Sweet Home Quilt Co.

I’m a fairly frugal person, when I want to be, and a cheap flight to Minneapolis was definitely in order for this trip. Even when I realized it was a 5:30AM flight, I wasn’t deterred. In fact, it seemed perfect for me since I’m generally up at that time of day anyway. What I failed to take into account was that I’d have to be at the airport an hour early and in order to do that I had to leave my house by 3:00AM, which meant getting up at 2:00AM.  H.E.L.L.O.!!! What was I thinking???

My motto that “sleep is overrated” was definitely in play yesterday morning on the first leg of my trip to Spring Quilt Market in Minneapolis. Ironically it wasn’t the loss of sleep that bothered me the most…I didn’t realize that there would be NO services available at the airport at 4AM! No Starbucks (luckily I had grabbed a Diet Coke when I left home!) and no tram! What makes anyone think that early morning travelers are any more prepared to walk 5 miles than travelers during normal hours? I walked 25 minutes (!) from the check-in kiosk to my departure gate, hauling a tote bag and carry-on, huffing and puffing the entire time. I am too fat and too out-of-shape for that kind of exercise, especially at 4AM!!!

Here’s the view from my seat on the airplane when I woke after a brief nap. The sun was just barely coming up and the clouds below us looked like marshmallow fluff…so pretty.

I came to Minneapolis a day early so that I could hang out in White Bear Lake with my friend Roseann at her cute little shop. She was having a busy day with the bus tour of quilt shop owners coming through at intervals, but we managed to sneak away for a bite of lunch and a little catch up time. White Bear Lake is the cutest little town you can imagine…if I ever just disappear with no warning…look for me here!

I managed a brief nap back at the hotel, and then met up with Julie and Noel for dinner. We walked down the street (did I mention the weather in Minneapolis is very close to perfect these days??) to Hell’s Kitchen, which has been touted as a “must do” while in Minneapolis. We were not disappointed. The atmosphere was unique and fun, and the food was wonderful! This is the chandelier that greets you when you walk into the restaurant…

…it was almost scary to walk under with all those knives hanging down! Back at the hotel for a night cap (or two!) and visiting with more friends…old and new…one of my favorite things about coming to Market…the friends, not the night caps!!!

Today is lectures and Schoolhouse followed by Sample Spree tonight. This is always one of the most intense days of Market, as the designers and sponsoring companies put on their individual schoolhouse events showcasing their new products, ideas and programs. There is a wealth of information for shop owners to use to make buying decisions and ideas that can be used back at home in the quilt shops. It will be non-stop from one event to another beginning in about 20 minutes until Sample Spree ends at 10PM tonight. I’d better get to it…

Melisa

Tags: Hell's Kitchen, Keepsake Cottage, Rosebud's Cottage

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 20th, 2010 at 9:41 AM and is filed under Quilt Market. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.