Sunday, February 17, 2013

Starting Over Again!

OK, so at this point it must be pretty obvious that "blogging" is just not my "thing". But... I'm determined to do better.."I know I can, I know I can...".

A month and a half into 2013 and we have already finished 4 shows - on our way to the fifth. As I write this, Marcie and I are on I-95 on our way to Hampton Road, VA for the Mid Atlantic Quilt Show. Being FL gals, we're both hoping for some warmer weather (not much chance of that...). Right now it is 43 outside!

So far we have been to shows in Lake Worth, the Villages, Vero Beach and Tampa. All have been great shows with some pretty special quilts. The Tampa show was extra special for us. We had a chance to see lots of our customers from the old shop - certainly was fun catching up with everyone.

Now, lets see if I remember how to add some photos...

Lots of golf carts in The Villages! Quilters add a little style to theirs!



Monday, March 5, 2012

Quilt Show Update

WOW!!  Have we been to some fantastic shows this past month.  We've logged well over 2000 miles, traveling to Hampton, VA, Port St. Lucie, FL and then to Naples, FL.  Finally back to Tampa, our home base for the month.  Beautiful quilts and happy customers...certainly makes for a fun time.  We've been so busy we're having trouble keeping up with things.  Almost all of our kits have sold out and we are constantly restocking our other patterns and trims.  What a wonderful problem to have!  Fortunately we've had the help of family and friends along the way.  Don't know what we would have done without them!

Thought you might like to see some of the pictures we've taken along the way.....

Marcie "demoing" Yo-Yo's (of course) and rulers to a crowd at the Ft. Myers, FL show.  She always draws a crowd!

Getting our booth ready for the crowd at The Villages, FL

Margaret Goddard's version of Lollipop Lane won second place at the Naples show

One of our customers showing off her fantastic version of our French Kiss bag
Our booth at the Mid Atlantic Quilt Show in Hampton, VA

That's the best I can do tonight...will post some more pictures later in the week,  Need a good night sleep so we can cut allllllllll the kits that we need for the upcoming shows! 

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Finally!!!

Just 2 short months later...and I finally had the link to our blog installed on our website!  Amazing!

So...now when Marcie and I are on the road, we can keep you up to date with all of our adventures...like what antique shops we checked out, great BBQ joints along the way, how many times we got lost (or ran out of gas....that's another story for another time!!!).  We can post pictures of our show booth, our customers and their projects...all kinds of things!  YEAH!  I finally made it into the social networking world (well, kind of...).

So far this year, we've been at shows in Fort Myers, The Villages and Port St. Lucie (all in FL).  In 2 weeks, we'll be in VA at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival XXIII at the Hampton Roads Convention Center.  From there, we head down to Naples, FL.  We'll be on the road for a total of 6 weeks doing 6 consecutive shows!  Guess that will keep us out of trouble for awhile!

That's it for now - Happy Stitching!

Thursday, December 8, 2011

The "Great Procrastinator"

Yep!  That's me!  I tend to put things off, and put them off, and put them off...well, you get the picture.  Six months ago, I decided it was way past time for Heritage to begin posting to a blog.  So....I wrote one...but never posted it!  Finally got back to "blogging" and have posted that old first entry.  Now my mission is to connect it to the website....let's see how long that takes!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Finally!

Well, it's been a little over a year since I closed the shop in Tampa and moved myself to St. Augustine, FL.  Hard to believe that time has passed so quickly...and I'm just now getting around to setting up a blog for the shop!  Guess this is where "better late than never" comes into play. 

During the past year, Marcie and I have done a LOT of traveling.  We've hooked the trailer to the back of my SUV and driven all across the south.  Our first stop last summer was Slidell, LA .  Great ladies - lots of fun!  Since then, we've been to Washington DC, Jacksonville, Hattiesburg, Atlanta, Naples, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando, Tampa (lots of times) and numerous other locations.  We've had a few adventures along the way too.  Like the time Marcie decided we should go through Ruby Falls.  The falls were interesting (if you like caves - I don't!), but getting up the mountain, pulling a LOADED trailer...not so much.  We've been to dairy farms, beaches, water falls, toured numerous old houses, browsed through a pumpkin patch, and  I can't tell you how many antique shops we've been through - some great finds too!  We even stopped at the Talladega Speedway (and have the hats to prove it!)  We haven't gotten LOST too many times, but when we do, it's usually a doozie - like the time we were going to a one of the local parks that looked like it was just a few minutes away (you know, just a little distance on the road map!).  After driving for what seemed to be forever, we finally found what we were looking for.  We drove in and found a "Closed" sign - not good!  But, we never gave up, so we just kept on going until we found a spot where we could park.  Once out of the car, we had lunch on the banks of a beautiful lake.  Aside from a few fishermen out on the water, we had the whole place to ourselves!

On our first road trip, we decided to make it our mission to sample the local BBQ joints on every trip.  Boy have we had some good food.  My personal favorite up to this point was Dreamland in Tuscaloosa, AL.  Their tag line is "Ain't nothing like 'em nowhere".  They're right.  It was at the top of a long windy road in the middle of nowhere (again, we were hauling the trailer...nuf said!).  When we got inside, we both gave each other "the look".  Seemed more like a bar than a restaurant, but there were lots of folks inside eating what looked like some yummy food and it sure did smell good.  One look at the menu (posted on the wall of course) and we realized we had a choice for dinner...ribs or beer.  I of course went for both, Marcie stuck with the ribs.  When our order came out, they placed the biggest pile of ribs in front of us.  Of course we both declared we could never eat that much...right!  Yep, the plate was almost clean when we were done.  Of course they served the customary "Wonder" bread with the ribs, and some yummy sides too. 

One of the nicest things about being on the road is meeting so many new folks.  Of course most of the folks we meet think we're kind of nuts doing all the traveling we do, but the longer we talk with them, they mostly all agree how much fun it would be (except for the set-up and break-down part of the job).  We've done lots of guild shows and some of the larger national shows.  We're learning that most quilters have stories to tell and love sharing  them with each other.  We've met some wonderful people and look forward to seeing them again when we return to their areas.

Thought you might like to see some of the pictures of our travels along the way...

Not sure where we found this guy, but he made us laugh...just one of the silly things we've passed along the way!

Another great BBQ joint.  This was was in MS.


Marcie again - Of course we stopped at South of the Border!!!  We needed another "tacky" photo op! 



More to come later - we have a lot of catching up to do!
Take care.