Yesterday, as I told you earlier, I was able to attend the Sewing and Quilting Expo in Lakeland, Florida. It’s only about 45 minutes from the RV park we’re in right now and I was lucky enough to have a friend here to go with me. Also, another quilter/spinner, Deb from Ontario was here in the park and went along as well. With all the chatting to get to know each other, and catch up with my friend Dean, we arrived in no time. Funny how that chatting with friends cuts the travel time to nothing!
The Sewing and Quilting Expo is a traveling Expo. In the past, I’ve attended one in Louisville, Kentucky (which I happened upon by accident), and Tampa, Florida. Once you’ve registered at one, each year you get an email reminding you of upcoming Expos. You can imagine my happiness when I discovered the timing was going to be perfect for our trip here to Florida. The Sewing and Quilting Expo is a combination of classes, quilt shows, vendors, fashion show and demonstrations.
Each time I’ve attended one, there have been classes still available on the actual day meaning if you just happen in on one, or don’t plan ahead, you can still sign up for some classes. This year I opted not to take any classes so I could use the time to visit the quilt displays and vendors. Being in Alabama all winter, we are somewhat restricted in what’s available to us in terms of fabrics, notions and patterns. With that said, you think I spent a lot of money and came home with armloads, right? Sorry to disappoint!
I went with plenty of spending money but I will tell you right up front that I’m not an impulse buyer when it comes to fabrics. If I have a project in mind, I can always find something I like. Right now the only thing I have coming up is a possible Row Robin which is still in planning stage so I didn’t buy for that.
The other reason I didn't buy much
It was the first day of the Expo and it was mobbed!!! It was very difficult to get close
to the more popular vendors. Sometimes I had something in my hands and just tired of waiting to get through the line to pay so I would put it away. It was also difficult to get lunch! Next time I’m taking my water bottle and some crackers and fruit in my bag! 40 minutes in a line that didn’t move to buy a mediocre hotdog! Yuck!
I was able to get around to see the display galleries. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take any photos. There were these big, bright pink signs up by every quilt in the galleries saying “No Photographs”. You will have to settle for some words instead. The Modern Quilt Guild had a series of small quilts showing the diversity of “modern” quilting. To me it only brought home the understanding once again that quilting is timeless. You can use any material you like and put it in any order you wish. It’s a quilt if it’s sandwiched with batting and backing and some type of stitching is on the top. The Modern Quilt Guild quilts were great to see. You can learn more about them here.
Fons and Porter had a display of quilts from their Love of Quilting magazines. It really is fun to see this quilts up close and personal after seeing them on the pages of the magazines. That goes for the display by Quiltmaker magazine as well. A number of quilts that I have marked in the magazines as “Bucket List” quilts were shown in the Quiltmaker display. So inspiring!
Gammill had an exhibit of Longarm Artists which of course make one drool.
The most moving quilt gallery was the large Quilts of Valor display. They were amazing quilts and all go to servicemen/women’s families and they are so wonderful. I’m sure every family is thrilled, and honored, to own of these quilts.
Quilt Clocks
Have you seen these quilt clocks? They are a product of designer Dianne Springer who is know for the Quilt in a Cup. Here’s Dianne talking about her floor mats–quilted and treated to wear for years.
Dianne Springer
Her designs are bright and fun. She also has a new book out that gives the how-tos of her projects. Here is where I kick myself! I had her book in my hand. I put it down. I didn’t pick it back up. Now I want it!!!!! I checked her website last night and there was no mention of it so I’m going to have to wait for this book. Sorry, I can’t even recall the name of it, something about scraps but Dianne said to several of us, “of course it doesn’t really use up your scraps; it just makes more”. Truer words were never spoken!
All her projects were available in kit form at her booth. If you’re interested in what she has, check out this.
Lots of Jackets!
There were lots and lots of jackets. These made with batiks caught my eye. Quilt shops from all over the U.S. come to these Sewing and Quilting Expos. If you have patience, and more than one day, you can find what you’re looking for here.
I didn’t get the name of this quilt but it caught my eye. It looks like it’s four squres with a curved square on point over the four squares. It might be fun to tinker with this idea.
There were multiple Notions booths. All had long lines. I had some bobbin keepers and a new type of brush for cleaning your machine but, again, I put them back. I couldn’t see standing in line to spend $3.75. I’ll find them somewhere else.
I really liked this quilt and wished I could have gotten closer to show you better. Each rectangle has a trees print, greens or burnt orange and they are set in a kind of “attic window” fashion but they are not all the same size like a typical attic window. Love this shop too. It’s in Bunnell, Florida which is a major surprise. We did Habitat for Humanity builds in Bunnell for about three years and it always amazed me that this small (at the time, not sure now) town had such a lovely quilt shop. I was surprised to see then there!
These items caught my eye. All these huge blooms. The only one I’d probably ever make is the pincushion in the lower left of the rack but it was fun to see all the fabric flowers too.
