone in my family of men really ever want to go to museums art art galleries. I am refilling the well. Recharging. I am getting an intense sense of wanting to start another art quilt.

I have found since I have really focused on Zebra Patterns that a distinct rhythm has been developing. I work on Zebra for awhile which is some creative, a good amount of graphic design and technical writing and finally mindless production efforts and eventually I need a break from all that and need to create something new. I need to create something without boundaries, without worrying if it will translate well to a pattern that the general public will be able to successfully follow and reproduce.

I walk in to my laundry/storage room where I keep my completed patterns and see over 20 bins now filled with over 65 patterns – soon to be over 72! and I think back to last summer and I had just two large bins. Yes I only stocked 12-36 per pattern. Now I am stocking close to 100 of each at a time. I had 4-6 customers. Now I have close to 25 customers. That is great growth in this economic environment for a small business.  It has been a ton of work.  We are seriously considering going to Fall market which is the biggy! It is in Houston. Over four time the exhibitors display and over four times the people attend.

Emotions

I have not written much about the ups and downs of emotions that I have been living through throughout this process of building a business. So lets jump into that pond and see what surfaces! Right now I am feeling like – whew this is a ton of work and I am very tired. One cannot help but compare the amount of hours spent on this endeavor and if I had been spending the same amount of time doing graphic design at $75-100.00 per hour how much fatter my bank account would be.  You do not see tons of money rolling in really at any point. Yes my receivables have grown substantially however so have my payables! I am not paying printing bills of 26.00 dollars any longer.

Emotionally it is quite demanding to stay on course.  I do enjoy most of the work most of the time. I would enjoy it a whole lot more if the profits started showing up at a greater pace. It is like I am on a business treadmill and it is slowly increasing in speed.  In my current state I am constantly asking myself – why are you doing all of this? Some days I have the answer quickly – because you are enjoying it and building a small to medium or beyond business for our future. Other days the answer is “I don’t know – why am I running at 110 miles per hour?” I have to constantly remind myself – Debra take a breath you do not have to build a pattern business with 10 employees and trucks coming in and out of a loading dock in 8 months! (although I would really like to! lol) So why AM I doing this? I do have to go back to my mission statement that is on my booth sign: My intentions are to continue lecturing and teaching, to evolve into a national quilter / speaker / author and to travel the world through quilting.That is why mission statements are very important. Often times we get lost at sea and need to reread our original intentions.  I reflect on that and see I have been lecturing and teaching. I am now working on becoming a national quilter and I have begun to travel the world through quilting, even if it is only Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, NYC, VA, DE,  and other areas of PA.  I think maybe I need to add an addendum to my mission statement to make a nice living at what I am doing.  Yes it will now read: My intentions are to continue lecturing and teaching, to evolve into a national quilter / speaker / author and to travel the world through quilting and to make a nice living at what I am doing. I am not an advocate of that whole starving artist theory!

So yes I do have many doubts and often think about just throwing in the towel on this whole process and take a nice 9-5 graphic design job. Or better yet – just abandon Zebra Patterns and focus on art quilts only. But pretty quickly after that I think about what I would be missing. I would miss giving lectures and teaching. It really feeds my soul to share my experiences and techniques. I am starting to get out and see new places with new friends that I meet through this process. So no – abandoning this whole process is not rational. It is funny how one can set a goal and start to achieve it and once we are there, or part way there we look around and say – hey this is not what I thought it would be.  Then I ask – just what did you think it was going to be? The answer to that is not really clear. When I went to market I saw all the TOP know quilters in the business. I saw Pokey Bolton, Alex Anderson. Mark Lipinski, Bonnie McCaffrey, Elenor Burns, and several others.  While they might be celebs in quilters minds I did notice they were just working people with recognizable faces. In fact they all looked to be hard working people. Then I ask – do I want to be one of those quilting celebs? The real answer is not really. I would rather build a company that can afford 3-4 booths at market and has a book full of appointments with customers weeks in advance and the people just come to me and buy. It is really about creating a creative business that is successful – really successful is what matters to me. I would like a staff of people. I would love for all of the employees in my company to be eager to come to work each day because the work enviornment was so dynamic and enriching. So maybe I should rewrite my mission statement one more time:  My intentions are to continue lecturing and teaching, to evolve into a national quilter / speaker / author and to travel the world through quilting and to make a nice living at what I am doing. In this process I would like to create a company with a  staff where we could all work together in a creative, uplifting and productive environment for the better good of all of us and the quilting community through our products and personalities. How’s that? Sounds better to me.  It is through writing this blog that I refresh and renew my drive. You always hear about people who journal and keep diaries are able to flush out inner thoughts – well it is true. It just happened here. I actually feel renewed and with more drive. (I know that is a scary thought to those of you who know me! lol – don’t worry I do not for see I will spontaneously combust anytime soon!)

