My second trip was to Long Beach, California. It was Jinny, Karen (our leader) and me. We were training on the new Tajima embroidery machine. We flew in on Monday, trained Tuesday and Wednesday and flew back out Thursday. Two highlights - had my first In 'n Out burger (not as good as Red Robin) and walked around the Queen Mary.
Third trip was my first Quilt Show. Karen and I went to Madison, Wisconsin for Quilt Expo. It went well. Karen was pleased with me. Still have a lot to learn, but the more I work, the more I'll learn. Cathy was our sales rep and we worked with the gang from Ana's. She owns 3 shops. Didn't sell any big machines, but several of the Mini's.
Second show was Fall Paducah. This was the first time we had a classroom. It was Karen, Jinny and me. We put our DX2000QVP in the classroom. We worked with the SewingMachines.com group from Florida. Love that group of people.
My next show was a OSQE show in Cincinnati, Ohio. We didn't see much of the dealer. We had two classrooms - a serger and a DX20000QVP. Karen and I had to stay downstairs most of the time. I went upstairs one afternoon when my class got cancelled, but there wasn't a lot of people around. I did sell two classroom machines and sold a mini to another woman. One of my classroom ladies also purchased a serger.
Up next is a long trip that includes two venues: Fredericksburg and then Virginia Beach, Virginia. One is an AQS show, the other an OSQE. It was a great trip! We had one serger classroom in Fredericksburg. Our dealer was wonderful - Charlie. I learned so much in the serger classes. Then Karen and I spent the night in Richmond. She flew to Charleston and I drove on the Virginia Beach. The Neptune Festival was happening that day. Lots of wonderful artists and vendors. The next day I picked Ginny up at the airport and we spent some time at the beach which was right outside our balcony. Driving back after dinner we found two lighthouses on an army base. Then we picked up Karen at the airport. The show wasn't well attended but I had a great time. We sold 11 classroom machines. My classrooms were great.
View from my balcony
Sunrise at Virginia Beach
One lighthouse @ Fort Story
Other lighthouse @ Fort Story
After Virginia Beach, I had a week and a half off. I was able to finish a wall hanging and purse for Karen to use in the booth as samples.
Now it was time for my first trip alone. I went to Puyallup, Washington. I was nervous about the trip and I really do hate traveling to the West Coast. Makes it so hard to talk to everyone back home plus Jonas and his family would be at my house while I was gone and I have not seen them in so long and I miss them so much.
I got to Seattle on Wednesday, got my rental car and drove to Puyallup. It was an easy drive right by Mt. Ranier, which was beautiful! I went to the facility and spent a little time driving around trying to get on the fair grounds and then finding which building they were in. Finally found them and the troubles began. The tech wasn't finished putting up the two big machines. The sit down with stitch regulation and the J150. He ended up putting the J150 together incorrectly. I had to call Karen and then we had to call Brian, the tech. He had the foot peddle on incorrectly. Finally got it to work. Then off to my hotel. Not the best hotel and it was about 7 miles away but it worked out okay. Thursday, I had to find the parking lot and the entrance, but I made it to the sales training the owner Paul had each morning. The show was successful. We sold the J150, the sitdown, 2 minis, a DX2000 and and HZL. I enjoyed working with Lynette and Jo. Our booth was half Juki and half Handi Quilter with no Juki signage so I think we were lucky to sell what we did. I left Puyallup on Saturday after the show and drove to Seattle to spend the night. The hotel was huge and I almost never found my room. I order room service because I was starving and the area wasn't that great. Cost me $30 for a wedge salad with steak, but I was safe. Left early the next morning to get to Austin for consumer training.
The Austin consumer training was fun and very educational for me. Mike and Robin were the host dealers at Austin Sewing Machines in Round Rock, Texas. We had set up on Monday and Tuesday. Classes were Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. We had 15 students and had a great time. We ate a group dinner at a Brazilian Steak House. We also ate at the first Chuy's! That was fun.
Next up - HOUSTON!
Houston was quite the experience. I got to met lots of people, had some great teachers in our classrooms (DX2000 and the new Haruka) and worked my butt off. I sold several machines which was thrilling. It was exhausting though. Hours were long, but it was still worth it. Loved Houston!
OSQE - Novi
Karen and I did my final show of the year in Novi, Michigan. The venue was nice. I only had to stay in the classroom a couple of times. Most of my time was spent on the floor. Got a free spool of thread from Eric at Sulky. We shopped at a two story JoAnn's. Didn't sell much though. But we did sell a Sai! (well Karen did.)
That's all my trips for 2018. Time to rest and recoop.
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