Favorite quilts from Sewing Expo

These are my favorite quilts from Sewing Expo - I should clarify, there were many quilts I loved, these I actually want to make......some day.......

I love these two flower quilts. I have a pattern for a flower quilt with the raw edges but what's different about these is that the flowers are then cut into quarters and reassembled.

This quilt with the circles is done the same way - love it. Love the raw edges that get fuzzy after it's washed as a part of the process of finishing the quilt.

Sewing Expo

 This is the van loaded up with our stuff on the way up to Sewing Expo in Puyallup, WA

 This is a picture of it coming home - we still had tons of space - what were we thinking?!!!

Some of my scores - some beautiful silks and sheers from the Vogue booth and fun patterns. I took a class on sewing with sheers so hopefully this summer's sewing will be easier than last year's with the sheer fabrics.

 Quilting supplies......

Webbing for woven bag handles and some fun ribbons to embellish those bags with.

Great shell fabrics that I had seen via the internet and went on the search for. Yes, these are for those quilts for the beach cottage that I've bought other fabrics for over 2 years ago - I'm determined this is the year to get them sewn.

Here's a couple more - bought these at The Mill End store in Portland, OR.  You didn't think we only shopped at the Sewing Expo did you? We shopped on the trip up; Trader Joe's, Shipwreck Beads - then on the way home at Ikea, Fabric Depot and The Mill End Store.

Sock knitting

The past 5 days were spent with 4 friends on a 'field' trip up to Sew Expo in Puyallup, WA.  What a great time we had - hopefully I'll have a few pictures to share except I can't seem to get them off the tiny little camera I use for travel - will get help with that later. Today has been spent playing catch-up - not there yet but did deal with all the administrivia that comes with selling lots of roving while I was gone.......good news, bad news. I still have piles of 'stuff' to put away from Sew Expo.

These are the pair of socks I started while on the trip - only a bit of knitting got done in the little bit of time I wasn't driving.........am loving these colors and this yarn - Indulgence 6 Ply Distrato made for Knitting Fever. I love that I've knit 7 1/2" so far and haven't had a pattern repeat show up yet. This yarn does make for a thicker sock which will be great to keep my feet warm over on the coast. I'll work on these here and there when I have free time.........

home again.....

Back home again after being gone for 6 days up to Puyallup, WA for the Sewing Expo. Sorry there are no pictures - I didn't want to keep track of a camera and the pictures I took with my phone are very blurry.....not the best for photography, it's just a phone after all.

Friend Pat and I left last Tuesday morning ahead of a snow storm, our only one of the winter. Pat's good friend Louann rode with us as far as Portland - so nice to get to know her better on the ride up and back. Thank goodness we decided to go up a day early or we may not have made it until Thursday. Only stop on the way up was for cheese, crackers and wine at Trader Joe's. Terrible drive up with pouring rain....but at least it wasn't snow!

Wednesday morning found us at Shipwreck Beads - whoo hoo!  Lots of time spent shopping there. After that we went to the Museum of Glass in Tacoma - what a great museum. The featured exhibit currently is of paperweights/orbs by Paul Stankard. These are no ordinary paperweights/orbs though - they're beyond belief incredibly detailed ones. We were lucky to see a film of how he works with the glass before we saw the actual orbs. We braved the pouring rain and cold winds to walk up to the bridge of glass, it was well worth it. We finished up the afternoon with a stop at Hello Cupcake for cupcake & tea.

Thursday, Friday and half of Saturday was spent at the Sewing Expo. Oh my gosh - so many people, so much shopping! I saw many fashion shows and took some great classes.....and got just a bit lots of shopping in. I left with the creative juices flowing...now if I could just find extra hours in my day so I can follow through.

We decided we had enough of Sewing Expo mid-day Saturday so we headed south to Portland for the night. A fun trip to Ikea was in order as were swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes and ligonberry jam from the eatery there. Found a few treasures. And of course, a stop at Trader Joe's on the way home yesterday. Our Trader Joe's is under construction and will be open in the fall - whoo hoo! It will be around 45 minutes east of home but 3 minutes from Sam's office.

I would have loved to have jumped right in today being creative but I spent my morning boxing up orders from my etsy shops and catching up on bookkeeping, inventory, etc. Now it's off to the post office but I need to go find a rolling cart to get all these boxes in the van and into the post office....such problems.....

Sewing Expo - Whoo Hoo!

I have not posted to the blog for a while because early last Wednesday morning my friend Kathy and I headed up to Washington for the Sewing Expo. We were Sewing Expo virgins! What a great time we had, we both decided we would definitely go back. We did way too much shopping, not only at the vendors at the expo but also on the trip up and back home, staying in Portland one night to make sure we didn't miss out on shopping. I signed up for 9 different 45 minute seminars: Slinky (sewing on slinky fabric ala Chico's travel clothing); 2 handed fair isle knitting (no floats on the back); thread,needles & tension; fabulous floor mats, solar blueprint dyeing, sew like a pro; coats made easy, expressive sweatshirts. The Saturday night event that we bought tickets for was Ricky Tims, composer, story teller, quilter - he was so entertaining. So now on to the things I spent buckeroos on. I got pictures of most of it, a few items are gifts so can't post those.

Some of you remember my serger had been acting up. It was an inexpensive one I bought back in 1989 that worked great for 20 years and now no matter how I much it's adjusted it just won't serge right. I took it in for service and fixing and it's still not right. So, do I throw more money out the window on trying to fix it or just buy another inexpensive one - this one was only $179 in the Hancock Fabrics booth - I couldn't walk away from it. Funny, on the side it says Japanese technoloday, Made in China - kind of scary. Can't 'wait to get it out of the box and give it a try.

I bought quite a bit of the slinky fabric in black, a bit in red for making pants, tops & jackets along with patterns made for it from MacPhee. Not sure when I'll get to these.

More stencils in my favorites; gingkos & dragonflies along with lotus blossoms and shells.....as if I don't have enough gingko stencils......but these are different sizes

New patterns

More new patterns, a purse and two seashell wallhangings to make for the beach

New books, these look fantastic

Sheep fabric I just couldn't resist, bought coordinating fabrics to go with, probably for a big tote.

Chiffons from the Vogue booth (oh my gosh, the low prices!) to use for tops

Gingko fabric.....for whatever

Rayon Batiks for tops & pants, some bought at the Sewing Expo, some from FabricDepot on the trip home

More rayon batiks and some fun gingko buttons

And yet more rayon batiks - when am I going to do all this sewing???

Blue grey chiffon for a wrap, silk to stash for dyeing for lining for handwovens, lots of webbing in different colors to use for straps for rag bags - goal to get rid of all those cotton quilt leftovers by recycling them into tote bags. The chiffon and webbing came from the Mill End Store in Portland- wow, what a great store!

Oh and then there was a stop at Shipwreck beads on the way up - way too much fun, so many beads, so little time. Some novelty yarns to knit beaded bracelets with, friend Kathy showed me how. A small cone of mixed yarn from Yarnia in Portland for some fingerless mitts.

Oh, and I didn't put any pictures of my treasures from Ikea - I've got their catalog, looked at their goods online but had never been there - oh my gosh, the place was gigantic! What fun to go through, and had to have some swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes for lunch.