2011 Sewing & Stitchery Expo

Comfortable shoes—check. Shopping bag that can expand as needed—check. Sack lunch—check. Water bottle—check. Seminar tickets—check. Cash and charge cards—check. I was ready to tackle the 2011 Sewing & Stitchery Expo.

            My friend Carol had clicked online as soon as the registration website opened, and registered us for our seminars. None of the seven classes I took disappointed. Eleanor Burns won my award for Best Showmanship. She had the audience singing Old Macdonald Had a Farm to introduce her seminar “Quilt Blocks on American Barns.” 

Laura Stark and Carol Kain meet Eleanor Burns, quilting great.

            In other seminars I learned about quilting with big, bold prints; creating landscape quilts; and making jewelry from fabric scraps. On the free stage we watched Linda McPhee’s slinky fashion show, and laughed our way through Glorianne Cubbage’s talk: A Girlfriend’s Guide to Thread. We’ve made it a point to see her since the first time we saw her three years ago in a classroom in the Milking Parlor.

            In between seminars, Carol, Margie, and I became ruthless shoppers, stalking fabric, patterns, books, and quilting tools with speed and agility. Then we’d meet back up to oooh and ahhh over each others’ quarry.

            For me, the highlight of this year’s expo was managing to get a ticket for an hour and a half seminar by Ricky Tims. In 2002, he was named one of The Thirty Most Distinguished Quilters in the World. It was a stroke of luck that when I checked on Thursday, his seminar wasn’t sold out.

So early this morning, the last day of the Sewing Expo, I ran through the Blue Gate of the fairgrounds and up to the second floor of the Pavilion to listen to this extraordinary quilt designer, and renowned pianist, conductor, composer, arranger, and music producer tell us how to make his award-winning quilts.

His Convergence quilts are based on a simple concept, take little time, yet result in quilts with a strong, modern impact. To think that he started a whole new type of quilt as a result of cleaning his sewing room is an inspiration to me, a quilter whose sewing room has stacks of fabric piled so high we may have to raise the ceiling.

Bohemian Rhapsody by Ricky Tims.

Tims’ Rhapsody quilts have a symmetrical medallion in the center. Intricate designs in brilliant colors continue in curving symmetry out to the borders.  In a sea of quilts, they will grab your attention and not let go.

Laura Stark and Ricky Tims at Sew Expo, Puyallup, WA.

            Afterwards, I raced over to the Showplex to Ricky Tims’ booth, snatched up one of his books and some hand-dyed fabric. I was so fast, I was third in line! As the line snaked around the back of the booth, I asked the Texan who wears a cowboy hat for his autograph and a photo.

            Strolling out of the fairgrounds with my tote bag refilled once again, I couldn’t resist grabbing a scone. I raised it up toward Washington’s gray skies as a toast to another Sewing Expo well done before I took a big bite.

Laura Keolanui Stark is storing her Expo goodies and planning future projects. She can be reached at stark.laura.k@gmail.com.

Sew Expo Hangover

          The Sewing & Stitchery Expo ended yesterday, and today it feels like the day after Christmas: empty shopping bags, empty wallet, but a lot of really great toys to play with.

          This year I went for three out of the four days even though I initially planned to go for only one day. When I started scheduling seminars, Plan A flew out the window, Plan B was a mere flash, and I sent in Plan C. Plan D is what I got. Some of the seminars I’d requested had sold out, so they’d substituted my alternate requests. But, I’m pretty sure that I hadn’t listed a couple of them at all. Looking at the tickets they sent, I felt the same way I do sometimes when I reach my destination on a trip, and open my suitcase---who the heck packed this stuff?

          As it turned out, the surprise classes were pleasant surprises. In 50 minutes, Dr. Bob unwound all my thread problems in his Thread Therapy class. He explained thread characteristics, which needle to use with different specialty threads, and told a great story about how his 14 year old son used water soluble thread on bathing suits to liven up a pool party.

          It wasn’t all fun though at Expo, within 15 minutes of entering the gates, I got in trouble, my modus operandi. My offense this time was stepping over the chains to get into a seminar instead of winding around through an utterly empty maze. I just can’t seem to stay between the lines. The seminar was worth the scolding. It was “Japanese Design Basics for Quilters.” June Colburn talked about the differences between Western design in artwork and Asian design. I will incorporate many of her insights into my quilts, and finally cut confidently into some of the gorgeous Asian fabrics I’ve collected.

          In between seminars, I shopped, and shopped, and shopped some more, severely testing my creed, “Never buy more than you can carry.” Every year I tell myself that I don’t need to buy anything else. I have mountains of fabric, notions, and books. Yet every year, I add to the mountain. I blew my budget, and until next payday, my meal planning will revolve around whatever I can forage from our pantry or freezer. I’m thinking of it as a kind of creative scavenger hunt. Dr. Bob had a piece of valuable advice on what to say to our husbands when their eyes bug out on seeing what we haul home from the sewing expo. He told us to say these magic words, “There was a drawing.” And, there was a drawing at the end of each seminar. We just don’t have to divulge whether we won or not.

          By far, the best part of this year’s expo was a gift from my friend Carol: tickets for three of us to see Eleanor Burns in a Quilter’s Night Out. Eleanor Burns is one of the top quilters in America, and has her own show, “Quilt in a Day” on PBS. For years, Carol and I (and apparently a lot of other quilters) filled out suggestion slips asking Sew Expo to get Eleanor Burns to come. 2010 was the year our pestering paid off! We each got to chat with Eleanor and get her autograph at her booth. She is as delightful in person as on her show. At Quilter’s Night Out, she wowed us with her quilt show, reminisced about 30 years of taping her show, shared bloopers that had us laughing until we were in tears, introduced us to her family, and got hundreds of women up on their feet to do the chicken dance.

          Expo was crowded. Some people were rude. Some days it rained. Scones fueled me when my energy levels sagged. One day I slogged a half a mile through the parking lot to my car while packing my shopping booty with me. Overall, this year’s Sew Expo lived up to its billing of “the biggest sewing party in the country!”

Laura Keolanui Stark is starting a new quilting project! She can be reached at lkstark@yahoo.com

We Be Jammin'

Forty three shops, two ferry rides, and an overnight stay in Marysville later, my friend Carol and I can say that this year’s quilt shop hop was a success.

Our favorite purchase practically jumped into my arms. I wasn’t looking for it. It found me. On my way to another room, I glanced over and a cheerful yellow, blue, and red quilt in kitchen prints winked at me. Appliquéd blocks featuring canning pots, a colander filled with berries, and spoons surrounded by a scalloped edge made me grin like a fool, but the name, “We Be Jammin’” cinched it. I snatched up two quilt kits and hurried to Carol who had the same “love at first sight” reaction.

Why would two supposedly grown women react this way? Last summer was berry summer for us. Berries were following us everywhere—berry fabric, and real berries at the farmer’s market, grocery stores and farm stands. Finally, Carol asked me, “Have you ever made jam?”

I very confidently responded, “Oh yeah,” as if I’d made jam since I could reach a counter. I’d made jam once, one time, about ten or twelve years before.

At the Spooner Farm’s stand, we bought flats of gorgeous strawberries. They smelled so good we were swooning. Too many to count never made it into the jam. We got right down to business mashing, adding sugar, and stirring, admiring that deep, almost magenta red color. We sang like we were Jamaicans, “We be jamming,’ we be jammin’” as it bubbled. Things were going great.

That’s when the smoke detector went off, the first time. I grabbed a remote and pointed it at the detector. It stopped its ear-shattering shriek. Carol kept stirring. I dug a box fan out of the garage, opened windows, and the sliding glass door.

Then it went off again. This time the remote wouldn’t turn it off. None of the remotes in the house would. Funny, there was no mention of smoke detectors in the jam recipe. Carol kept stirring.

The smoke detector in my open beamed kitchen is about 14 feet up. Luckily, my husband had left the ladder on the deck after cleaning rain gutters. I very officially hauled it into the house.

Naturally at this point, the jam was ready. Carol looked anxiously at me, but I was wrestling with the ladder, so she was on her own. I knew that even with the ladder, I wouldn’t be able to reach that stupid, screaming smoke detector. I wrenched the ladder open and was heading up it with a broom. Just as I was winding up to swing and knock the insistent detector off the wall, shockingly, it stopped.

I looked over at Carol, and we both started laughing. During the crisis, she’d started filling the jars with the most delicious strawberry jam ever.

When we’re each making our “We Be Jammin’” quilts, I think we be addin’ a smoke detector, a box fan, a ladder and a broom to the quilt back.

Laura Keolanui Stark, Carol Kain, and their families are still enjoying homemade jam. Laura can be reached at lkstark@yahoo.com. (Originally published in The Herald, www.puyallupherald.com on 7/15/09.)

Quilters on a Shop Hop Mission

If you’re not a quilter, you probably don’t know about the 11^th Annual Western Washington Shop Hop. From June 24 through the 28^th quilters will be touring the western part of our state from Lynden up north near the Canadian border all the way down south to Longview at the Oregon border. We’ll be riding in cars, busses, and ferries packing supplies of chocolate and coffee, armed with cash and credit cards on a mission!

