Announcement!

I Have A Notion blog and store have moved to:


the store can be found at


There is a much easier to navigate store, with new items. The blog has its own page as well... new content too.

The blog is now at www.ihaveanotion.com/blog

Please come and visit!

Sunday, March 3, 2013

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.

"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!
 

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing insights on this show. It makes me want to move to Washington to be able to attend it! What fun.

    SewCalGal
    www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jean, you have quickly adapted to my style of writing...LOL. Thanks for keeping my blog alive dear friend.

    Hugs,
    Kelly

    ReplyDelete
  3. I lived in WA for 17 years and went to the Sewing Expo a few times and I loved it! One of the best sewing shows I ever attended. Oh I wish I could go again. I miss a lot of things from WA, but I love the sunshine here in NM.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Looks like great fun, can't wait to hear about the rest of it! Limo ride, too...icing on the cake!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for reading the IHAN Blog. I love getting and reading every comment that is left here; however I may not be able to respond to all comments left during giveaways. There are times when I am juggling many tasks at one time and may not reply to all comments. Please e-mail me at quiltnotions@gmail.com if you need a reply quickly. I thank you for your understanding and-
More Later-Beth

Translate

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...