Updates, Design Wall, & Stash Report

This past weekend I went to our local Sewing and Craft Show. This is out at a local Trade & Exhibition Centre... The show has been running for a number of years but a few years ago changed owners. Currently they have also teamed up and have a scrapbooking show at the same time. It is a great use of these large facilities, but I avoided all the scrapbooking information, as that isn't my interest. I have attended off an on for the past 9 years... Attendance this year seemed lower than past years, although I read on Janome Life blog, that it was the greatest attendance with the new owners. The date of the show the past few years has become later, and for the past two years has been during Spring Break.  This is a problem for some of us younger sewers and crafters...

I'm happy to say that the entry fee is still very reasonable at $10 for the two days.  I think its wonderful that they haven't raised this fee.  Although parking has increased - it was free for the first few years and is now $5 per day, but that is probably due to the venue increasing the parking costs, instead of the show owners.  I volunteered for the Friday morning helping with letting attendees into the classes - there were a few problems with this - the registration forms this year didn't include class room names, or times on them.

A good set of local and Canadian instructors were brought in, and many I've attended in past years... In the past I've attended Ron Collins' workshops - they are wonderful and a great hands on experience.  His "trunk show" has a closet full of wonderful items...

• Ron Collins 
• Copying Ready to Wear for Pants and Jeans (NEW)~ a preshow workshop
• More and More Pockets ll ~ a 3 hour hands on seminar
• Master Construction Techniques II ~ a 3 hour hands on seminar
• Patrice Godin
• Everything You Wanted to Know About the Corset, But Were Afraid to Ask ~ 3 hours
• Bias 101 ~ 2 hours

These are great seminars, but I wonder if the topics were too advanced and they may have scared away potential attendees.  I've taken Ron's Master Construction Techniques and another one or two seminars.  In the past various sewing machine companies would donate machines for classrooms, but now you need to bring your own machine.  I think this deters some from signing up for the courses.I took 3 quilting lectures.  They all had a great ideas, but there weren't any quilting hands on classes on the Friday and Saturday... There were 2 knitting classes, Ron's 2 garment construction classes, and the other 6 hands on classes were embellishment or beading classes.  The Thursday  pre-show workshops included a number of quilting classes and garment construction.  I couldn't take these as the kids were home on spring break....
Another problem I found was when looking at the schedule, is many "similar" classes were at the same time...  I know that its impossible to schedule classes without there being some classes, but one time slot had sessions on "Batting 1000", "Longarm Quilting -Beyond Meandering" and "Whole Cloth Quilting", another session had "Free Motion Quilting -Secrets For Success" and "Machine Quilting -Faster & Smarter".  And there was one more titled "Quilt As Desired (How To)".  So 6 sessions on the "quilting" process, and only in 3 time blocks... there were 6 different time slots during the day... it would have been great if these were spread throughout the day...  And the same for some of the fitting classes, and embellishment classes...

There were a couple of make-n-takes at the sewing machine vendors booths, but nothing like there was years ago...

It was still a great two days... I bought some thread, but didn't get any fabric!

Design Wall Update

The same thing is hanging on my design wall as last week - unfortunately I'm not at the same house as my item.  I forgot my 4th block at our summer place!  ACK!  Luckily I have lots of fabric and I'll cut out another one.  I think I'll include some of the lighter fabrics so my block fits into the quilt.  Next time I'm over, I'll pick up the stray dresden and make a table topper!





Stash Report - Week 14 / 2011 (Mar 28-April 3)
Given that I went to the sewing and craft show, I did really well. I didn't buy any fabrics there! My daughter purchased 0.4m for a project she was sewing... so it gets added to my stash, since that is what she sews from...

Used this Week: 1.1m
Used year to Date: 46.1m
Added this Week: 0.4m
Added Year to Date: 7.9 meters
Net Used for 2011: 38.2m

Sewing Show!

Today was the sewing and craft show. This year it is under new management and they've included a scrapbooking show with it.

Impressions of the show
Good Things

• Admission was still only $10 for the two days. And the kids were free. This was great because it was a Professional Day for teachers, so no school for the kids. Due to other commitments, I will be unable to head out again tomorrow.
• Great deals! We stopped by the Wonderfil booth looking to pick up some multi-packs of the 40Wt Polyester Thread they had on special. The girls were having a great time looking at the thread -- searching for various colours. The rep came over and handed each girl a bag full of thread.... The bags were "freebies" and included 10 spools of 120d/2 100% Rayon Thread (150m spools). When I paid for my purchases, she gave each girl a reusable bag to carry their thread in... and then she gave my son a bag too! Wow!

