News In Killarney

Yesterday we had a great time in Killarney, County Kerry. We had a photoshoot and as usual, Terri and I pop in on the locals, find the craic and hear the news of our quilters around the country.

Nikki Foley, who teaches patchwork and owns The Sewing Shed in Keel (twenty minutes from Killarney) arrived to meet us and catch us up. If you can't get to Ireland, visit her at Patchwork Promises too!

Her first point of mission was to let me know that a few days ago she had seen a bunch of our magazines at a newsagent in the town centre. Every editor needs a good spy! E&M, our Irish distributor does a fairly good job of keep us here and there, so I was pleased to hear this.

Soon I realised that I had no few spare copies with us. Shame on me! I don't know, it must have been all the presents crowding my sleigh from the week before? I usually have a stash in my vehicle! So off we went to the newsagent.

Though I wanted to purchase IQ, I quickly found other quilt magazines of interest--this shop indeed had a large variety. Jackpot...until I saw no IQ. We are at the end of this issue and new one is due out, so I'm not entirely surprised they vanished from the shelf. However, I still continue to do what every small business owner should do--you seek out the man in charge and query as a customer, so, well, they know Irish Quilting is in demand! I approached the counter.

The man before me wore the "I'm the owner" look. (And he was.) As I purchased my other magazines, I asked, "Do you carry Irish Quilting?" He look around, asked me to repeat the question, thumbed through my purchases, and then looked me right in the eye, and said "Nah, I don't think it exists." Now, shame on him!

I gave him a grin, slid my business card across the counter and said,"Oh, but it does. I'm the publisher." He turned as red as Rudolf's nose and began stumbling for words. Nikki piped in that she had seen the magazine in his shop previously. The man was tripping over himself to apologise.

I said to him, "don't worry, I've been told worse at the counter before." Really? No, not true. But this poor man needed a little saving face. (We do have a list of retailers who stock IQ. Once, I was told by a young (lazy?) clerk that they don't stock it--when in fact I knew they did.) Mr. Owner came around the counter and soon we were chatting away.

One thing's for sure now, Killarney knows who we are!