Surprise Visit

Once in a while, I like a surprise.

This past Thanksgiving, I went up to Lake Tahoe for the long weekend. Since I am not a skier and the fact that there was no snow on the ground, I mapped out my route for Reno on Saturday. My destination was the Magic of Santa Art & Craft Faire in the Reno-Sparks Livestock Events Center. Like years past, my eSMArts buddy Tina Cowan of M5 Creative Corners was there with her handmade quilts. I had been admiring her work on cyberspace only. Since Reno is relatively close to Lake Tahoe, I took the opportunity to pay her a surprise visit.

After years of experience at this show, Tina staked out her “permanent” booth spot conveniently located near the load-in door and adjacent to the restrooms, which is always a high traffic area. She’s smart, huh! I believed it took her several seconds to realize who I was. She welcomed me into her booth and we chatted for the rest of the afternoon.

ESMArts Guild is an Etsy team that I joined in September (see my blog post dated September 29). Since our team members spread on 3 continents, we had only emailed and chatted online. No wonder it never occurred to Tina that another team member would stop by to say hello, in real person. Besides, I was able to meet her wonderfully thoughtful daughter, Alyssa, who brought us lunch.

One look at her online store, you’ll realize too that her quilts are not the typical quilts you find in your grandma’s house. Her quilts are like mosaic art composing a theme or an image. The entire afternoon hanging out at Tina’s booth, I fell in love with this beautiful blue and black quilt with a safari silhouette theme. I asked her if she can make a similar but bigger one for me. This gorgeous piece on the right is now proudly hanging in my bedroom. With the close-up pictures, you can see the impeccable details of her craftsmanship. Isn’t this a masterpiece?