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Thoughts on Quilt! Knit! Stitch! Show
Quilt! Knit! Stitch! was a chance to do a new show and to have a little family vacation! The drive up to Portland, Oregon, was fun and not too long. We stopped many places along the way to see parts of the country we hadn’t seen before. I think our daughter enjoyed it, too.
I had taken many projects to work on in the “Chic-amobile,” but really only worked on the Chic-a Quilt. It was fun to sew the hexagons together. The tinted reading glasses worked really well — except when I wanted to look out the window!
We arrived a couple days before the show, so we were able to relax and spend some enjoyable time with my aunt and uncle, who live nearby. We also took advantage of the two days to set up just how we wanted: The first morning, we put up the structure of the booth, and the second morning we put out the product. This worked well, because it gave us the afternoons to relax. The Oregon Convention Center is a nice facility, and all the people who work there seem very friendly and helpful.
The show ran from Thursday through Saturday. Amazingly, our booth was close to the entrance. This was a first for us! We are usually in the back. We had a lot of traffic, and it was fun to show our products to people who hadn’t seen them before. My aunt was a huge help in the booth, and it was so nice to have her around and spend “working” time with her. My daughter has mastered the cash register, so she was the check-out person! My husband is a great sport, and he has his favorite items he likes to demonstrate. It was a great family affair!
The show itself was heavy on the quilting, with a handful of the knitting/yarn booths. That wasn’t really a surprise, though — it was sort of what I was expecting. I think there was a plenty to see and take in. The quilts and projects that were on display were amazing and beautiful. There were fashion shows, classes and demonstrations going on each day. There was a lot of fabric, tools, sewing machines, yarn and accessories to look at.
Everything was so creative, colorful and inspiring. For a first-time show, I think it was a success. There are things to work on and improve upon for next year, but isn’t that almost always the case?
By the time we were ready to leave and head home, we were pretty tired. We had spent a week with my aunt and uncle and their dog, Henry, and done a three-day show! We had originally planned to drive home in three days and see Crater Lake. That changed once we hit the road. Our minds were ready to be home, so we did the drive in two days. We just wanted to get home, sleep in our own beds and see the cats — all of which we did !
Activities for the Car Trip to Portland QKS Show
As I’ve mentioned on our Facebook page, we are exhibiting at the Quilt, Knit, Stitch Show! in Portland, OR, next week. We are making it a family vacation by driving up there. We are leaving today (Aug. 8) and arrive in the Portland area by Sunday, Aug. 10. My aunt and uncle live there, so we are going to be staying with them, which will be fun!
It is roughly a 1,000-mile trip from California, which means a lot of driving. Luckily, I don’t get carsick, so this means I have some good knitting and sewing time!
I have planned out my projects that I want to work on as we drive. My Chic-a print of choice for the projects is Cherries, with a little bit of Chic-a Pink mixed in!
I have two knitting projects that I am taking. One is the Blue Whale scarf by Stephen West. I had seen this scarf knit up at Wild Fiber Studio in Santa Monica, CA, and knew I wanted to make it. I am knitting with Malabrigo Finito and I really like it. It is so soft and a nice dark grey/blue!
The other knitting project I will be starting on the trip. The pattern is called Chevron Lace Tank by Mari Chiba. It is part of a pattern book called In Bloom by Knit Picks. There are a lot of patterns I want to make from this book!
Since I haven’t started this, I am bringing my new set of Caspian interchangeable needles from Knit Picks. That way I will have the right size for gauge! The yarn is some from my stash, a periwinkle blue from Hemp For Knitting. I haven’t knit with this yarn before, so I’ll see how it goes. I had wanted to make this tank for summer, but it looks like it will be for fall… good thing September and October are warm months in Santa Barbara!
I have also included my Chic-a quilt project that I started. I have some of the hexagons done, so I need to start sewing them together. All of these pieces fit nicely in the All Clear Pouch. Hopefully I will get some of this sewn together before the Show so I can have it out on display! I haven’t really tried sewing in the car. I’ll have to see how that goes! Note the sunglasses in the picture… they are reading glasses! Yes, I have to wear glasses to see my stitches, and these work great in the sun.
The last thing I have included in my pile of stuff to do while in the car is my drawing notebook, pencil and colored pencils. I know this might not work in the car, but if I get an idea, I want to be able to sketch it! I’ll probably need those sunglasses for this, too.
I need to find a book to read, too, before we leave. I always like to have a book to read and I just finished the second one in the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. Such a fun, different, mystery series. If you like literature, this is a great series to read.