In summary about emotions – it is a real roller coaster. But knowing your intentions and reflecting back on your mission statement can be the needed seatbelt in the run away car on that crazy track.  I have been working on Zebra Patterns for so long that I anticipate these ebbs and flows in the business – and for that matter in life. The key is to  ride out the ebbs knowing the flows are surely to follow. I have found with this persistence the ebbs become less difficult and the flows play out for a longer period of time. It is necessary to check in with your emotions and constantly reevaluate and reform your mission.

Zebra Patterns?

Some people have asked – why is your company called Zebra Patterns? It is for a few reasons. First I did not want a company called “Debra’s Patterns”. There are so many companies out there with the owners name in the title. I also did not want my name becoming the brand. Companies with peoples names depend on the person who’s name is in the Brand to help push the brand. What if I someday want to sell my pattern company with all my employees and loading docks? It will be much easier to sell  the brand “Zebra” than my own name. Also in the future if I have designers who work for the company – they can use their own name under the Zebra Umbrella. Another reason is that I use a lot of black and white stripes in my work. And lastly – if you take the “D” off of Debra and replace it with a “Z” you get Zebra. We found one last benefit to the name Zebra …. in show catalogs I am usually the last listing! I always say if you can’t be first in the listing last is much better than stuck in the middle.

How is it going?

I think over all my goals are right on time or even a bit early. After I had recovered enough from the bone marrow trabsplant in 2004 I set a 1 year, 5 year and 10 year goal. It was surprising to find myself at 44 years old rewriting my life plans. No ever thinks cancer will visit there front door. My one year goal was to earnistly start working again and grow my pattern line. I did that and developed a strong presence in local quilt shops through my patterns and teaching.  My five year plan was to have a line large enough to take to National market. I did that.  I now have a national presence with my patterrns and I have National recognition and publication nationally through my art quilts. My long term goal was to actually be traveling the world through my quilts and patterns. I think now is a good time to revisit those goals and reset the 1 year, 5 year and 10 year goals.

What’s next on the one year horizon?

So lets see – in one year I would like to continue to grow the pattern line by adding more stamps and rounding out a few other items in my line. I want to add one or two more chair covers and a few more door hangers. I need to pattern that big Chuppah/ Wedding quilt too. I want to wite lets say 2-3 articles for Quilting publications.  I want to have at least 2 new art quilts to enter in National/International competitions.

In five years I want to grow the business and start making a good living from my patterns/teaching/lecturing. I want to write a book.

In the next ten – really make the business sore with a great little profitable company of like minded employees called Zebra patterns.

How does that all sound? Like a plan?I am reinspired – I need to go make something!

More news! Quilters Newsletter – my Obama Quilt is on page 32!

Can you believe it? I got a few emails from my friends Laurie in Chicago and Michelle in Philadelphia – that the Obama Quilt Show during the Inauguration is on page 32-34 of this months Quilters Newsletter! (June/July issue) What an amazing surprise to come back from market to see! I bought a copy and here are the images. I scanned the cover so if you decide to go get a copy you will know what to look for! I also received an email it is in a French Quilt magazine! Crazy!

Pictures from Market 09 – Spring in Pittsburgh

Here are 4 pix from Market. I show three Booth pictures and one of Fran – Creative Director of Clover Ind – picking the winning FREE Pattern Giveaway. I will post who won when I get the info from Gary. I know the NYC Quilter won and anther shop in Idaho. I am not sure who won the third one. O will find out and post soon.

