Last minute prep before Houston!

 

It’s that time of year where I am in the final countdown to Houston. I literally walk around the house muttering to myself. I might be packing supplies for my ruler work class and suddenly remember I need to bring the “odd charger” for my speaker and Square thingy. I will run and get that while I remember it, and then go back to the original task. On and on it goes.

Each year holds a prep surprise. You never know where it’s gonna come from, how long it will take to resolve and when it will show up. Today I checked all my tech gear. Tech is almost as important as a sewing machine in the way I teach. It is a MUST. The very bedrock of all of that rests on my projector. Soooo, I plug in my projector and it is not good, it is loud!

Turns out there is an air filter – who knew? A new one is coming, but did it already do damage to my projector by having a clogged filter? I MUST have a projector!

I don’t want to spend time cooking, so I made a big batch of Lasagna Soup:

That should last me until Sat morning!

And then there are the tasks that take an impossibly long time, but are necessary. One thing I have to anticipate and avoid are choke points; points in class where everyone needs to do the same thing at the same time. It can play havoc with my timeline and frustrate students.

I give out 4 paper plates in my sheers class. It is totally unnecessary, but so useful in keeping your sheers organized. You want to be intuitive and just grab the color you want, not dig through a pile. I use paper plates to organize the chaos. These cheap paper plates come stuck together in groups of 4. It took me 12 minutes to unstick those paper plates. Imagine what a time suck that would be in class!

But I’m not done. When everyone is arriving at the same time and have to count stuff out, 2 things happen: a bottleneck, and students will get the count wrong. Then we have to figure out who needs stuff and who has extra… Ack! So I stack them up in groups of 4, put a little paper in between so it’s easy to grab and go. The whole operation took me maybe 25 minutes. Class room minutes are precious, especially in a 3 hour class.

Oh I needed to do something creative! This piece did not have binding on; I decided to bind it:

That dog gone binding took for. ever! I kept on messing it up. And the fabric is a fiddly but fabulous sheer, so it kept on misbehaving. Let’s just say that the application of the binding is in keeping with the theme of the piece😊

A few close ups, just for grins:

As I accomplish various tasks and accumulate goodies for class, the Dining Room table is the gathering spot:

Soon every inch will be filled. And then I will have to figure out how to stuff it all into this:

This is a bad, old photo from 2018, but I will have a similar load: 2 29″ suitcases that will max out at 50.0 lbs, a too heavy carry-on, my heavy tech bag and a “personal bag”. My new personal bag is much bigger and will have to accommodate my purse, tech bag and other travel necessities.

I do not use packing cubes. I do not like them. I do this:

I will double bag that, but this bag will mold and fit into an odd space whereas a packing cube has to fit into a certain space. I don’t use pretty little containers for my toiletries and face stuff. The packaging takes up too much room for me. And my products change from trip to trip. So this simple “bagging” hack works for me. I will end up packing shoes, some of my tech gear and things like extension cord into my checked bag.

I am soooo lucky this year; I teach in one room the whole time! That means I can put up a boatload of quilts and samples, set up my little store……ONCE! I have never had this privilege before and I am so grateful. It makes a huuuuuge difference to not break down my entire gig  in between 2 three hour classes. That is brutal. And, I will have a classroom of BERNINA 570QE’s!!! I am so thrilled!

One of the best investments I’ve made is to purchase a bunch of 3 and 5 gallon ziplocks. One bag can neatly hold the teaching supplies for an entire class, all organized together:

And, I got this for my table tray on the plane for a recent trip and I just love it!

It’s an Airplane Pocket and slips over the table tray. When up, it looks like this, when down, the eating surface is covered and protected. I feel a little cleaner and it holds my stuff instead of putting it in the pocket where a goopy diaper last rested.

Soo, Sat AM, I’m off. I’ll arrive early afternoon if all goes well, navigate my 130 lbs of luggage to an Uber and unload at the hotel. I’ll drop my teaching stuff in the teaching room if it’s open, unpack and organize my room and head over to Phoenecia’s to stuff my frig with good and healthy food. Food prices in Houston are amazing, probably 25% less than my neck of the woods in California. And the food is GOOD!

Sunday I will have a headshot at 8:30, book signing at 12:30 and demo at 4:30. I hope to see a wee bit of the show in between all of that. Monday morning I hit the ground running with two 3 hour classes, teach all day Tues – Th noon, lecture, then OFF Friday to see the show. I leave late Sat afternoon so I hope to get more vendor and show time then. I’ll be back!

I’ll be linking up:
Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday