Late last year, or earlier this year, I signed up to be a SewTites ‘Showgirl.’ I thought it would be fun and it would give me a break from my normal life. This means that I fly to Wisconsin, setup the booth and sell a bunch of SewTites products.
I had fun, and met new people, saw others eat Cheese Curds, but it was hard work and I was glad to get home.
I had to leave my house at 3:15am, which was way too early for me. I had a hard time going to sleep the night before, so only slept for 2 hours. Not a great start, but I slept like a log the following night, so felt fine and had no jet lag by the second day. The other ladies had to leave just as early, so I didn’t feel so bad once I found that out.
I met the other ladies, Krista, Jennie and Chen, in baggage claim at the airport. We picked up our rental car and then headed to FedEx pick up the booth and the inventory. All of the supplies we needed were on the equivalent of two pallets
Krista did a fantastic job driving a 26 foot box truck while I navigated to FedEx. I was happy to navigate!
The guys at FedEx were kind enough to load the pallet and the rolling box into the giant truck. Krista drove the truck back to the hotel and parked the truck there overnight.
While we were doing that, Chen and Jennie checked us into the hotel and manhandled all the luggage into the rooms. That was really nice. The hotel rooms reminded me of the Oxford Suites in Portland.
The next day we got up early and drove the truck to the convention center, where we unpacked. It took us 4 hours to unpack and setup the booth! We weren’t alone. All the vendors were setting up for the show. The convention center went from an empty hall with curtains to a fully stocked shopping extravaganza.
The others said that this was a really easy setup, but it was physically hard on me. I needed to sit for awhile in the afternoon to recover. I got quite a few steps, but not a Disneyland day’s worth.
The next was show day. The show was from 9-6 for two days, then 9-5 the last day. I thought it was a long day for a quilt show. We made some sales, but the last hour of each day was pretty dead. We recommended they close at 5 each day and 4pm on the last day. Who knows if they will?
I made the first sale of the show before it even opened. I was back from my quick tour around the show waiting for the show to open and another vendor came by wanting to buy some SewTites. It was my first of the show and of the day. Not a big sale, but good enough to learn on. The ladies who have been to a few shows were excited for me.
I enjoyed myself. I got to meet new people and do something different. I enjoyed showing off the SewTites products and seeing people go away happy. We hit the sales goal the company set for us after 1.5 days. That earned us big kudos! We sold out of the medium “Sew Magnetic Cutting System” and had only one of the “Sew Magnetic Expanded Cutting System” left by the end of the show.
Among all the fun things, one fun thing I found: SewTites sells the Lilyella hardware kit / metal pieces needed for the Hold Tite Folio. Remember when I talked about that project a few months ago? I was so excited to see them that I went on a selling binge of the Hold Tite Folio metal pieces. Krista said she thought I had sold more of the metal pieces than anyone else ever! 🙂 I am really glad I know where to get the pieces now and the pattern is free. The Hold Tite Folios make really good gifts and are not difficult to sew.
Another fun thing was seeing all the bags people were wearing as they toured around the show. I had made many of them or was familiar with the pattern.