First Market 09 - Zebra Booth Looking from the left

First Market 09 - Zebra Booth Looking straight on

First Market 09 - Zebra Booth Looking from the right

Fran from Clover draws winning tickets

Shoot for the Moon – Post market! #10

Were back and special thanks….

Okay – I am back. It is 12:30 on Sunday 5/18/09 and we just pulled in our driveway from Pittsburgh 30 minutes ago.  My head is still spinning. I was so wired up after market that I drove all the way home – 4-1/2 hours and it felt like 1/2 hour! My head kept reviewing and trying to process my first market experience.  I have to send a HUGE shout out to my dear friends from Patches (Jackie, Carolyn and Toni), and Main Street Quilting in Elkridge – near Baltimore City, and Capital Quilts of Gaithersburgh. They would all stop and give me encouragement and leads as to schmooze with at market! Thank you! Thank you!  For any of you who may visit the Baltimore Washington area you must stop in their shops! Here is a brief personal overview of each shop.

Patches in My Airy: Owned and run by Jackie is a wonderful warm place to shop for every fabric that is out on the market! Jackie has so many bolts of fabric – and it is always new and changing. The shop has a great classroom and a warm and welcoming energy. Carolyn and Toni are the best! If you are in the area it is a MUST STOP!

Main Street Quilts in Elkridge: Owned by Neicy and Dee is a smaller shop that has THE BEST selection of batiks and ASIAN Fabrics. Both Dee and Neicy are master quilters in my opinion! They are EXTREMELY Knowledgeable and Neicy is one of the best wearable artists I have ever seen. Janet ( who I have know for a long time ) and Sandra were there too. Neicy has a great color sense and is in great with adding folded accents to her garments! They are both so helpful and they have a warm inviting shop…..another MUST SEE SHOP.

Capital Quilts is a DC quilt shop that had a great selection of fabric. It is owned and operated by Susan and Gary who are  professional and spot on with knowledge. I think Capital Quilts has one of the best quilt education programs in the country.  So when you decide to check out DC you must schedule 1-2 hours at Capital.

Day One – Thursday our arrival and set up

We arrived in Pittsburgh around 3:30pm on Thursday. Set up was all day Wednesday and all day Thursday until 10 pm. Everyone in our row was set up and wondering if our space was going to be a “no show”. Nope… we strolled in at 3:30-4pm and surveyed the situation. We were not allowed to lay our own carpet. We had to pay the union help 75.00 to lay down a 10 x 10 rug an put sticky tape on the front edge. What the heck? 75.00? It took less than 5 minutes. I think I should get into the carpet laying business! So after the carpet was taped we had the whole booth up and ready for showtime in about 1 hour. I brought my own quilt posts. I made canvas full length 8 foot drapes that had all the quilts pre-hung on the canvas walls. We simple set up the poles, threaded the three canvas walls through the cross bars and POOF!…instant booth!Our neighbors where flabbergasted! We had ordered an 8 foot table – first mistake. The table was too big. We left it out. We had no where to put our computer – so we went out after set up to an Ikea and got a small stand that was great. Next time we need a small narrow table to store patterns under. We ended up just placing tons of patterns along the floor and covering them with more blue canvas. It was like a small riser. I displayed my art quilt awards and Omaba quilt in the published Obama Inaugural book.

The walls were a Navy canvas which was a great neutral background for my jewel toned quilts. The carpet was LIME green shag! It really looked awesome and was comfortable to stand on. Another shop owner/friend of mine lent me some foam squares to put under the rug for comfort – that was EXCELLENT ADVISE! Thanks Linda!

