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PRESS RELEASE: February 21, 2007
Contact: Teresa Mitchell, 315-646-1000
Seaway Trail Quilt Show Sews Up Economic Impact for NNY
Sackets Harbor, NY – Quilting is big business and the Seaway Trail Foundation hopes to attract some of its customers March 16-18 to the 7th annual Seaway Trail Quilt Show and Competition. A Michigan State University study estimates quilters from among the 21 million enthusiasts worldwide spend $2.25 billion in the U.S. annually. While the 2007 Seaway Trail show is not expected to generate billions, it has steadily grown since 2001 and is creating an ever-broadening ripple in the economic waters of the byway’s eastern region.
Seaway Trail Foundation President Teresa Mitchell says, “The king is the American Quilt Show in Kentucky bringing more than $10 million to the City of Paducah with an impact of $17 million statewide. On its own scale the Seaway Trail Quilt Show benefits the local economy with a spillover throughout the state from the quilters and groups that travel in cars and by bus to come to this show.”
Mitchell says the show produces economic spillover into the local communities from vendors and visitors paying for overnight lodging and meals and by offering competition prizes redeemable at local restaurants and shops. A group of quilters from Syracuse has rented a bus to travel to the 2007 Seaway Trail show and will also stop at Dreamcrafter’s Quilt Shop in Watertown.
Vermont Vendors Like Seaway Trail, Sackets Harbor
Julie and Brian Cowles of Cowles Quilting will make the 200-mile trip from their St. Albans, Vermont, shop to sell at the Seaway Trail Quilt Show for the third year in 2007. They sell long-arm quilting machines. Julie says it may take two years from the time someone first sees the long-arm quilting system until they commit to the big investment to buy one. The systems retail for anywhere from $2,795 for a short-arm system to more than $36,000.
Julie says the target audience for their quilting machine systems are professionals in high stress industries that enjoy quilting as a way to wind down and de-stress. They may buy a system for personal use or to develop a home business in a field they are passionate about.
Julie estimates that she and her husband spend $800 to $1,000 locally while at the show. She says, “Brian and I are looking forward to our third trip to Sackets Harbor this March. The atmosphere of the show and hospitality Teresa Mitchell and her staff at the Seaway Trail Discovery Center offer is wonderful. We stay at the Ontario Place Hotel, can't wait for treats from Chrissy Beanz, meals at Tin Pan Galley and to relax at the Brew Pub in the evening. Sackets Harbor is one of our favorite communities to spend a couple of days in. Even in March, when the town is not in its high season we find it a wonderfully appealing town to visit.”
Show Provides Exposure for New Syracuse Area Shop
Mary Ciotoli of Mission Rose Quiltery says the Seaway Trail Quilt Show has helped her young business in North Syracuse since she began attending the show just one year ago.
“As a new shop we wanted to get our name out as a full-service quilting and knitting business. We did just that at last year’s Seaway Trail Quilt Show. We sold everything from fabrics and quilting supplies to books and knitting needles and we have seen a lot of people in our shop that told us they learned about us at the Seaway Trail show,” Ciotoli says.
Ciotoli and her family spend two nights and purchase meals in Sackets Harbor during the show.
Basket Maker Sells Work Designed Just for Quilters
For “The Basket Lady” Marcia Waligory of Lowville, NY, the Seaway Trail Quilt Show is one of only three shows at which she sells her baskets each year. Waligory says, “Quilters love baskets. I have a big show following and out of their special requests have come two baskets I designed just for quilters that sell very well.”
Waligory’s Chairside and Quilter’s Baskets sell for $45 to $65. She also sells her baskets in The Gift Shop at the Seaway Trail Discovery Center year-round.
Other vendors at the 2007 Seaway Trail Quilt Show and Competition will include Heirlooms, Harrisville, NY; Judy’s Quick Quilting, Watertown; KAPS Quilting & Fabric, Watertown, NY; Miniatures by Liz, Sackets Harbor, NY; Primitive Stuff, Rochester, NY; and the Waddington Sewing Center, Waddington, NY.
The Seaway Trail Quilt Show and Competition begins Friday evening March 16 with a 6-7:30 pm reception and continues 10am – 5pm Saturday, March 17 and Sunday, March 18 at the Seaway Trail Discovery Center in Sackets Harbor.
Great Lakes Fish is the theme of the 2007 show that will feature quilts, wallhangings, demonstrators, a 1 pm presentation Saturday and Sunday by quilter and Bassmaster angler JoAnne Flood, vendors, and Visitors Choice judging in four competition categories. Winners will receive gift certificates redeemable at Coleman Family Restaurants: Kathy’s Barracks Inn in Sackets Harbor and the Fairgrounds Inn, Watertown, and at the Gift Shop at the Discovery Center. Entries will be accepted through March 13. Rules and registration are online at www.seawaytrail.com.
Admission to all three days of the show is $4 total. The Seaway Trail Discovery Center is at the corner of Ray and West Main Streets on the Sackets Harbor waterfront. The 518-mile Seaway Trail along the St. Lawrence River, Lake Ontario, the Niagara River and Lake Erie in New York and Pennsylvania is a federally-designated National Scenic Byway and National Recreation Trail known for its world-class sportfishing waters.
The Seaway Trail Discovery Center is operated by Seaway Trail, Inc. and the Seaway Trail Foundation in the historic former Union Hotel (1817-18) which is owned by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. # # #
