TinyPanda

The day was finally here! My sister Amy- (who put her life on hold to come help me) and I flew in a few days early to get acclimated and spend a little R & R before our 10 day stint began. I was hesitatingly able to sneak away for a few hours the day before to make a test drive and to the Convention Center I had been designing for 10 years and this had always been my goal! I couldn't believe it

I was finally here!

Chaos

in the

booth

pick, either one, or the other of us would say "NO...we can't stop here, .theres a house.... or a store ....or.... its groomed! We can't take that one... We'll get arrested!!! Of course there were brush trees on the sidelines, but one would have to navigate and "muck about" through the swampy areas. Not that you could see the swampy areas mind you... but we soon learned about the swampy areas when we went to cut a l o v e l y tree, wherin my sisters foot dissapeared into the swampy area! Simply dissapearred!! So much for our l o v e l y tree!! Then as we were driving, we must have had an hour long conversation about Alligators. "I don't know......they live in Florida.....and Texas is on the same level as Florida, right? or i's it lower? ... "I think its called the Meridian - Is it on the same 'Meridian' as Florida! . Is that the right word? " "Who would have though Texas was swampy! " I've never 'heard 'of Alligators in Texas......have you? Did you know Texas was swampy? I thought Texas was a Desert...... with Cactus!....... Didn't you? " "Hmmmm.... why did I think Texas had Cacti? !" . Well Florida is swampy and they have them there so.oooooo "..... NO..... DON''T STOP HERE....WE MIGHT GET EATEN!! "

We finally found it.!!!! A perfect little tree who seemed like it didn't belong to anybody......on ground that didn't want to swallow us up! We drove for hours just to get our suitible little specimen. By this time it was dark, - even then we held our breath as we hacked away! Our beautiful, albiet somewhat desperate looking specimen was one - lone little tree - standing guard like a good little solder over his-and only his field! We were positive that someone was keeping it for some special tree purpose! So we hacked away fast and furious and hid our "find" the back seat - positive that its owner was watching out the window of the house that was a half mile away. UGH! How can people be criminals. This is too much stress!!!!"

We recovered though, and quipped about "at least getting to see the burbs!!" Now my sister is convinced that she wants to retire in good ole' "primped and pruned- cut and groomed" Texas! Not me !. I like my wild trees! Hey Y'all gotta' come to New England and see our Trees !!!!

Since booth space was limited, we came up with the bright idea to place the Grizzlies in a tree. NO PROBLEM... just go and cut a tree, right?. WRONG! Little did we know that , unlike Connecticut where trees grow wild and you can take a quick jaunt to a road....any road....,and cut a tree, EVERYTHING in Texas is groomed, and primped and pruned! !!!!!, What we thought would take about 15 minutes turned into a half day ordeal! Every time that we thought we had a good

Quilt market was over...... then the F E ST I V A L began.....

But he wasn't the only one...!

hummm .... doesn't look too hard to make....

OOPS! She caught me!!

You're so.ooo cute! I Just want to eat you up!!

Me on the plane! Still working! The trouble with being a designer is that you always have one more idea. And you want to create them all ! But time constraints are always an issue. I have to work extra hard at finishing - or mostly finishing a design before I begin the next one.

This was my Host Becky (right)-with her sister Vergie who graciously opened her home to both myself and my sister. After we arrived in Houston, I set up shop in her home for all of those last minute details. My sister was horrified, but a Girls gotta'do what a girls gotta' do !!! And as any business owner knows, there's always one more thing to do! This was my first trade show and de-spite having worked non-stop for a year, the TO DO list was as long as ever! To her credit Becky was very good natured and when she found out that we were on our way to purchase a sewing ma-chine for all of those last minute details, let me use her Bernina. She then graciously helped me to measure and then surged all of my tablecovers! I

This little girl spied Jumbo Bear from clear across the aisle because she took off like a shot , bolted straight into the booth and unhesitatingly plopped down nestling into Jumbos arms. She sat there enamored completely engulfed by this giant! (Pic to left) I layed him down for her so she could catch a ride! And that she did!

We finally got the booth all set up....and thankfully the customers weren't complainig!

And Sleepy was getting his share of lovin'

But all good things must come to an end. 'Til we meet again...... Bye Bye !!

And this little girl soon followed ! It was quite the LOVEFEST!

But all that Huggin' and Lovin' was just too much for my neighbor to take. So before we packed it in and said our good-byes Jumbo got one last

GREAT BIG BEAR HUG !

And Sleepy Bear had his share of action as well....

And this, I must say .....................is how we all felt at the end of the last day of our 10 day ordeal!

MAKE a Memory ...

quilt market

H o u s t o n Q u i l t M a r k e t

Despite having one tiny space, 8 HUGE animals and 2 bullheaded opinions, we managed to get the booth set up. Its no easy task to squeeze 8 or 9 toys into a 10 x 10 space without completely engulfing the little guys. Meanwhile... Briliant me... decided to save money on shipping the huge bears decided to unstuff them at home and then purchase stuffing and restuff them before setup. What was I thinking!!!!

GIANT