When you sign up for market they send you packets and packets of paperwork and RULES! So we were EXTREMELY careful to follow EVERY rule! Guess what? NO ONE followed any of the rules! The worst offense was: All booths must have 2 feet of clearance at the front of their booths. So that meant we had a 10 x 10 space but could only put up walls that were 8 x 10 x 8. We get there – and everyone is flush up to the aisle. So all my perfect planning of the sidewalls at 8 feet – was now wasting 2 feet. So plan B went into action. I had brought extra canvas for just such an emergency.  I made full use of the 10 foot sides which allowed me to hang 2 large quilts per wall. That was the first day. I was feeling very nervous. We stayed in a nice new Fairfield Inn hotel outside Pittsburgh about 20 minutes for 79.00 a night with a full hot breakfast included each morning. That was a great deal considering downtown hotel rooms were 249.00 per night-no breakfast!

Friday Opening Day

The best layed plans of mice and men….You know the old saying. Market opened at 9:30. We were 20 minutes away so we would leave at 7:30and get there by 7:50-8:00am and have a full 90 minutes to settle in and make last minute adjustments. We got up, showered and took the first steps toward our National debut. We sailed into the city and we were about 5 minutes away and traffic suddenly slowed and an ambulance was sounding in the distance. As cars recklessly veered right and left to clear a crooked passage for the medical bus I knew we would be delayed. I sat in the van watching the EMTs weave and then they stopped about 20 cars up. I could see their flashing lights just beyond the sea of jammed cars. Yep! It was an accident and the road closed! Here we were 5 minutes aways and at a dead stop. Okay – again plan B! I quickly semi-U turned onto a fortunate nearby exit. I turned on my GPS navigation system and hoped for the best. I had to go about 12 miles out of the way – but we made it to the convention center by about 8:45. Now with the late arrival there was NO PARKING left in the garage. Gary had to park about 6 big city blocks away from the center!

We did get into the convention center at about 9:20 just in time to set up the computer and get situated. We were located in Booth 1628 which was about dead center of the large hall. We were told by veteran exhibitors that when market opened most buyers started on the ends. That proved to be accurate. We were slow for business until about 10:00. Our first visitors were Jackie, Carolyn and Toni from Patches, quickly followed by Neicy, Dee, Janet and Sandy from Main Street Quilts. It was so nice of them to stop by early and wish us well. Jackie is my quilt shop mentor, and Neicy and Dee my agents (hooking me up with great contacts) and Carolyn was my shrink! LOL I was so nervous!

As the day progressed we had a steady stream of potential buyers. They were buyers and they had potential – but the did not realize their potential! (sigh) They listened attentively to our explanation of our product line and business intent, said thank you, took a card, scribbled a few notes and dropped our flier and card into their large totes filled with a gaggle of brochures and free giveaways. They would smile and say thank you and “we will be back”. The dreaded “we will be back”. After the 20th “We will be Back” I started imaging that they were speaking in some type of quilting code spoken only by quilt shop owners that really translated to “you have got to be kidding – we would never buy your stuff, let’s get out of here and tell them we will be back so we can escape!”.  There were a few shops that paid cash and bought 3-6 patterns. At the end of the day we had about 36.00 in our cash box. We figured we could at least eat dinner at McDonald’s!

After market closed I was very disappointed. All lookers no buyers. Everyone commented how my line was well designed and had excellent coloring. Yeah sure! They probably said that so they could get out of the booth faster. Gary has an old business friend that we met for dinner. It was nice meeting Jeff and Joyce. The day was salvaged by spending a few hours with Gary’s good friends and we had a great sushi and fish dinner. We were pretty tired. We went back to our hotel and went to bed.

I tossed and turned most of the night. I woke up two or three times in a sweat. I had several small nightmares of coming home with 36.oo and no new business. Gary was very supportive and continued to wisely say…be patient. Let’s not evaluate anything until after the whole show.

It’s a NEW Day! Saturday at Market – Day two.

