Creative Clinics

Tues. 7/19 - Attended a few "Creative Clinics" which were 45 minute presentations by various vendors presenting the latest products and also presenting some interesting projects.


First stop was "Designs by Michele".  Michele packages pretty embroidery projects with detailed instructions and design cds.  She has a new design set that uses Accuquilt dies:

Next stop was Smith Street Designs -  they have  new design set for embroidering greeting cards:

Also an adorable set of pincushions made on the embroidery machine:

One more creative clinic with Simon Haskins.   The embroidery designs that Simon and his mom Jenny Haskins are exquisite:

The Opening Ceremony

Since BU is being held in San Antonio, there is a "Western" theme.  We were encourage to dress in "Western" garb.  I'm a Jew from NY, what do I know about "Western" wear?  Apparently, not much!  There were many cowboy hats and Western shirts around.  Several groups of employees from various stores wore matching t-shirts and and cowboy hats.  The group from Canada was the most vocal, cheering in the lobby and waving the Canadian flag.  One member of the group confessed that their red cowboy hats came from a dollar store, but they glitzed them up with crystals in the shape of a maple leaf.   One of the Canadian reps allowed me to take her picture.  Her earrings were wonderful!

We all shuffled into the tremendous "Lone Star Ballroom" for the opening ceremony.  The regional reps stood on chairs waving the letters representing their districts.  Here's our rep, Gayle:

The ceremony  opened  up with a country western group that two-stepped across the stage and gave a rousing performance of some popular county songs (including one of my all time favorites "All My Exes Live in Texas"):

This performance was followed by a wonderful Mariachi band.  What made this band so special is it was made up entirely of women!  Their costumes were beautiful, a bright salmon/pink color and their music fantastic!  Here's a video of part of the performance - not the best quality - I shot it from my iPhone:

The cart that was rolled out at the end of the video was a display of the new 500 series machines - more on the new line in a future post. 

Oh, we have a present from BERNINA!  Every dealer received a very nice glass frame personally handed out by HP Ueltschi, the owner of BERNINA international:

 This would look nice on one of the Koala cabinets!  It reads:
"The heart of BERNINA is the talent, passion, brilliance and caring of the BERNINA dealer.  Thank you for your dedication and the countless ways you make BERNINA great".

So much for the opening ceremony.  Tuesday is filled with Creative Clinics - demos to stimulate our creative juices (and yours truly needs a real kick in the butt to boot up the creativity).  Until Tuesday, see ya!

The Journey Begins

Greetings from very hot (100 degrees) San Antonio!  I finally arrived here yesterday at about 4:30 Central Time after a frustrating journey!  I packed lightly, jamming my clothes into a carry on suitcase.  I did not want to check luggage through because 1) Air Tran charges $20 to check in the first bag and 2) I did not want to worry about whether or not my luggage would make it through to the connecting flight.  I mailed my rotary cutter and scissor to the hotel.  While waiting to board the flight in White Plains, an announcement was made that the flight was overbooked.  As the passengers boarded the plane, aiport employees stopped us and made us check in our carry on luggage, saying there was no room in the overhead compartments.  So much for sending my scissors ahead to San Antonio.  The plane was delayed because one computer did not boot up properly.  We finally taxied onto the runway 30 minutes late.  We arrived in Atlanta at 9:50 am and I had to catch the 10:10 am flight to San Antonio!  Well, not only was I stuck behind people grabbing things from the overhead compartments, but the flight turned out to be in the next terminal! (expletive deleted)  So much for that flight.  Air Tran booked me on the next flight to San Antonio - to leave at 3:00 pm!  So, I wandered around Terminal C for 5 hours, ate one lousy hamburger (which put any hamburger I had at my elementary school cafeteria to shame),  ate a bag of M&M's and prayed that my luggage would be waiting to be picked up in San Antonio.   I finally arrived in San Antonio at 4:30 central time and miracle of miracles - my luggage came off the baggage turnstile!  The upside to all this is that I met two very nice ladies from Alabama on the plane who were also going to BU.  We arrived at the hotel about 5:30 central time.  The Grand Hyatt is beautiful and I can't complain about the room (hard to believe).  I have a wonderful view of the Marriott across the street and the highway.  Texas is flat, all sky and HOT but not too humid.  Quickly unpacked, registered and waited with the crowd to go into the huge "Texas" ballroom for the opening ceremony.