admin May 23rd, 2008
It is already Thursday, and I am just getting to write about a great weekend at the International Quilt Market in Portland, Oregon. I took the train down there on Friday morning 
This the great new train station in Everett Washington. It is a beautiful new building. Having never taken the train before, I was excited and anxious at the same time…..as usual it was for naught as it basically was a glorified bus ride, but much more comfortable and bumpy at times. Went by the water a lot, and the train tracks give you a much different perspective than driving. Getting on the train in Everett was pretty easy and comfortable, by the time we got to Portland it was pretty packed, and the Portland train station was very busy at 3pm in the afternoon. I was in a hurry to get to Market, so I grabbed one of the cabs out front and asked to go to the convention center. Alex, the driver, told me in his Russian accent that there were FIVE convention centers downtown! I had no idea that there were so many. I called Marci Baker, my employer for this gig, and asked where they were. She was not sure what the name of it was, but said it was near the Rose Quarter which I had mentioned on the phone while we were driving by it. So I had the Alex drop me off there with my bags. Upon walking up to the building immediately in front of me, I realized that no one was there…..so I kept walking, finally I recognized these two glass towers from when I had been to Portland Spring Quilt Market in 1996 and 1998 and made it into the delicious air-conditioned air (it was in the low 90’s I heard later, and the air conditioning on the train had started to fail on the way down).
I got to see a little of Market that evening, and went to bed in my hotel room tired. Saturday, I got my picture taken with Kaffe Fasset 
as he was just down the row from our booth at Alicia’s Attic/Clearview Triangle. The quilt behind us is made of his fabrics, and in Sara Nephew’s latest book, Not Your Grandmother’s Log Cabins 
I spent the morning working Marci’s booth, and then spent some time going around and meeting people and taking in the scope of the market. A big goal of mine was to meet and talk with Mark Lipinski. I talked to him a couple times, but he was getting pulled a “gazillion” ways and didn’t have much time.
I did pin down Mark long enough for this photo and not much longer. He is one busy man. I hope that I can be that busy in this field someday soon. Mark has been a great encourager in that area, and I acutally met a few other people too, who were wonderful….
Among those I met was Amy Butler, albeit was for only less than five minutes on Sunday as I was racing out of the market to catch my train back to Everett. What a sweet lady she is. And TALL
Her words to me that I will remember for a long time were “Go for it!” I just love her stuff, and I hope that when I “make it” I will be as kind and as encouraging as she is.
I think the best part of Market was on Sunday going around with Marci from Alicia’s and having Marci introduce me as one of her designer’s. I think that is the phrase she used, and my head is still reeling and loving that title. Mark told me he could see me having my own booth at Market someday, and I sure hope he is right!! How will this work itself out? I have no idea, but I am trying as hard as I can to give it to God, and work my best at what I know to do, and seeing what He and I can work out together. And with the help of all these new and renewed friendships that I am developing.
More later…..
The babies are so grown up. Here is the batch of chicks 
and here are the ducklings! 
This is one of the last full snowballs of the season 
I think this is German or English lavender, I cannot quite remember…
