The News from Lake Okanagan

Paul and I just celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary yesterday, before I
hopped on a plane to Penticton, BC in Canada. You never heard of Penticton?
Neither did the United rep at the Vancouver airport. That made me just a little
bit nervous, as I anticipated flying on a tiny prop plane over the sharp snowy
peaks.

It turned out to be a gorgeous one hour flight, over lush green
pine forests, huge blue
lakes in deep gorges, and wide rivers running through fields dotted with
livestock. As we flew over yet another lake to land in Penticton, I checked out
my "beach" hotel from my little round window, and plotted my sunset walk along
the water's edge.

Anyway, we are SO excited that the arrival of our Star
Trek fabric is actually corresponding with the premier of the new Star
Trek movie! I mean, this NEVER happens! Usually the fabric arrives 6 months
before, or 6 months after the movie comes out. So for us Trekkie fans it is
rather thrilling that we can buy the fabric, whip up a quick lap quilt, and wrap
ourselves in it by the 3rd time we see it in the theater.

Sadly, I will
not be able to participate in opening night fervor at the new movie. Usually I
am there at the midnight show with all the other diehard nutcases, and then I go
see it again a day or two later, and then again a week later, etc. I've been
begging our suppliers to get the license for Star
Trek for YEARS, and I assume there are a good number of Sci-Fi / Trekkie
groupies out there in our customer base, to keep us busy cutting yards of Kirk
and Spock (Original Series, of course!) for months.

Our 2nd year of
business was partially funded by Harry Potter fabric. The trucks would roll up
to our back door, and disgorge dozens of cartons of HP fabric. (when we were
still in the 4300 sq ft warehouse that was previously occupied by Celestial
Seasonings….and everything smelled like mint tea) As fast as it came in, we
shipped it out. It was like a miracle. No, it was like MAGIC! Yeah, that's it! I
believe in magic!

The view as we flew into Vancouver today was
spectacular, especially when we turned and I could see the Northern Passage
between the islands and the coast, where the cruise ships sail up to Alaska.
Maybe some day I'll make that trip, to see the whales and other wildlife in this
wild coastal region. For those of you who live here, I can see why you would
never want to leave.

For those of you in this area of BC who are coming
to the show, I will be at the award ceremony on Wednesday night, and I hope to
meet some of you there! Please do come and say hello if you see me there. I will
be walking the show Thursday morning, and then I have to figure out how to get to
Kelowna for my flight to Portland. Quilt Market starts Friday morning in
Portland
Oregon.

Live Long and Prosper.