Hey everyone, welcome back! The dust is finally starting to settle after one of our biggest weekends of the year came to an end yesterday. As most of you know, my staff and I loaded up the trailers and headed down to Madison, WI for the 2023 annual Great Wisconsin Quilt Show late last week – and what an absolutely fantastic show it was! If you’ve never had a chance to attend this humungous gathering of quilt-crazy people, all I can say is… you’re really missing out!

To put it lightly, try to imagine a massive sea of creativity, with hundreds of quilts and other fiber art pieces up on display to look and and be inspired by. The show also features a huge variety of vendor booths from one end of the facility to the other, offering wares from sewing machines, fabric, and notions, to apparel and other novelties. Whether you’re looking to pad your fabric stash, stock up on supplies, purchase the state of the art machine you’ve been fantasizing about, or you just want to see what’s new out there, you can find all of it at this event! The variety is almost overwhelming.

I’m happy to report that attendance seems to be making a comeback since COVID ruined everything a couple years ago, and our booth was been nothing short of packed, pretty much from the start. THANK YOU to everyone who stopped by to browse or make a purchase! It means a lot to us to see all your faces out in the world again… Last year we getting there, but this year actually felt close to “normal,” so I’m especially thankful for that.

In case you’re not familiar, the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show show is an annual quilt show presented by PBS of Wisconsin and Nancy Zieman Productions, and is something I look forward to every year. In addition to some serious shopping options, there’s also a huge variety of educational opportunities including short lectures, hands-on workshops, and stage presentations – all led by top educators! There’s also a 10-category juried and judged quilt contest exhibit featuring hundreds of quilts to keep you entertained long after you’ve emptied your pocket book – at the Primitive Gatherings booth, of course. LOL! This year, Bernina even had a “classroom” on-site allowing folks to try their hand at a new sit-down longarm to see if free-motion work is right for them. How cool! On top of that, we had our usual Primitive Gatherings longarm booth up and running for anyone interested in purchasing or trying one out. Shoppers enjoyed getting hands-on experience with both edge-to-edge and freeform/custom quilting on some of the state of the art Bernina models we offer right here in our showroom! In fact, if you’re interested in purchasing a machine that was used as a class demo at a special show price, give Luke a call in our Bernina department at 920.778.8035 for more information – you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

To give you an idea of how big our booth really was, the Primitive Gatherings section took up four regular sized booth spaces, along with four additional spaces next to us dedicated to our Bernina team. The PG side was brimming with new and old designs, project kits, fabric, books, and other good finds for show shoppers. Overall, the turnout was great! As usual, we had a line at the register that went out the door and around the booth space!

I’m sorry that each and every one of you can’t be here for the show. I know that photos and me telling you about it doesn’t really give this event justice, so Kali was kind enough to put together a nice little video so you can get a better idea of what it really feels like to actually be there. You can watch the video on my STITCH with Lisa Bongean YouTube channel by clicking the STITCH button below!

One of the best things about doing these shows is getting to meet so many of you who support Primitive Gatherings from all over the country. I love it! If you are in the Madison, WI area next year and are able to make it to the show, I really encourage you to come visit us at our booth. It’s always more of a traveling “pop-up store” than a booth really, where you can stock up on fabrics, patterns, pre-cuts, kits, notions, home décor, seasonal items, and more! Take the opportunity to see everything we have to offer, and meet our crew in person as an added bonus. Don’t be shy, we want to meet you!

Alright stitchers, and just like that it’s after 5:00 and pretty much time to hang it up for the day. Where does the time go? I’ll see you all back here tomorrow bright and early for CommentSold at 10:00 a.m. where the PG twins, Gloria and Vicky will be hosting their exclusive, “All Things Cross Stitch” episode. Jess very humbly put them on assignment last week to come up with a good show for tomorrow, so I’m excited to see what they put together. Either way, if you’re a cross stitcher or even just thinking about getting back into it, this show is for you! The easiest way to watch is through the Primitive Gatherings Comment Sold app, which you can learn all about by clicking HERE. No smart device? No worries! You can also watch through the Primitive Gatherings Facebook page, or through the STITCH with Lisa Bongean group Facebook page LIVE area (PLEASE NOTE: if the LIVE video you are trying to watch doesn’t show up in the list at first, refresh your browser after start time and it should appear).

If you’re still on the fence about CommentSold, that’s ok… But don’t poo-poo it without at least tuning and giving us a watch a time or two. It’s fun even if you aren’t there to shop! Almost like an extension of my LIVE show. Give it a try! You won’t be sad. I promise! Have a wonderful evening and I will see you all tomorrow. ~Lisa