What a difference a day makes – 24 little hours! Today we left even earlier and we sailed easily into the convention center.  We were there in plenty of time and once again our first warm faces of the day were Jackie and Co and then Neicy and Dee and crew. How nice is was to be so thoughtful to spend their valuable shopping time coming to check in on us! They heard me freaking out about – we had no business – only 36.00 – what’s going on? Maybe this was a mistake – and each day Dr. Carolyn would give me a shrink talk and I would go forward. Gary who is extremely wise in business was calm and supportive and kept saying be patient. Shortly after my therapy a customer approached and my support group scattered. I started talking and the next thing you know I was on a roll. I was excited and got them excited and they started buying. Gary took the time to make a wonderful order sheet. I was so excited to start getting business that I forgot to use it. I would pull the patterns or write them down to ship and I would forget something important like the customers expiration date on their credit card – or the three digit number on the back. You see we worked out a way to accept Visa/MasterCard through our paypal account that we have on our on line shop. We did that because they charge 1,000.00+ for the credit card scanner. Being novices at this we had several bumps and ended up taking information to enter on the site later when the traffic slowed down. The traffic did not slow down. All day we were writing orders, often times simultaneously. When we would get a 3 minute break Gary would start figuring out the online process. After he entered one or two he got the process down. Then he took my orders and tried to enter them. Well – I did not have expiration on one, another was missing the three digit code – and on and on. By 1:00 we mutually decided I would be the salesperson and buying advisor and I was to stay away from the order sheets! LOL! That worked just fine. Gary had to spend at least an hour contacting the shops to get more information to process the orders I wrote. Oops! You can’t be expected to be good at everything now can you? LOL! We had a great day. We went home with 15 new customers and a whole lot of hope. I guess the day before when I was shooting for the moon I misfired, but by day two was a bulls eye!

Funny Customer Story of the Day

Two young ladies approached and were clearly dressed in Amish clothing. They were very sweet and quiet. They politely asked about our patterns and our terms and I took off like a big bird. They were quilters! I enthusiastically described each block of the month and the florals. They were getting very excited. I was explaining a marketing concept to them and made reference to Baskin Robins and Dunken donuts. They were totally with me until I mentioned those things and suddenly I could see them getting a bit contemplative. So I switched to my website and talked about my site and using Google, and again, the blank stare. I see Gary in the background trying to signal me subtly that – “HELLO – These people don’t eat out at Dunkin Donuts and they do not have electricity!” – and he softly interrupts -…Deb , I am not sure if these ladies would be familiar with some of those things. The two ladies seemed very relieved and started to politely chuckle. Then – DAH! I got it! Oh yea! I was so caught up and they seemed so interested that all I saw was two quilters – not Amish ladies. I told Gary – that just proves that I do not discriminate. I take pride it not discriminating against color , gender, or religion! LOL

Closing Day – Sunday

Getting up today – we were guessing that maybe those buyers that could not get to us Saturday because we were so busy or because they were so busy might stop by and place orders. We were right. We picked up a few more stores and orders. Then Sunday afternoon the crowd thinned and we started getting approached by other vendors that wanted to represent our products for distribution. Hmmm- by this time my mind was fried. Gary and I do not want to grow too big too fast and not be able to fulfill. Also these distributors want 30% of every pattern. There is not much profit in a 9.00 patterns to give away 30%. So we are still on the fence about that – but we will stay our independent course for now until we decide that there is a ROI that makes sense in that arena. There is SO much to learn about this business!

Most Exciting things of the Day

In between the surge of customers I had a visitor. Her name is Eleanor Burns. Yep the” throw the scraps over your shoulder” TV personality who has written 10,000 books and DVDs! She spent a good 20 minutes chatting and asking questions. What a nice lady! That was fun to have someone of her background compliment my work.  Earlier in the day two ladies walked in the booth with their briefcases. They set there cases down and directly introduced themselves by name and told me they were interested in my Citystamps. I told them about each one and the plans for upcoming cities and then they told us they were from Keepsake quilting. (The largest Mail Order Catalog of Quilting supplies in the world) Okay so maybe my products do have some potential! They took the citystamp patterns and told me – you will be hearing from us. Hmmm? I sit hear wondering if that is really true! Time shall tell.

