Big breath out, (Your tension has been exterminated)

A week ago I was setting up for last weekend’s Australian Quilt Market.  It has taken me all this time to calm down and return to normal.  The market was fantastic, fun and full-on, (did you like that alliteration?).  Of course the fun was all down to the people that I was sharing the market with, the other fine folk of Creative Abundance, my distributor.  Lets take a tour of the Creative Abundance Stand.  I was a hog, and took up quite a bit of room with my Woodland Play Tent, as you can see above.

To my left was the very sweet work of Fiona Tully, with her label Two Brown Birds.  It was the first Market for both of us, so it was nice to share the first time experience with someone else.

Across the aisle from us were the experienced members of the gang, (rock stars of the quilty world).  This is the sweet and ever popular work of Rosalie Quinlan. Such divine stitching.

To Rosalie’s left was the adorable work of Jodie Carleton of Ric Rac.  Jodie is the comedienne of the group and didn’t disappoint, with stories of getting stranded on Melbourne’s train network, and sharing a taxi with some Bikies, (of undetermined membership) to get to Jeff’s Shed.  Her stories only sound funny the way that she tells them, I am not going to attempt to retell, I will only mangle them.

Next was the exquisite work of Simone Gooding of May Blossom.  I am very keen to make the little pirate girl that you can see on the bottom shelf, Clementine, with Amelia these Christmas Holidays. Simone’s work is so sweet, and superbly executed.

The work of Melly and Me (the recently married Melanie McNiece) barely needs an introduction.  Melanie has a new fabric line out soon, (Toy Tales) and the quilt on the wall is made of her early samples.  Very cute, especially the mice and the stripes, (everyone will have their own favourites).

Last, but certainly not least, were the quilts and bags of Clare Horsman, of Clare’s Place.  I am particularly in love with “Flipped” which is the quilt you see at the top left of this photo.  To make it easy for everyone, Clare became “Quilt Clare” and I became “Tent Claire” for the weekend.  The rest of the booth was the Creative Abundance business table, expertly staffed by Nel and Erica Dekker.  I forgot to get a photo (I snapped these in a hurry on the Sunday morning before the doors opened).

It was an exciting (overwhelming) weekend.  Eventually I started to get used to talking to the retailers, who can be quite different to interact with than end customers.  While talking to people comes pretty naturally to me, selling does not.  Thanks to everyone else from Creative Abundance for making it less scary!

I have gradually been returning to reality this week, as my life has calmed down again.  Perhaps I should have sped up the process with some meditation.  Today I found just the relaxation tape to do it, and now my tension has been exterminated.