Let the Great Countdown Begin

I made it to the top 200,000! Okay so as of this writing I’m ranked #157,477 on Amazon for book sales out of 8 million or so books. Not bad at all since I’ve been encouraging purchasing at our local independent retailers. I had a quick chat with a shop owner in New York who is sending books here to Round Rock for me to sign, then I’ll ship them back to her for her customers. This is a thing y’all. Another thing we can do is have an author meet & greet via Zoom. Contact me and let’s chat about both possibilities.

You may have noticed that I do not have Color, Thread, & Free-Motion Quilting Learn to Stitch with Reckless Abandon for sale here on the website. January would have been the time for me to make that move. January, and February brought a couple of other big. life changing decisions. By the end of February my husband was in TX, and I was starting to wrap things up in NY. You can read that big announcement here. Let’s partner that up with packing, moving, and living in a hotel room for 3+ months during a pandemic, and there it is, the perfect storm that leads to things getting set aside. The hotel living might be coming to an end in about a month or so. The timing will be great as I have a commitment in August that will require me to have quilts to show. So weird I know.

Shops were you can purchase the book:
Poppy Quilt N Sew – this is a local to me shop. If you order through here I will go to the shop and sign copies at your request. The link is directly to the book, as shops do, there is more to look around.
Quilt Basket – Wappingers Falls NY. They are friends, former customers, a place I taught, and the home of the Cutie Collections. Those 16 fat eights are little slices of heaven!
Pins & Needles Mt Kisco. After the shop I worked in closed this became my local BERNINA dealer.
For my friends in Europe – I don’t know this place, so I can only link to it.
As I learn of more shops I will enter them here on the website. If your shop is carrying the book please drop the link in the comments.

So, as of right now I am scheduled to attend Fall Market to both teach, and promote my book, and teach at Fall Festival. Quilts, Inc sent this to all Media:
UPDATE ON FALL 2020 SHOWS

HOUSTON – June 30, 2020—Quilts, Inc. would like to report that as of today, we are still pursuing and making plans to hold both of the fall editions of International Quilt Market (Oct. 24-26) and International Quilt Festival (Oct. 29-Nov. 1) at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas.

However, we know that the situation for individuals and businesses are evolving almost daily as the world lives under the coronavirus pandemic (especially here in Houston, Texas), and the changes in everyday behavior which result from that. To that end, we are also weighing what you think about having the fall shows.

Whether in official surveys to our exhibitors and teachers, to the comments both solicited and sent to us via social media, email, and even actual handwritten letters, we are hearing a wide range of thoughts and opinions.

We are also cognizant of new rules, restrictions, and changes to the norm of hosting large, in-person events that are in play (or may be yet to come) from the U.S. government, State of Texas, County of Harris, City of Houston, and the George R. Brown Convention Center.

In the end, we do want to have our annual shows that celebrate the art, business, and creativity of quilting. But we also want to consider the health, safety, and travel of our attendees, exhibitors, faculty, staff, and volunteers. We want to move in a direction that makes sense both for us as a company, and for those who come from all over the world to attend Quilt Market and Quilt Festival.

We will post any new statement or decision on our website, Quilts.com, and also on our Market & Festival social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram). Any information will be disseminated first in an email, and you can sign up at the Festival or Market pages on Quilts.com.

Stay safe, stay strong, and stay quilting!
Bob Ruggiero
Vice President of Communications
Quilts, Inc.

While at this moment Quilts, Inc is planning on moving forward with Market and Festival they will be prudent and make appropriate decisions. If they go forward I will go and teach and abide by any, and all, precautions set forth by the State of Texas and Quilts, Inc. I will explain more of this in another post as I’m seeing a need to once again (for other reasons) cover Quilt Market in a “This is our proving ground, and the place where we make the personal connections to do business, and work in the Wider World of Quilting” type of post.

I’m going to close with this tonight.
Thank you for joining me on this