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