Loralie Designs
Loralie Designs has some of the cutest ladies on her fabrics. I just couldn’t figure out what I’d do with them so I left them behind too. You can find Loralie Designs here.
Lots of Rulers
Isn’t this pretty? Of course, there’s a ruler for that! Lots and lots of rulers being demonstrated. I have fallen into the ruler purchasing hole before. I have a Kaye Woods ruler I bought at the Sewing and Quilting Expo when I attended one of Kaye’s classes. That was probably in 2005 and I still have not used that ruler! Impulse buying. However, I did dig that ruler out just a few weeks ago to see what I might want to make with it. Will I actually use it?
There’s that sign! I have to confess I actually took a photo of one of those quilts that were not to be photographed. I got excited about it and didn’t even notice this bright pink sign. That’s my confession. As soon as I lowered my camera, I noticed a lady looking aghast at me so I looked back at the quilt. Alas! There was that pink sign so I have deleted that quilt from my collection of photos.
Louise Cutting
Here’s Louise Cutting. I took a class from her one time and many of her patterns are very to the full-figured lady. She gives so many tips about what NOT to do when dressing if you have certain figure problems. Did you know that you couldn’t wear sleeves that stop at the bust line if you have a full bust? I didn’t know that, but it makes your bust look larger. She gave me the “OK” with the shirt I had on yesterday as the sleeves stopped above the bustline. Whew!!!! I bougtht the pattern for the lovely linen shirt she’s wearing. I also have her pattern for a one-seam pants. She gave great fitting directions for those pants and even sells a special measuring tape for measuring from front waist down through the crotch and up to back waist to get the best fit. I have that too! You can see Louise’s full line of patterns at Louise Cutting Designs here.
There are some great tips on her website if you like to sew clothing. You click on her “Ideas and Inspirations” box and scroll through the many topics. I was blown away by the depth of her sewing tips.
Colleen from Some Art Fabric
Colleen Casey did a Stage Presentation called “How to be a Charming Stripper”. Colleen has a store called Some Art Fabric and sells charm squares, jelly rolls, etc. Her presentation was on ideas for using the 2 1/2″ strips. She sells a lot of solids in the 2 1/2″ strip. Here are some of her quilts.
A tip that Colleen gave us during her presentation is to make sure you READ the wrapper on a charm pack or jelly roll. They are not all created equal. She told of a client at her shop who came in frantic because she had bought a charm pack somewhere and thought it had 50 charm squares in it. It had 20! Read the label! Read the label!
Back to Notions again. Do you love Prairie Points but don’t like making all those points? Well you could buy one of these rulers (again!! with the rulers!!) which are touted to make it easy to make your prairie points. However, just the other day on another blogger’s post, I saw a great way to make prairie points–without that ruler. Check out Sew We Quilt’s “Supereasy Continuous Prairie Points” tutorial here. I love rulers, don’t get me wrong. I just often have an issue with paying $25 (or more) for a ruler that has only one application. Not all of us have endless budgets for our quilting and I’m one of them. I don’t want to spend my money where I can do it a “free” way. That’s why blogs are so great. Bloggers share their tips; things they have learned by trying new things.
Here are just some cute samples I saw around the Expo hall. I’m sorry I can’t give credit to the designer nor the booth operator as often I just couldn’t get close enough to find that information out. Apologies to any readers who might see a design they created here without the credit given.
"The Quilters"
These were marketed as pincushions. They are felted balls about 1″ in diameter. I made tons of these balls in September with my grandson in preparation for anecklace I was making for my DD. These have some jewelry findings on them and are kind of a charm I’d say, but truly for $3.00 I couldn’t see how I’d ever be able to use something that size for a pincushion. I also decided I could probably get the findings needed to make these out of my felted wool balls.
Paparazzi
I didn’t get the designers name but I just loved this quilt. It’s in blacks, grays, white and reds. Love it!!!!
I thought this bag was unique. It says it’s a “MarLou Design”.
Prefer leather bags? Get your quilt designs in leather here. Made by LAGA, it says “no two handbags are exactly alike”.
The mariner’s compass portion of the lower one caught my eye.
There was even Australian Aboriginal fabric available there.
This round quilt was seen at the Pfaff Sewing Machine booth. Scrappy, round, colorful!
This was a Quilts of Valor booth where you could purchase oodles of patriotic fabrics for making QoV quilts.
I could hardly believe that there were very few people in this booth. Most were just packed!
So, that’s a smattering of what was at the Sewing and Quilting Expo. If one comes to your area, and you can find out by going to the website http://www.sewingexpo.com, try to attend. There’s going to be one in March in Atlanta, GA, Chicago, IL, and Cleveland, OH. In April there will be one in Worcester, Mass. June will find the Expo at Raleigh, NC. August they will be in Pittsburgh, PA; September in Birmingham, AL; October in Chantilly, VA and Kansas City, MO. November there will be one in Minneapolis, MN.
My only suggestion is, if you decide to attend, register online!!! It can save you an hour wait in line at the Expo.
On The Go Quilting 