I know I do it all the time, but I don’t really enjoy travelling by myself. I made a massive exception this year and went to a Quilt Show that I was not working at and I went alone. Now. . . Mr. C was not super excited about me wandering around Chicago by myself so I bit the bullet and paid too much to stay right across the street from the convention center so that I could use the Sky Bridge. NOTE: I have ALREADY booked my room for next year at the same hotel and it is very reasonable when you book out a year.

H+H is a trade show. That means it is for people in the industry and mostly for people who own shops. There were quite a few educators and influencers wandering around as well. The show is not just for quilting- it is for any fiber or fabric handcraft. There were lots of yarn vendors from all over the world. In fact, it may have been a tie between the yarn vendors and the quilting vendors but if I had to pick I think there were more quilt vendors. There were embroidery and sashiko vendors as well but not nearly so many. There were also a lot of vendors for scissors and other tools.

On the day before H+H I got to attend some classes meant for business owners. These were sponsored by the Craft Industry Alliance (I am a member). I thought the classes were exceptionally well run and were very helpful. I came home knowing that it was time for a website refresh and I have been working on that for the last couple of weeks. I will apparently need some help to get it done, though. They did a great job allowing ways for us to network and I met some really interesting people. It was really funny at lunch because there was a lady at my table that follows me and I follow her but we didn’t recognize each other until introductions. . . then we both gasped!

That evening there was a Sample Spree where some vendors were showing off their wares. Oh my gosh- the line to get in was SO long that I just hung out with some new friends until we could just walk in! That won’t surprise my Lazy Quilter’s Club friends!!! It was fun to see everything but I only bought a couple things- my favorite being a purple ombre purse made of felted wool. Do I have a photo? Nope.

The show opened at 10 and I waited to go a bit late (like 10:15) to avoid the rush, but not sure I needed to do that. I only had the day, so I walked pretty quickly through the whole show. Honestly that took me until about 2. Then I headed back to look more closely at booths that interested me. . . and found quilte a few that I had missed the first time. My big fangirl moment was meeting Cornelius Quiring. Do I have a photo? Nope. But if you don’t know who he is you should go look him up- especially if you sew garments.

I had to leave the show at 4 to make my flight, but it was definitely worth going. Next year I plan to stay longer because there were a lot of classes offered during H+H that I would have loved to attend. I might also invite a friend to go because that would make everything more fun. Although being there alone pushed me out of my comfort zone and I met a lot of people.