The Quilt Market Prank Gone Wrong

The year was 2019. It was the October Quilt Market in Houston. As I usually do at Quilt Market, I show our newest quilting groups to customers that ask to see them and of course try to make some sales. All seems to be copasetic and business is as per usual. Nothing to see here…..for now.

Now, let me take you all back in time a little bit. Apparently, my brother and his wife have an ongoing thing where they pull pranks on one another. Nothing too crazy. Just innocuous kind of pranks like my sister-in-law would fill up my brother’s Quilt Market suitcase with Peppermint Patties or something like that. He would get to the hotel to unpack and the Peppermint Patties would be everywhere. Again, nothing to see here…..for now.

Back to the Quilt Market where I am done with my appointment, a customer comes over to ask me if she can see our latest closeout fabrics. My brother and my dad usually handle the closeout sales and I usually handle the regular priced orders. Therefore, I needed to get the samples from my brother. I run over to him at one of our other booths and ask where the closeouts are. He points me to his suitcase. I grab the suitcase and stroll over to where my customer was waiting for me to show her the closeouts.

At this point, I think you know where I am going, but you won’t believe how it plays out.

As I sit there chit-chatting with the customer while opening the suitcase to retrieve the samples, all seems to be good and well. I start going through the lines one by one and start writing up orders as per the customer’s instructions. Then, it happens. Dant Dant DAAA!

I open the next card. My face turns pale white. Sweat is dripping from my brow and my armpits. The customer looks at me. I look at her and turn away fast. I close the card as quickly as possible. I have no idea what to say. I don’t know what to do. I look at my brother across the room. He isn’t understanding why I look like I just saw a ghost. I think for a moment that time actually stopped. How the heck am I going to explain this? Now, there was something to see here!

If you want to hear the rest of what happens, please come back next week to read part 2 of The Quilt Market Prank Gone Wrong!

I am just messing with you. I wouldn’t leave you hanging like that for an entire week. Before you read on, please take out a piece of paper and write down what you think happened. Also, please note that this is where this blog post goes from G-rated to R-rated.

Here goes! Let’s just say that there is no place for pornographic magazines at the International Quilt Market or in with the selling samples.

This could have been a total Quilt Market fiasco of ultimate proportions, but I really lucked out and the customer was very cool about what transpired. To this day, we still laugh about it.

The moral of the story is to make sure to check the samples before pulling them out of the bag. Lessons learned!