Weekend at the Market

Quilt Market, that is.

I spent the past weekend at the International Quilt Market in downtown Houston, Texas, working in the Patrick Lose Fabrics booth at the George R. Brown convention center.

This is a credentialed trade show, and not open to the general public. There are two markets every year; the fall market is always in Houston, and the spring market rotates among various locations, including St. Louis, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City and Portland, Oregon. The fall market is always Halloween weekend.

Various quilting-oriented vendors (fabrics, notions, patterns, batting, machines, etc.) set up booths in the convention center and meet with quilt shop owners to show product and write orders. Booth displays range from simple to outrageous, and merchandise is also for sale in many booths. Vendors include major brands, mom-and-pop operations and everything in between.

Day One: Thursday, October 26

Our team arrived late Thursday morning. We had shipped two large crates of furniture and merchandise, and those were waiting at our booth location, along with a crate of booth display walls shipped in by our exhibit set-up partner. Missing? The carpet and carpet pad. Turns out that these had been delivered to another booth by mistake, and this vendor had used them!

By 3:00 Thursday afternoon we had replacement carpet positioned and the exhibit team began setting up the booth walls, finishing about 6:00, just before the convention center closed for the day. While this "construction" was happening, our team stuffed fabric catalogs into canvas bags to hand out to visitors during the event.

Day Two: Friday, October 27

I brought three shirts made from Patrick Lose fabrics to wear in the booth during the event; today I wore the chevroned Black + White shirt that was featured in one of the early DTFM blog posts.

In the morning we started dressing the booth, setting up vignettes to represent specific collections. We also began to merchandise our pop-up shop in the front of the booth, featuring pre-cuts made from the various quilt fabric collections. What's a pre-cut?

Pre-cuts are exactly what they sound like: fabric that has been pre-cut into squares or strips. We sell four styles:

• Fat Quarters, which are 18" x 22" sold in bundles of 20 to 40 pieces

• Pinwheels, which are 2.5" x 44" strips, sold in rolls of 40 pieces

• Charm Packs, which are 5" squares sold in packs of 42 squares

• Building Blocks, which are 10" squares sold in packs of 42 squares

By late afternoon on Friday we had pretty much finished setting up the booth, and began to turn our attention to a Schoolhouse event in the late afternoon and that evening's event: the Sample Spree.

Schoolhouse

There are schoolhouse events all day today, with each participating vendor paying for the opportunity to meet with shop owners in a classroom or lecture setting to share product information, sewing tips and more. Patrick's session was at 4:20, a long ten-minute walk to the other end of the convention center. We passed out canvas bags with catalogs, Patrick showed off some new quilts (and my chevroned shirt) and there were prize drawings. We headed back to the booth to take a quick break and get ready for the next event.

Sample Spree

Picture Black Friday on steroids. Sample Spree is an opportunity for customers to buy products at crazy low prices. It’s a great way for vendors to get their products into the hands of the shop owners and quilters. Vendors hope that by doing so, shop owners will like them and buy more.

The line of shoppers (who had all purchased tickets) waiting outside the door was crazy and had been building much of the afternoon, waiting for the doors to open at 7:00. When the doors opened, shoppers actually ran into the room, heading for their favorite vendor's table to get their fair share of goodies.

We had packed specific quantities of pre-cuts for both the booth and for sample spree; within about 90 minutes we had pretty much sold through the inventory at the sample spree.

I was amazed at the amount of cash that these shoppers had on hand, although we also did fair amount of credit business; these shoppers had most definitely planned their attack and were prepared to spend. (I say "shoppers," not "women," because there were quite a few male shoppers. Sewing and crafting are NOT gender-based.) Shoppers were patient and having a great time snagging bargains. It was a two-hour blowout, and I had a BLAST!

Day Three: Saturday, October 28

Today the event officially opened.

Our pop-up shop was stocked and ready with pre-cuts to continue sales to shop owners looking for a deal. Patrick and Gary from Patrick Lose Fabrics were in the booth, meeting with shop owners who came in to write orders and socializing with fans, including posing for pictures and giving autographs.

I was in my element working the steady stream of shoppers, talking about the fabric and chatting about quilting (and my shirt, made from another selection of Patrick's Black + White collection, also from an early DTFM blog post).

I took a couple of breaks and walked the market, checking out other booths to see what hot products might be featured. It was fun to stop by several booths and say hello to my former vendor partners from my JOANN buyer days, including Fabric Editions, Textile Creations, Alexander Henry, Windham/Baum, Robert Kaufman, Timeless Treasures and Marcus Brothers. There was plenty of customer traffic at the event and many booths were quite busy. The market was open until 6:00, and then I had a fun dinner Saturday night with my friends and former vendors from Santee Print Works, catching up and talking shop.

Day Four: Sunday, October 29

The show opened at 9:30. We were all getting weary, having put in long hours since Thursday (and even prep beforehand, back in the office) and legs and feet were sore from standing on the concrete floor for so long. Today's shirt was the new Halloween one that I featured in this blog recently (there were several customers who came by to see that day's shirt, as they had caught on to the daily shirt procession, and this time I was the subject of a few photos.)

I continued to consolidate the pre-cuts in the pop-up shop, since we had continued to sell through inventory throughout the event, because we needed to keep our booth looking great.

I was scheduled to fly back to Charlotte mid-afternoon so I could be in the office Monday morning, so I left the convention center at noon to catch a cab at the Hilton across the street and head to the airport. [The market continued through Monday at 4:00.]

This was my first Quilt Market as a vendor; I had attended several other markets over the years as a fabric buyer for JOANN (Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City). Overall it was a great experience, and I always appreciate any opportunity to interact with customers!

With Halloween and Quilt Market behind me, I have several sewing projects in front of me that I am considering for upcoming posts, including another suit (plaid Anglo-brand wool, a couple of choices available), a test pair of pants (a new fit) and a shirt from the color swatch fabric. If you're so inclined, drop me an email to let me know what you'd like to see next.

Until next time, keep those sewing machines humming!

DTFM

danthefabricman@yahoo.com