Sorry, girls, there was nothing I could do about it. When I arrived in Birmingham I found out that my three quilts were not there. After talking to the organizers we worked out that they had gone missing after I had dropped them off in person at the designated depot in the the North of England on time. They never arrived in Birmingham. The next couple of days were pretty stressful. I tried to do all the things I had planned to do (hugging Ricky was a priority) and also stay in touch with the organizers constantly. They were just as worried as I was and did everything they could. By Friday afternoon the quilts were found somewhere in the Depot in Leeds. They were then brought to Birmingham by special courier to the quilt show. As I was sitting with friends waiting for Ricky's evening to start I found out they they had arrived and were undamaged. The show organizers offered to hang them for the last two days of the show as a special exibit with an official apology. I told them that I didn't want this to become a 'big thing'. Mistakes do happen. It was just most unfortunately it had to be my quilts - and all three, even though they were in separate boxes (one quilt of another quilter had also gone missing from the same depot, and found together with mine). There had been enough 'Chinese Whispers' about what had happened, at the show and on the internet, and a lot of it very negative and not true. The show organizers will refund all my expenses, and I can enter the three quilts next year (if I want to) at no cost to myself. I must admit that the first two days were a nightmare, but I have nothing but respect for the way the situation was handled. And my friends and I enjoyed free wine during Ricky's wonderfully entertaining evening, curtesy of the show management. I bet in a couple of years I will not remember much about the quilts that went missing, but a lot about meeting Ricky. Ali is soooooo right. We nearly kept him. Despite all the vendors I only bought two pieces of fabric, one bright and one dark. I'll let you have one guess who dyed them.
Lorchen