Des Moines
We left the campground early to ensure finding parking close to the convention center. Just in time for the Des Moines morning commute. Not too bad. Unlike Sacramento which has all freeways leading into the city, Des Moines also has freeways that circle the city so one doesn’t have to go the center of things to go from outlying spot to outlying spot. Really helps with congestion.
We got the desired close parking spot and then wandered the halls of the convention center for a while before the quilt show opened. At 9:00 they opened the doors and the experience began. The Auburn Quilt Show is pretty good sized. Around 400 quilts usually. This show was in two buildings – the large convention center and the adjacent arena connected by a skyway (more on skyways later). The floor of the arena had over 600 quilts on display. The convention center had over 400 more quilts on display AND all the venders in one huge room. We started at 9:00 (8:15 if you count the pre-wander) and were back in the afternoon commute at 4:45.
Lots of amazing quilts by imaginative, creative, and talented people. We took lots of pictures. You will never see them. We were free to photograph but not reproduce or post in any way. Most of the quilts were from the Mid-west but there were entrants from many other national and international locations. Several quilts from California, some of which placed well in the judging including one from El Dorado Hills, CA.
Venders of all sorts and persuasions. If it could be tied to quilting or sewing it was there – many times over. We did find a couple of useful tools that we had not seen anywhere so we got those along with a number of ideas and techniques.
We thought it was a pretty big show and we filled a day seeing it. (One day was sufficient though.) Folks we spoke with later said it actually was 30% smaller than years past. The show we plan to see in a month will be much larger.
A word about skyways. Downtown Des Moines, an area of about 25 square blocks, is completely connected. Stores in the same block connect with each other by some internal doors and all the blocks are connected to each other by elevated skyways that tie into one or more buildings on each end. It is possible to navigate all of downtown without ever going outside. Pretty cool. Very nice in the winter I imagine.
The weather the day we went to the show (Wednesday) was very nice. Sunny, light breeze, warm. We were inside all day. Thursday was a little different. Steady 35+ mph wind. Gusts over 50 mph. Still sunny but obviously not too warm. We were not inside. We started the day by packing up the carbus and taking it to get the oil changed. Then back to the campground to hook up again. Then off to visit a couple of fabric stores to get supplies for a project spawned at the show. The afternoon was spent in the carbus starting on the project and being buffeted by the wind. The only thing on the evening news that night was the wind and its effects.
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