Market Research - Day 1

Thanks to the advice of my husband - who told us we really needed to leave at 5:30 for an 8:30 flight - we got to the airport almost 2 hours early. As we were boarding the plane, Debbie got a huge laugh out of this sign hanging in the gangway. We were punch-drunk before we even got started! It's even worse now.....



We arrived in Minneapolis about 11 and schlepped all our stuff from one end of the airport to the other looking for the rental cars. Checked in with them and then schlepped our stuff to the shuttle bus to the car lot. We were told we had a compact 2-door car - and ended up with a PT Cruiser! Sweeeeeet!


As you can tell from Debbie's hair - the day was lovely with a STIFF breeze...

Today's adventures were all about Market Research....Better known as quilt shop hopping! We hit 4 shops and our favorite shop was Eagle Creek Quilt Shop in Shakopee. It's a really cool shop located in an old train depot. This quilt from Terry Clothier-Thompson was hanging behind the register and just took our breath away. The colors just don't translate digitally - the cheddars were really CHEDDAR and the reds were really red. It was just awesome.

Here's a sample from another shop (The Sampler) - it's a mini-trips around the world done in Kaffe Fassett fabrics and black. It was stunning, and of course, the shop was sold out of the pattern.

My contribution to the quilting economy was pretty restrained - a fat pack of 10 Michael James zig-zag stripes along with a 1-1/2 yard cut, 3 half-yards of Martha Negley prints and a pattern. I've been looking for the zig-zag prints for over a year, so I didn't feel bad for spending the money.

We're pooped - so I think we may turn lights out soon after Lost. Tomorrow is another day of research with Sample Spree tomorrow evening.