Finally! My big day has come and I am officially a vendor at my first Quilt Trade Show! I’ve been to the Lancaster Quilt Show with my mom and her quilt shop in previous years, and it certainly isn’t for the faint of heart! This little convention center holds over 3,000 quilters, crafters, and sewists for 4 days every March, and this year I finally got to officially join the party. I was excited to meet all these new quilting friends and expand my business to trade shows.
Today, I’d love to give you a behind-the-scenes look at what it took to get my booth ready for the show and all of the exciting things I had for my customers! So, here we go!
The Setting
Typically, a quilt show vendor uses a pipe and drape backdrop for their booths. Not me! I certainly couldn’t make it that easy for myself on my first run through! No, no, no…I had a vision in my head of my bright and fun quilts draped over rustic, grungy wood pallets. I had no idea how I was going to achieve that in real life, but I knew I’d figure it out.
After searching through endless tutorials, I found the perfect one! A simple and incredibly sturdy way to create a pallet wall—you can get the tutorial here.
Of course, I had to put my own mark on it. My fabulous father in law jumped right into this project with me and helped me sand down and stain these pallets to be beautifully grungy!
First, I stained the pallets grey…
Then a layer of walnut stain gave a nice warm tone.
The Details
I wanted my stand to be really streamlined and simple. I rented a half space, making walking into my booth a little more difficult than you’d think. By limiting the amount of table space used, I think I really created an inviting space for people to come in, chat, and really experience my patterns!
These little pencil boxes hung perfectly to hold my patterns next to the samples…and some lovely flowers here and there!
Rather than using a large plastic table, I created my own with these awesome crates! This gave me an opportunity to display and stage the front, as well as the top of my display tables.
The Fun
After set up, it was time for the fun to begin! I had an awesome giveaway for attendees and you were invited to join in the fun too! The grand prize: The Everyday Collection is the perfect array of 12 thread colors, in their 100% cotton glory. This set is worth well over $100 and it lovely to boot!
It was such a successful first show for me, I met lots of great new contacts and talked to some amazing people—if you’re in the Lancaster next year, be sure to plan on attending! I’d like to thank all my amazing friends and family for making this possible for me!
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Congratulations!
Absolutely beautiful, you did such an amazing job putting together an elegant and memorable space. You went from pallets to palace, simply magical!
Thanks so much Rena! We had a blast doing it!
I enjoyed meeting you in Lancaster and loved your fresh ideas & designs. Keep up the good work!
Thanks so much Vicki! It was a pleasure to meet you as well—Thank you for your encouragement!
I enjoyed meeting you in Lancaster. Love your personality, style, knowledge, and willingness to explain your patterns and mission. Have fun. You will go far. I look forward to stitching your designs in the future. Great photos of your booth set up behind the scenes. Thanks for sharing. All the best!
Thank you, Susan! It was a pleasure to meet you as well—I absolutely love what I do and am so glad that you’re enjoying it too!