Welcome to Moda Fabrics!

That's a wrap...

That's a wrap...

Written by: 
cnelson

Roll credits...

  • Lissa Alexander
  • Holly Hickman
  • Tammy Vonderschmitt
  • Kelli Trimble
  • Debbi Duckworth
  • Debbie Outlaw
  • Alison Dale
  • Kathy Bauer
  • Juan Calderon
  • Josh Dunn
  • Bob Wallner
  • Mark Pytel
  • John Atkins
  • Steve Morris

Eight very large crates and four loaded, shrink-wrapped-like-there's-no-tomorrow pallets.

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This is what the Moda booth looked like fifteen minutes after Market closed at 4:00 pm.

It happens pretty quickly; an announcement is made that Spring International Quilt Market 2015 is officially closed, everyone is thanked for attending and all of a sudden, the sounds in the building change.  Additional announcements are made to keep the aisles clear so that the carpets can be rolled up and removed, that has to happen before the forklifts can begin delivering the additional crates.  There were already six crates in the booth - they formed the corners of the Moda booth and the two "walls" of the United Notions booth.  (Pretty clever.)

While the booth stays in-tact until the 4:00 pm announcement, there's a whole lot of "straightening up" and organizing in the hour or so before then.  The designers and sales reps who are still there are suddenly very tidy.  Papers and whatevers they've collected and don't need are tossed - paper is heavy and bag-weight is always an issue - things to take home are "organized" and a quilt or two might happen to fall down.

As soon as it's time, quilts come down, table and chair covers are removed and piled on a table.  The chairs are folded and stacked on tables, and more than half of the tables are broken down and stacked on top of each other.  The tables belong to the convention center so it's all about making room to move around.  The props, ladders, tables and chairs in the designer booth are collected, and the flooring is rolled.

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It's now 4:50.

The long cross-pieces/signs that connect the four pillars of the booth have been taken down.  The backdrops and pole covers in the designer booths have been taken down, folded and stacked; they're ready to be packed.

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Twenty minutes later - 5:10 - most of the convention center carpets have been removed, but a few remain.  The United Notions booth is packed and being loaded into the crates.  The cross-pieces are stacked, so are the saw-horse style tables from designer row.  The folding chairs have been loaded in the crate and the rather large pile of table and chair covers will be put in on top and used to fill the spaces.  (Yes, everything is unpacked and sorted when it comes back to Dallas.  And yes, the chair and table covers will be re-purposed and/or claimed.)

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It's now 5:35 and while all the carpets are now up-and-out, things are moving a bit slowly because the "waiting for crates" has started.  There are two large crates in storage, one of which holds a large lift that allows the big booth crates to be moved off the flooring.

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It's a few minutes to 6:00 and Quilt Market Exhibitors now fall into two categories - "Those Waiting for Crates" and "Those Who've Left the Building".  That corner booth in the lower-left corner was Antler Quilt Designs, Doug Leko's booth.  (He had a terrific Market, all three of his new books are best-sellers.)

The lower-right corner picture?  Our first crate has arrived - the one with the lift.

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The good news is that there is now a flurry of activity.  The large crates are moved - that's the lift in the lower-left picture - so the flooring can be rolled.  Pallets are stacked and shrink-wrapped.

The bad news is that the last big crate still hasn't arrived.  The rolls of flooring go in there, as do the long cross-pieces/signs that have become a makeshift bench.  Fortunately, we still have plenty of bottles of water... though the large Costco-size bag of trail mix is disappearing quickly.  (And it hasn't escaped notice that there are a lot more raisins left than M&Ms.)

It's now a little after 7:00 pm.

The large - it's more long than tall - crate finally arrives a few minutes later.

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The flooring and signs are inside, the ladders and a whole bunch of other stuff is stacked on top, and the entire crate is shrink-wrapped.  Tightly.  A couple of times.

Bags and totes are retrieved, one last picture of the crates is taken and Moda officially leaves the building at a few minutes to 8:00 pm.

After a celebratory dinner at the hotel - pizza and libations - we fly home later this morning.

Most everyone is planning to head home from the airport though it's also expected that a few will still "run by the office" since it isn't that far from the Dallas-Fort Worth airport.  Some will be in tomorrow but it isn't required.  But given that there is plenty to organize and start working on from Quilt Market, and more to catch-up on from the office, some work will get done.  While market might be over, the next few weeks are very busy for everyone.

After all, Fall Quilt Market is only five months away.

And if memory serves, someone is having an anniversary.  A big one.

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