Tales Of A Fourth Generation Textile Executive: Florida Road Trip & Upcoming Guild Meeting

  
As you could imagine, the Florida shops have an entirely different look than the majority of other shops I have visited in my lifetime.  Everything is just so bright and fresh.  It just makes you just want to smile.  It was as if the entire place had a glow around it and Johanna had just the energy that you would expect from someone with such a bright and fun shop.  Thank god I had my sunglasses with me.  Check out this picture as this was the first thing that I saw in the parking lot.  It was an absolute precursor of that glow in the shop that I just referred to.  Bam!  Can you say Florida flamingo pink?

This was a great meeting for me because I got to relax, speak with Johanna and tour the shop while Brenda worked her magic.  And let me tell you, Brenda is another one of our awesome sales reps.  You know why she is so awesome?  I am going to tell you.  Because she comes prepared with an abundance of samples that are so impressive and inspiring.  I can’t help repeating myself, but our sales reps are really sales reps on steroids.  They don’t just show the lines, bore you to death and put you to sleep, they show the lines and show you all kinds of ways that you can use the lines.  It really gets your creative juices flowing and that is important in and of itself.  Imagine that?  Not only that, but our reps are more than glad to help you brainstorm and come up with ideas for whatever event you have planned for your shop, whether it is a shop hop, a row by row or something else.  All you have to do: just ask.

Below are two quilts reflecting what you would expect from this “glowing quilt shop.”


Studioe’s By The Sea by Elizabeth Isles.  This one screams Florida and its beautiful waters, right?

 
Garden Critters by The Blank Quilting Corp.  So Florida, right?  It reminds me of the time I went fishing in Florida and was attacked by red ants.   

And finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t pick on my brethren over at Henry Glass Fabrics.  You are going to love this one.  Talk about location, location, location, but I guess it is better to be over the toilet than in the toilet.  You can’t really tell from this picture, but when Johanna wasn’t looking I was putting some of our competitors fabric in the toilet to see how good her plumbing was and also to see if their fabrics could float.  Do you believe that?  And none of them floated, what a shame!

With that, I am going to wrap up the final leg of my trip down south.  However, before I go, I wanted to let you know about some other plans that I have coming up.  Since I visited the Chattanooga Choo Choo Quilt Guild, I have been entertaining some compelling invites to speak at other guild meetings across the nation.  Imagine that?  People actually want to hear some little 43 year old punk who has sewn nothing more than a pee-pee tee-pee talk about fabric and this great industry.  All I have to say is, whatever floats your boat as I aim to please.  In any case, after a lot of vetting out the venues, weather, fees, attendance and perks, I have decided to….drum roll please….visit with the Quilter’s By The Sea in Wilmington, NC (careful because there are 2 guilds with this name).  Thanks for the invite Kirsta!  The event will be held at 7 pm on Monday April 25th at the First Christian Church on the corner of Oleander and Mamosa.  So if you are in the neighborhood, please come out to see what I might say.  Please no hecklers and no pies in the face.  

Ouch!

Until next time,
This is Sarcastic Scott From Studioe