Have you heard of The Great WI Quilt Show? It’s a spectacular annual event designed to celebrate quilting and fiber artists of all levels and abilities. This fantastic show is presented by PBS of Wisconsin and Nancy Zieman Productions, and is something I look forward to every year! Attendees are invited to explore hundreds of educational opportunities including short lectures, hands-on workshops, and stage presentations – all led by top educators. There’s also an 85,000-square-foot vendor mall featuring the latest notions and fabrics for sale (we’re in booths 1135-38, and 1201!), raffles, live music, and a 10-category juried and judged quilt contest exhibit featuring hundreds of quilts to keep you entertained. Sounds awesome, doesn’t it? Just look at this spread…

Because of COVID we haven’t been able to attend an event like this in a long while, so that alone makes this year’s show something extra special! There’s definitely a certain kind of energy buzzing around here as we are finishing the last stages of booth preparations, and tie up any loose ends. I don’t know if you’ve ever built a trade show booth before, but it is really A LOT of work – especially one as large as this!My crew has been painstakingly building this beauty of a booth, section by section down in the warehouse to make sure that we have our layout plan nailed down by go time. Once they get all the final details ironed out, photos will be taken for reference before it’s disassembled and loaded onto a caravan of trailers ready for departure to Madison on Wednesday. Once we arrive at the Alliant Energy Center, we’ll do it all over again with only 12 short hours to get everything set up and ready to go for opening day on Thursday.

The booth isn’t the only thing taking up some serious real estate in our show trailers this year. We’re also packing up our Bernina department to make the journey as well! What that means, is that if you’ve been waiting to get your hands on any one of the coveted Bernina Q Series machines, this is your chance to try one before you buy! Our goal is to have one of everything up for display on premises so potential owners can really get a feel for what these rock star machines have to offer. I invite you to take the most of this opportunity and stop by our booth to give these exciting, state of the art machines a spin! Of course not everyone has the means – or the space for that matter – to own their own longarm. That’s why in addition to machine sales we also offer longarm services for your convenience! If you are interested in getting on the schedule for longarm services at Primitive Gatherings, we will have forms at the booth for you to fill out. You can also call Ruby or Luke at 920.778.8035 for more information!

This booth is not going to be a small one lost in a sea of vendors – trust me. In fact, Jess describes it as our traveling “pop-up store!” Come stock up on fabrics, patterns, pre-cuts, kits, notions, home décor, seasonal items, and more! Take take the opportunity to see everything we have to offer, and meet our crew in person as an added bonus. You might even meet ME! Don’t be shy, come get your book or pattern signed… We can’t wait to meet you!

If you want to see more of our booth setup on camera, I highly recommend watching the replay of my LIVE tour yesterday by hitting the STITCH link below! I will also see you back here next week Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. CST on my STITCH with Lisa Bongean YouTube channel for more fun and shenanigans on Shop Talk with Shelley! Remember, due to the holiday the shop and warehouse will be CLOSED Labor Day – Monday September 5th (we will resume normal business hours Tuesday September 6th) so that our staff can enjoy a day off from the grind. And – for those of you anxiously waiting for the O’ Say Can You Sew Clue #6 release, don’t worry! You will still get your clue despite the holiday. See how much I love ya?!? LOL! The clue will be posted right here on my blog at 1:00 p.m. CST and will be available for FREE download for one month! That means you only have a couple more days to download Clue #5 for FREE before it goes up for sale after Clue #6 is posted. In other words, if you haven’t already downloaded it – get on it!

Alright folks! That’s it for today because there is lots to do before I can officially start calling it the weekend. I hope you have a nice holiday and look forward to seeing many of you at the show! Are you planning to go? Have you ever been to The Great WI Quilt Show in the past? Let me know what your favorite thing about it was in the comments! I will see you all soon! ~Lisa