Sewing and Stitchery Expo -- Puyallup, WA

Hello, it's me. Jean(ie) again posting for Kelly. She asked me post about my trip to the Sewing & Stitchery Expo in Puyallup, WA. For those who don't know me, I moved to the Seattle area just over a year ago from a year's stay in Ohio, and before that in Tennessee.

Excuse me for being rude and not introducing myself.

One of our local quilt shops here in Washington's wine country, Gathering Fabric in Woodinville, WA, offered a limo ride to the Expo. I was the first to sign up. Any excuse to avoid the traffic, the long distance from the parking to the show, and going alone. So this was our ride. And our driver took us right to the door. Isn't it spanky?

Let me tell ya something that is going to shock you to your very core. I gave up fabric buying for the Lenten season. Yes, you read that right. So what's a girl to do at shows? Well, I conquered that by signing up for several of the Expo's "One-Needle Seminars". I originally signed up for four, but gave away the tickets for one of them. So, please join me in the three Seminars I took.

The first seminar was with Pam Clarke of Designs with Lines entitled "Borders and Sashing, Machine Quilting Designs".  Pam showed us how she "grids-out" her borders and sashing using her pounce pad and stencils then free-motion quilts the designs using the grid lines as a guide.

Here's an example of sample borders all gridded (is that a word?) out.

Now here it is with the quilting -- using simple lines. How's that for easy??? We also got a free stencil with pretty designs just for attending! How nice is that? Pam Clarke has a wonderful book, Quilting Inside the Lines. Free-motion quilting isn't rocket science, and trust me. She makes it look VERRRRY easy!

This seminar was completely full and I can see why. I came out with a TON of fun ideas!

Next up on the class agenda was a seminar on thread. Those who know me know that I'm a HUGE thread geek -- major huge geek! Lee Fletcher, a national educator for Sulky Threads let a wonderful lecture on alternate uses of thread other than general sewing and quilting. I wish I could have taken a photo of some of the ideas. The handout featured a great tutorial on how to make tassels from thread. But my absolute favorite was a stitched scarf Lee made completely of Sulky brand thread! What she did was take two sheets of water-soluble stabilizer and stitched on a grid using her machine. She used a 60wt poly on the bobbin and a 12 wt on the top. Then accented the scarf grid with metallic and other threads, even using sari silk strips sewn onto the grid using your machine's decorative stitches!

Think about that and all the possibilities! That, my dear, made this thread geek smile. :)

You can see fun project ideas from Sulky here.

By then it was time for a break. I was in the midst of a hot flash (gotta love those), so I ditched my middle seminar (gave the ticket away), and headed out to the show floor for a drink and a short walk.

(image credit)

"Danger Will Robinson!"

Stay tuned to see what happened later (yep, I'm leaving y'all hanging). Did I succumb to the siren song of fabric? Or did I stay steadfast in my Lenten promise? Stay tuned to find out!