Mid-Atlantic

I've been going to this quilt festival for 15 years (I think) and every year is an adventure. The first few years it was like going to Disney World. A new quilter, I was mesmerized and did my best to keep up with my more "veteran" counterparts. We would always have show and tell on Saturday night and man, did we all do our best to boost the economy. Someone would always find an item or piece of fabric that everyone else HAD to have, which caused a mad dash back to the vendors on Sunday before we returned home.

Someone would always be the "winner" by buying the most. In the past few years, I have been the winner - by a mile. This year was different. Between purging all my stuff in order to organize my "studio" and experiencing a significant pay cut at work, I made a monumental effort not to buy. Friday afternoon I walked through all the vendors and wrote in a notepad items I wanted (location, what it was, how much is was). It was excruciating but I bought nothing. Saturday morning we walked through all the quilts - which get more amazing every year. After that, I went to the booths I marked on Friday, bought the items I had decided to buy and went back to my hotel room. I didn't return to the show the rest of the weekend. I enjoyed spending time with my friends and time to myself doing handwork. My friends will be amazed that this is all I bought - 1 book, 3 patterns and a thimble. (They may check me into the hospital.)

Most of all, it was a wonderful weekend. I got to see most of my quilting buddies from all over and I don't feel guilty from overbuying. You can't beat that.