The mission is to go to as many independently owned quilt shops as possible and collect the free quilt blocks that each shop designs and gives to participants. The way to accomplish this is as varied as each quilter who embarks on the journey. Some plan everything down to the last thread hitting every shop, others approach it so casually they only gather enough blocks to make a wall hanging.

I’m somewhere in between. I like to plan which shops to visit and also get a feel for what the shop is like once I’m there. I like to shop and take advantage of the almost overwhelming choices offered in 58 different shops.

I’ve shop hopped solo, and with a reluctant husband. I’ve dragged even more reluctant kids and their friends along. I’ve also gone with my parents and fellow quilters. Solo is hard because then you have to be your own navigator and there’s no one to bounce ideas off of. Initially my husband didn’t think he’d like it. But, once he figured out how things worked, he became a pro at getting his passport stamped. I also think he secretly enjoyed the good-natured ribbing/attention that he got as one of the few husbands on tour.

With the kids, I quieted their groaning with bribes of fast food lunches and assigned them things to look for in quilt shops, like fabric with chocolate candy on it. I managed to work in some Washington geography lessons as we drove from shop to shop. The year I persuaded my parents to join me, they got a kick out of peoples’ reactions when they shared that they were visiting from Hawaii.

You non-quilters may ask how many of the shop hop quilts I’ve completed. My answer is one, and this year I’ll go on my sixth shop hop. Yes, I know, save your scolding. You see, for me the shop hop isn’t just about getting a “free quilt.” It’s about exploring territory beyond my current quilting abilities and beyond Puyallup. It’s about boosting my creativity. It’s about building bonds with family and friends and making memories like the time we went to a shop in Kalama and talked to the owners about how Kalama was founded by a Hawaiian chief, or the time a friend and I spotted a black bear running alongside us on a country road near Yelm. It’s also about appreciating this beautiful state I’m so lucky to call home.

Laura Keolanui Stark is on the road or in a quilt shop somewhere in Western Washington. You may reach her at lkstark@yahoo.com. (Originally published in The Herald, www.puyallupherald.com on 6/24/09.)

Quilter's Dream Come True

I’m counting the days until the Sewing & Stitchery Expo at the Puyallup Fairgrounds February 26 – March 1. It’s a chance to learn new quilting techniques, try out new crafts, and test drive the newest sewing machine models. And on top of that, the shopping is incredible, so I stock up on enough quilting projects, fabric, and supplies to keep me busy until well past the next Expo. Row after row of over 400 vendors demonstrate and sell their products, inviting us in with their latest innovations and ideas. Batiks, reproduction fabrics, novelty fabrics, Minkee and more flow off the bolts. Notions to make sewing faster and easier beckon from booths. The atmosphere is friendly and welcoming. My excitement rivals that of a kid on Christmas morning.

My quilting buddy, Carol, has the stamina required to “do” the show with me. We usually take a few of the seminars guaranteeing inspiration and then get started shopping for our lists of gotta haves. Last year we wandered through miles of aisles looking for the John Flynn quilting system. We did eventually find his booth before either of us collapsed, relying on chocolate to revive us. Two years ago I was on a mission to round up a fabric with lanky cowboys on it. Apparently, so were lots of other quilters. It was sold out almost everywhere, but after much searching, I did find it. Yee! Haw! This year I’ll be looking for Lucy and Ethel on some fabric I saw advertised in a quilting magazine. Their cheeks are stuffed with chocolate from a conveyer belt that’s moving too fast. I’m picturing aprons!

Then there are the celebrity sightings. Once we were bumping along through the crowds when some primitive, New England looking needlework stopped us in our tracks. As we admired the distinctive designs and sifted through the patterns, kits, and fabrics, we struck up a conversation with the saleswoman. She turned out to be Kathy Schmitz, the designer. It was the first time she’d been to the show. She told us all about the path her career had taken, packaged our purchases, and handed us our change.

We’ve had conversations with Kaye Wood, Nancy Zieman, and Mary Mulari, and held up quilts for Sharlene Jorgenson’s seminar. These women are all huge names in the quilting world. It’s amazing to be face to face with celebrities we watch Saturday mornings on KCTS-Channel 12, and find them so approachable and down to earth.

So how are we preparing for the 25th Sewing & Stitchery Expo? We’ve already pored over the 300+ seminars being offered and ordered tickets. We’re setting up where and when to meet friends for lunch, and making our shopping lists. We’re choosing our backpacks, lining up our most comfortable shoes, and thanking WSU for hosting America’s largest sewing show right here in Puyallup. Let the inspiration begin!

Laura Keolanui Stark has a silly smile on her face somewhere at the Sewing Expo. She can be reached at lkstark@yahoo.com. (Originally published in The Herald, www.puyallupherald.com, 2/26/09.)