The AQS Show in Des Moines was a great time! Kimberly and I walked and shopped and dined our way through Des Moines, laughing the entire time. I’ll let you take in the quilt show stats and recap at her blog, and confine my first report to some thoughts and impressions:

Never let your husband (or any male, significant other or not) buy a laptop computer for you to travel with. His goals (big screen real estate, high processor speed and low price, in that order, and weight is no object) are vastly different from yours (lightweight and small, in that order, and price is no object). Pick out your own and save your back and arms when traversing three or more airports in 15 hours.

Never take just one pair of shoes, or even two, especially if they have any sort of heel or semi-pointy toes. Always have a flat backup pair with a big toe box, even if they’re ugly, don’t go with your clothing and your grandmother wouldn’t have been caught dead in them.

Never assume that the guy at hotel check in knows that you hate being right by the elevator, ice machine, soda machine, stairs, etc., or that you like to have a bathtub as well as a shower to keep your options open. Just be high maintenance from the get go and tell him what you want.

Never rely on the show literature to tell you the true walking distance from your hotel to the convention center. They measure it as “the crow flies,” completely discounting any required twists and turns through skywalks, around major buildings or via crosswalks that will save your life. If the show book says it’s .5 miles, count on a mile and a half. Each way. At least twice per day.

Never discount the value of a big breakfast at the hotel regardless of the cost. It will likely be the best and cheapest meal you have all day until dinner, which you’ll probably be too tired to enjoy properly or even consume the greater portion of anyway. And breakfast delivered to your room is even better since you can eat at your leisure (the only leisure you’ll enjoy all day as well) and have some quiet cups of coffee or tea. It’s only a couple of dollars more than eating in the restaurant, and for less than a twenty spot extra for the week, I’m there.

Never discount the benefit of laughing until you cry about something so totally off the wall (like chewing gum) that when you share it with someone later, they just look at you and say “I guess you had to be there.” When it happens though, it’s probably a sign that you need some sleep…

Never tell anyone back home that you’ll write, call, chat on IM, update Twitter, or otherwise communicate while you’re away. Chances are you won’t because you’re either too busy or sleeping like the dead, or wishing the jet lag would go away so that you could sleep at all.

Never commit to blogging while you’re on the road either. While you’re out at the show or shopping, you’ll think of all kinds of things to say on your blog, but by the time you get back to your room and the computer, your mind is complete mush and you won’t remember any of it at all.

There you have it. I did do some serious damage to the plastic, both at the mall and at the quilt show. I’ll share pictures of the loot from the quilt show in the coming days, just as soon as I gather it back up again. I had a blond moment when I unpacked and put it all away in my studio before I thought about it!

I’ll leave you with this shot of the show floor at the convention center, taken from the upper level:

More to follow…

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I think my hair is on fire. I feel like I’m running around in circles, and I think I smell smoke, so that must be my hair. I looked at my blog today, just like I’ve done for the past two or three days when I’ve meant to post something, and thought “Where did the time go since I last posted?” I’ve been wildly busy, but not with anything necessarily “shareable” in the quilting department at the moment. I’m striving to finish a huge project before I catch the flight to Des Moines next Monday for the AQS show, which has meant long hours that turn into long days at the computer, mostly.

My quilt, Paisley Pavane, did get accepted into the Des Moines show, and it’s arrived at the AQS offices safely and on time! I’m really looking forward to the show, and the vendors mall (and having a quilt in the show while I’m there will be completely awesome!). And I can’t wait for an entire day at the big mall in Des Moines with Von Maur and Younkers. I’m sorely in need of some Stateside shopping for clothes and the like, and some American style restaurants. Kimberly and I are of the same mind on these things (as on a lot of other things), and plan to shop and eat our fill in the short time we have on the ground.

I’m signed up to take two classes at the show, but I’m now having second (and maybe third and fourth) thoughts about both of them. Too late to cancel out and get a refund, unfortunately. I’m taking a class called Come PLAY with Me! with Dianne S. Hire, who I like immensely already and I’ve not even met her. Her supply list was written in such a fun, “I’m right here talking with you” voice, that I just know she’ll be a completely lovely person. The class looks like it will be some fun, outside the box cutting and sewing techniques, but I have to gather mass amounts of fabric, as well as rulers, rotary cutter, thread, etc., and lug it all to Des Moines in my suitcase. What was I thinking?