About 1-2pm after traffic was quiet slow – in walks Mark Lipinsky! (If you don’t know who he is – Google him!) He LOVED The stamps and took 4 patterns and would  like to consider putting them in his magazine. Quilters Home – OMG! He is a hoot! Once again – will this materialize? We will all see through this blog.The day went on and I continued to have owners of huge fabric companies stop in and talk to me about designer programs. By this time I was ready to pass out with hope and excitement! They all seemed sincere, and left cards. When I read the card and saw it was the owner of a huge fabric company I was shocked. I do not want to mention them in case things do not work out. IF they do – you will know right away! Again – do you think they will call and follow up? We were two booths down from Clover – the notions makers. Guess what? I may represent a few of their products and I might work with them to develop a new pressing sheet. I met the CEO, head of design and director of Field Artists. What a GREAT GROUP of folks they were! Will that pan out? Time will tell. I also had conversations with some sewing machine companies – it was amazing! A great quilt friend of mine now works for Bernina. I was so happy to see her. Her name is Elaine. Elaine is the best Bernina Educator I have ever known. Elaine was manager of a local quilt shop that has since closed and bought my patterns regularly.

I did see and greet Alex Anderson and Pokey Bolton along with the Sewing with Nancy  lady on TV. Alex and Pokey were pleasant but very busy. Mark Lipinsky and Elenor Burns were SO friendly and personable.

The market closed and we packed up and were our of the hall and out to dinner before our 4 hour ride home by 6pm. We were the last ones in and first ones out – that works well!

Funny Call home to the Kids Story of the Day

So I call home to tell the boys we are on our way and will be home by 11pm. Each of them takes the phone and tells me of the days happenings. Cole, the 12 year old, takes the phone last. I ask Cole how was Danielle, the 21 year old student we hired to sit with the boys? He said “MOM, I don’t want to hurt your feelings or anything but she was awesome. When you abandon me on Thursday Danielle was so much fun, it was as good as being with you!”. LOL – LOL – LOL The things kids say! Abandon??lol

More to come

Okay I have been blogging for almost 2 hours. Enough! But now you have the 411! It will be very interesting to see what if anything materializes from these meet and greets.

Shoot for the Moon #9

[This blog is out of sync.  I will go back and continue from Shoot from the Moon #8 after Market. I will put this in sequence as I catch up with my history. I need to write this now because it is happening now. ]

Less than 24 Hours until my first National Market

It is now 2:19am on Wednesday. We leave in about 5-6 hours for Pittsburgh.  This is my 5 year mark goal – to go to National market with my patterns. I think back and it has really gone quickly. It has been a ton of work. I will be bringing 19 florals, 6 Citystamps, 2 Door hangers, 4 children’s, one chair cover, one stocking, one batter up,  12 Butterflies and 12 Birds for my first showing.  That is 56 patterns in my debut line. I think I exceeded my goal. Originally I wanted about 20-25 patterns to go to market.

So How do I feel? Well I am anxious. Think about it. I am putting out almost 5 years of work. It is like being graded on a big exam. I prepared. I worked hard. I did my homework. Is it enough to get a passing grade? Then I think about the market. It is such a bad economy. Is that bad because people won’t buy? – or is it good because many small exhibitors will not attend making me set up for more business with less competition?  Only time will tell. I also feel that I have to be courageous because if I do not do well I need to walk away from this whole concept and know that I did my best.

Am I ready? Yes – I achieved all my goals of getting 6 stamps ready. I did change my mind at the last minute and added that Beach Stamp in place of San Francisco. I think that may have been wise. Customers can see it is a series of Cities – the beach is a spin off from the stamps. I added one floral – the bleeding heart. I wanted to have some new stuff to show my existing customers. I did complete the Butterflies Series of 12/ plus BOM and as a bonus completed the In the Beginning Series. I think that has real potential.

What would I like? I would like to come back with a strong indication that this can be a viable business. I would like to hook up with a fabric company to design my own fabric line. I have been thinking about that and I want to design a line of clear jeweltone batiks with textures that would work well in my quilts. I would like to meet some of the influential quilting people and do business with them. I would like to meet customers from abroad and be invited to come lecture and speak abroad. Hey – Shoot for the Moon right?

So lets see what happens. I am going to bed to get some sleep to start a NEW day and maybe a NEW business adventure with the big boys of Quilting!