The bags of thread the kids received!




Other thread we purchased. One of them was the Razzle or Dazzle thread -- glittery -- Bought for the girls. They did have to compromise on colour as I was only going to buy them ONE colour. I also purchased magnetic pin holders for each of them.



If I was without the kids

• I love that Ron Collins and Linda MacPhee continue to come back! They are wonderful instructors. Didn't take any of their courses this year (due to the kids), hope they are back again next year.
  
• The Bernina Booth was doing a hands on demo, but it was the same project as last year -- a little cosmetic bag, and I couldn't do it today because of the kids. Not a problem, I did the project last year, but it would have been great to sit and sew at the show today. I am glad that the Bernina Booth still has a freebie demo.
• The Janome Booth looked like it had machines setup for hands on workshops, but while we were there no projects were visible. Great if they had a hands on -- their instructor is wonderful! If I didn't have the kids I would have enquired about the demo.
  

Neutral Items

• Many quilt vendors, and few supplies for garment sewing... Gala Fabrics was there, and MacPhee Workshop with some beautiful fabrics, as well as some garments featured in the recent Threads Magazine, but for those of us who don't quilt (or quit only a little...) there wasn't much.
  
• I'm not much of a scrapbooker, but I can see how the two can be tied together. The trade show did have most of the scrapbooking supplies grouped together.
• There was way too many "other" products. I'm not interested in Avon, Tupperwear, Sheets, and various other products. But I guess they pay for their tables, so....
• The Quilts from the quilt show were beautiful, but really divided the show as they were in the centre isle. They did get more exposure than at past shows, but it did really separate the two sides of the showroom.
  

Dislikes from this show

• Bring your own machine -- in the past the show has provided one or two "rooms" of machines for hands on classes. This year the brochure said "bring your own"! I like being able to try another machine. It is a great opportunity. And the show really needs more for Embroidery in the classes.
• Not enough variety. I've been attending the show for a number of years now, and the courses are all starting to sound the same... Love to see some new hands on stuff!
  

Wishlists for future shows

• More hands on -- free or low cost!
• More embroidery classes -- hands on! They had some one year, but haven't since....

All in all, from what I saw it was a good show: lots of people shopping, some good prices, some beautiful machines, gorgeous fabrics. And best of all I survived it with 3 kids!

Sewing Show weekend & Finished Jeans

I spent Friday and Saturday at the Sewing and Craft Show in Abbotsford. It was a good two days, only the trade show had about 20-25% fewer booths than last year! I didn't buy much - just some embroidery thread. I was disappointed there was only one sewing make and take, but that one was great! Thanks to my husband and kids who survived 2 days without me!

I took some great seminars and loved the hands on workshop given by Jan Bones called "Pattern Design Magic" about moving darts and changing style lines. I also took seminars by Kathy Ruddy, Ce Podolak, Kathy Brown, Kathleen Cheetham. I really missed the hands on machine embroidery classes I took last year.

I finished my jeans. They fit quite well, but even though I am wearing better underwear with them, they really need a boyscut pair.... guess that's one of my next sewing projects. I am also wearing an Ottobre tshirt I finished in January and didn't post. It is now too big - I will probably take in the side seams soon to get a little longer wear out of it.


Yes they are snug through the backside, but I am still loosing weight and they feel great to wear. Given what I started with, these aren't too bad and fit much better than any other pair of pants I own! It has a fitted/contour waistband that closes with a heavy duty hook closure.

It followed me home....

I was at the Vancouver Sewing and Craft Show for the past two days. I had a good time, took a few classes and bought just a few small items and one BIG one! I bought a Brother PE700II Embroidery only machine!

I took 3 workshops and did 2 free demos. I took 2 machine embroidery hands on workshops. The first one we embroidered on organza and taffeta to make two layered flowers that were then glued onto a grapevine wreath. The second focused on how to place designs and we embroidered on a pillowcase. The third workshop was making a crystal transfer. I did one demo on the Bernina machines to make a little bag (I didn't complete this as I had to go to one of my classes) and the other was an embroidered napkin.