March
29
10 Awkward Moments and 1 Great One at the Quilt Show
Awkward
[Note: the moments described below have all occurred at various quilt shows where we’ve vended.]
- When people stand 3 ft from me and rate every quilt in the booth to her friends. “That one’s OK. I love that one but I don’t like that one; what’s with all the white?! Do you like that one? Those aren’t my colors at all…”
- When someone is standing 5 ft from our booth and explaining to her friends who we are and what we do as if we can’t hear her.
- When our booth is really busy, there’s a long line of people waiting to check out and someone asks me to help them figure out how to make a pattern designed by someone else with poor instructions.
- When someone has just purchased several hundred dollars of fabric and then tells me as I am swiping their credit card, “My husband is going to kill me.”
- When people come into the booth with oddly specific requests: “Do you have any fabric with pink salamanders?” and then seem so put out when I say that we don’t, sorry.
- When someone tries to tell me why our quilts aren’t “modern” because they just came from a lecture about modern quilts and …
- When someone decides to deliver their soliloquy to me (in the Modern Quilt Studio Booth) on how much and why they dislike modern quilts.
- When a young designer comes into the booth and offers to submit some of her designs because “it looks like you could use some help.”
- When someone says tries to haggle with me over the price of a fat quarter because $2.75 is “waaaay more” than she pays at her local quilt shop.
- When someone sighs and puts down a pile of kits on the checkout table with her credit card and then proceeds to tell me that modern quilts are really NOT her “thing” but her kids chose our patterns and she wants to make them happy (sighing, shaking her head)
Great
- When anyone comes into the booth and tells us some way in which our work has inspired them.
yes. it's my real name. 
I loved your booth and admire your composure at the comments.
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Those are hilarious! OK, probably not so funny when they’re happening… But what an interesting way to appreciate that everyone is so unique in how they think, what they like and don’t like, but mostly… whether or not they remember learning what manners are.
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It was great to meet you.
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The one great moment always makes up for all the awkward ones.
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It’s time to tell you how much I like your new blog, Weeks. I look forward to reading it every day. (When I tell people that I’m a mathematician, 10 out of 11 will tell me that they always hated math!)
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Your Modern Quilts book – was it published back in the 90’s or early 2000’s – was the beginning of it all in my mind. Love your quilts, designs, fabrics and ethos!
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I was so thrilled to come upon your booth at the Chicago show. I still have a smile on my face thinking about your quilts and the warmth emanating from both you and Bill.
Thank you for sharing your wonderful designs. They push me on to create something better and more exciting.
So enjoyed talking with you in Chicago.
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