All of this fit into the Market Tote bag, which really surprised me! I even have room for the iPad and snacks. This will fit nicely next to the passenger seat in the Chic-aMobile! Now, I just have to convince my husband to drive the whole time …
The Chic-a Quilt Project Begins: Week 1
Chic-a quilt supplies a-plenty.
It occurs to me that I really don’t need to learn a new craft, especially since I already have so many things that I am doing. I guess I just like doing creative stuff! In this case, I have designed my first quilt and I have set off to make it. It’s probably going to be the size of a pillow, but that is OK.
I decided I would use the English Paper Piecing technique for my first project. I downloaded some hexagon graph paper and drew out some ideas. I thought I would make a Chic-a logo quilt.
I found that it is hard to write letters in hexagons, so I decided just to do the crown from our logo. I also liked this idea, since it doesn’t need so many pieces. I need to start small for my first project, because I do want to complete it!
With the design idea finished, it was off to the fabric store to find the fabric. My daughter and I went to the cotton section and found the pinks. We had fun picking out prints. Then we went to the white and grey section to find the background colors. We had a lot of fun, and I am sure we bought too much — but we figured it is better to be safe than sorry!
Quilt quarters surround my Chic-a Crown logo design graph.
When I finally got around to start cutting the fabric, I began to realize that the set-up and prep for a quilt is a lot of work. There is a lot to do before you can even think about sewing it!
I spread out my fat quarters and set to work. I cut three layers at a time, and now understand the ease of the rotary cutter. I will have to think about getting one of those. Once I was finished, I had a nice pile of 2.5” squares ready to go.
It has been awhile since my hand cut so much fabric at one time …
While I was cutting, I was thinking about which Chic-a pouch would work the best to put all this stuff contained. I decided upon the new All Clear Pouch (pictured), which currently is only available in local stores. The Clear Front Portfolio would work well, too.
The Chic-a AllClear Pouch keeps my project organized.
Now that everything is in one spot, I can easily take it along with me and work on those little hexagons. I think I have over 300 to make. Even when those are finished, I still haven’t sewn anything. This is going to take awhile, but I am ready for the journey!
Chicago Quilt Festival Inspires My Next Project
I had a chance to walk the Chicago Quilt Festival a couple weeks ago. I met up with my friend Susan, owner of Red Gate Stitchery, and we walked the show together. It was a lot of fun — and very eye-opening into the world of quilting. I have been sewing since I was a little kid, but I have never done a quilt.
The quilts that were on display were amazing. I can’t even imagine how many hours of work were represented in the quilts that I saw. I took pictures of some of my favorites:
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- Here I am in front of “Jeweled Diamonds” by Christina Belding, quilted by Ken Grantham. Design Source: “Bordered Diamonds” by Kaffe Fassett. According to the description, this machine-pieced quilt has “70 different fabrics and 30 different metallic sashing fabrics. Not one fabric or sashing fabric repeats in a row. Each diamond is individual.”
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- “Tuning Fork #11” by Heather Pregger is another quilt I really loved.
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- “Roses in the Window” by Carol Morrissey — beautiful!
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- There was also some wearable art on display, such as “Scarlett’s Crimson” by Philippa Naylor.
The show was fun and very colorful. I think could see Chic-a’s products fitting into the quilt world sometime in the near future!
While I was there, I knew I wanted to look into English Paper Piecing. My knitting friend, Christina, had showed me this technique a while back — and I wanted to explore it.
I found a booth, The Quilted Forest, that was explaining how this process works and they were selling all the pieces! Well, that was great and I got everything so I could get started in the hotel room that night.
Here’s my haul: 1” hexagon paper pieces, glue stick, pile of pre-cut fabric squares (very cool!), needles and thread because I didn’t bring any with me and thread snips. I have always wanted these for when I am sewing at the machine, so it was a good opportunity to get them. It turns out that, since the blade is under 3”, I could carry them on the plane!
The Quilted Forest’s owner Shelley Robson had suggested using the glue stick instead of sewing around the folded edges. That did prove to be easier, but when I started to sew the hexagons together, I ran into trouble. The next day, I went back to Shelley’s booth, and she got me all back on track. She told me to sew them together from the back — good idea!
I think this is going to be fun to learn, but I plan to use bigger than 1″ hexagons. Bigger will cover more space more quickly! I guess it just keeps in line with how I don’t like to knit small things and I don’t like sewing small things…
Anyway, I have decided I am going to start a project using this method. This should be quite an interesting journey, so stay tuned for an update soon!
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