Not only that, the class is all day, and right over the top of the awards ceremony for the show. How dumb is that to schedule the awards ceremony in the afternoon when there are classes going on? With a quilt in the show, I don’t want to miss the ceremony; my quilt probably won’t win a ribbon, but sure as I’m not there it might, and that wouldn’t be any fun at all.

I’ve also signed up for Quilts of a Different Color with Irena Bluhm, which will probably be okay, but I bought the book in anticipation of the class, and to be honest, there were about two tidbits of info in the book that I needed to know about the technique, and the rest of the book was “just okay.” I’m not sure how much more I’ll really get out of three hours with the author in person but there it is. At least this class comes with a complete kit and I don’t have to carry anything special with me.

So, before I can even leave for the airport, I have to plan and pull fabric for that class, shop for last minute stuff probably, look for new music (a must when I travel), shop for some trashy Regency romances (another traveling must-have), do all the regular “before packing” stuff (where’s my passport?!?), get the laptop ready to go with all the programs I need to handle any crises that may come up involving web programming, make ITMan’s “appointment calendar” and “meal calendar” so that he can be both Mom and Dad while I’m gone, make my own Stateside shopping lists, and actually pack the suitcases. And none of that can get done until the super big project gets done, and that gets worked on in and around all the regular “stuff” like all the Taxi Mom duties, etc.

Hopefully I’ll have some hair left when I get on the plane, though if not, then I guess I won’t have to carry all the hair care products and the straightener, which actually might be a blessing. What I’m saying is that it’s probably going to be pretty quiet around the blog this week, but I do plan to update from the show, with pics! Note to self: pack the camera…

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Some shows will treat your precious quilts like you do and some won’t. Last week I received my quilt, Material Marquetry, back from the folks at Quilts, Inc., producers of the IQA Quilt Show in Houston, where it has been since August last year as part of the In the American Tradition VI special exhibit. So begins the promised rant about why IQA and Quilts Inc. are no longer on my list of “happy quilt shows.” First, a bit of background:

I’ve exhibited four quilts with Quilts Inc., either as finalists in the IQA Quilt Show, or through special traveling exhibits. The problems always begin when it comes time for them to return the quilts to me at my APO address. The standard process is for Quilts Inc. to ship the quilts back to exhibitors via Federal Express, using dimensional weighting, which means that they cram the quilt into the smallest box possible so that it costs less to ship. The bigger problem though, is that Federal Express doesn’t deliver to APO addresses, so I’ve had to ask them to return ship my quilts via US Postal Service Registered Mail which is where the problems start.

The first quilt I sent in, I decided to have return shipped to my mother in Utah, after speaking with the show personnel about the return shipping process, and having them tell me that they could do USPS Registered Mail, but they didn’t really know how, and couldn’t estimate the cost, etc., etc., etc. Since it just seemed too hard for them to handle the USPS thing, and I was going to be visiting my mother anyway that year, I just said fine, ship it there via the usual practice. This is how I know about the dimensional weighting/smallest box possible issue.

The second quilt I exhibited in Houston was returned to me via US Postal Service, but without any insurance or tracking information, and it was shipped Parcel Post, which takes 6-8 weeks to be delivered. I can tell you there were many phone calls to Quilts, Inc. about that quilt, and much worrying about whether it would ever show up at all. Without tracking information, if it was lost, it’s just lost with no way to find it, ever, and of course shipping without insurance is unacceptable in the extreme. And honestly, they weren’t even all that apologetic, and they acted like I was the one with the problem, since I had asked them to do something so totally out of their norm, and was then unhappy with the result.

After that debacle, I picked up the third quilt in person, since I was attending the show that year. But another interesting thing occurred at the show while I was there. That year, Quilts Inc. was providing a shipping service, so that you could mail all the loot you bought back home instead of cramming it in your suitcase. That would have been wonderful, especially considering the fact that I was carrying my quilt back home with me in my suitcase to be sure it arrived safely. I arrived at the booth with my goods in hand ready to have them packed up, and was told that, you guessed it, they would only ship the loot back to your home address via FedEx! They wouldn’t even begin to think about alternative shipping methods, that just might be cheaper as well.

Fast forward to the current issue: I mailed off Material Marquetry last August with special written instructions for return shipping the quilt via USPS Registered Mail, which they promised to honor. The quilt was exhibited at five or six Quilts Inc. produced venues over the last year, and it showed up at our APO box last week, without insurance or a tracking method, having been sent via Priority Mail. I was just astounded really. What happened to the instructions that I sent in with the quilt?

I emailed the special exhibits coordinator and her assistant to let them know that the quilt arrived safely, but that there were some issues that needed to be addressed. Why was the quilt not insured, and how could they send it without a tracking method? Their answer was that the quilt is insured under their Chubb Fine Arts Insurance Policy from the time it leaves my door until the time it’s returned. Okay, my bad, I didn’t see that in the original letter that I received about this exhibit. I am glad to know that if the quilt went missing, somebody would pay me the appraised value. (But that does beg the question, does that policy also cover quilts sent in for the regular show every year in Houston, and if so, why wasn’t I told about this policy when the other quilt went astray for six weeks without postal insurance? Interesting.)

As to the tracking method and the Registered Mail issue on this quilt, they insisted that they followed my request about Registered Mail ( ), completed all the forms required by USPS for an APO address, Registered Mail, spent over an hour online with USPS shipping my quilt, and that it was shipped with a tracking method. First, they couldn’t possibly have followed my request or completed all the forms required by the USPS for Registered Mail, since there was no Registered Service on the box. We didn’t have to sign for the box to pick it up from the mail room (which we would have had to do had it been a registered mail package), and the tracking number they provided was the number off of the customs form attached to the box. When I put that number into the tracking system on the USPS website, the answer was “There is no record of this item.” Gee, I guess that’s not really a tracking number, is it, since if it was, it would show that the package was delivered to my APO and on which date it was delivered.

Actually, as I found out after a call to the Postal Service to check the facts, that number is able to be used to track the package if it is mailed to a true international destination, but not if the package is mailed to an APO Military address. In other words, if the package was lost, the only thing the Post Office could do is file a report, but there would be no way to find the lost quilt, ever. APO addresses are a grey area; mail is shipped to APO addresses as domestic service, but it requires a customs form because it’s technically an international destination.

I wrote them back and explained all that, and how the Registered Mail process really works and what forms are needed, again. I had provided all the Registered Mail information and instructions before when I sent the quilt to them last year. I do realize that shipping via USPS to APO addresses is outside the norm for Quilts, Inc., and I respect the time and extra effort it requires, which is why I included full written instructions as to how this should be done and what forms are required by the US Postal Service for Registered Mail, to make it as easy as possible for them to do.

You may be wondering why I don’t just use FedEx for all this, and have the quilts return shipped to my actual German address. Yes, I could do that, however, the last time I was investigating that method, I think it was going to cost me nearly $100 to have my quilt returned that way, as opposed to less than $40 to use USPS Registered Mail to my APO address, and that was for a not-even-twin-size quilt (not to mention that “dimensional weighting/smallest box possible” issue. Can you say “squished and wrinkled beyond recognition”?). Why should I spend $100 when I can spend $40? At just two shows a year, that’s $120 in fabric, or a trip out to dinner with the family, and some years, I send quilts to 4-6 shows. Other shows and museums don’t have this problem, and are happy to ship via USPS Registered Mail when I ask it of them. (There is one other notable exception, Quilters Heritage Celebration, and I don’t exhibit with them anymore either, after the first go round.) Heck, AQS even has “Registered Mail” as a return shipping option on their forms now, you don’t even have to write it in, or call ahead to ask if they’ll consider doing it for you as a favor.

Yes, the quilt is here, so all is good in the end, but I really think they need to understand that the method by which they shipped the quilt wasn’t “Registered Mail” or trackable either one. I’m afraid that I won’t be sharing my work through any venues sponsored or produced by Quilts Inc. in future. It’s fairly obvious that they just don’t care to do any little bit of extra work, no matter how easy and clear-cut you make it for them. Their system must be so finely honed that any minor deviation puts an instant nick in the blade. Seems like they like people because we all keep sending in fabulous quilts and spending our money at their shows, but they hate people when they actually have to deal with them or stoop to do anything out of the ordinary for anyone. I’m sorry, but they can’t give away enough prize money to make me take a chance with their mailing practices again.

Update: I received another reply from Quilts Inc. about this issue. They have acknowledged that they shipped the quilt incorrectly. Quilts Inc. has incorporated my instructions regarding Registered Mail shipping to APO addresses into their return shipping policies and disseminated the information to all staff involved in the return shipping process. They have also changed their contact policies and will email exhibit participants if Quilts Inc. has held the participant’s quilt longer than six months, to remind them of the return shipping schedule and check for address updates (I had that issue as well with my quilt, since I didn’t know it was time for return shipping and it was shipped to my old address). It’s been a seven year, three quilt battle, but perhaps it’s finally a victory.

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