the quilt show

I had almost forgotten it was this weekend, or else I might have gone yesterday (Then again: probably good I didn't venture out and risk getting caught in storms....though ours didn't really start up until late in the day).

I saw the signs for it driving out to Mart of Wal this morning, and I admit I debated: do I really want to go? I'm tired, it's $3 to get in for a fairly small show. And as the day wore on a bit I was like, "I have my feet up and am in my flannel pajama pants" but then I decided: "But you always gripe that there's nothing to do; you have to do things when they happen and not when you want them to happen."

But I'm glad I went. Yes, it's a small show. A goodly number of the quilts are not really to my taste: lots of bargello, lots of stack-n-whack, lots of really dark backgrounds. I tend to prefer bright/clear pastels or slightly muted-down primary colors (think the 1930s feedsacks, if you know quilts).

Also, I admit, the viewing parts of a quilt show are less fun when you're by yourself. I remember when I was in grad school, and my mom was in the quilt guild up there, and we'd go to the show every year (well, IIRC, she had to work the ticket table part of the time, but then she got in for free).

We'd walk around and play a game: either, "Which quilt do you wish you had made?" or "If you could have one quilt out of this show, which one would you want and why?"

(Some quilters also play: "Which quilt could no one give you enough money to take," but that's not a very nice game, especially if the person who MADE that quilt is standing nearby when you decide to 'drag' it)

Our taste was pretty similar: most of the time we picked the same "favorite" or "if I could have any quilt here, that's the one I would want" quilt.

And yeah, I miss her a little bit and it's not quite as fun to go to a quilt show by myself. (I don't know anyone right in town who quilts who was in town this weekend)

But I'm still glad I went. For one thing - I got a lead on a place in Savoy that does sewing machine cleaning and repair. That is a lot closer than the McKinney address I got for a guy, and these folks also run a quilt shop - so I tentatively have plans some Saturday to drop my machine there and then get it either the following Saturday, or maybe earlier, depending on how fast the guy works. (Hm. Maybe I think about dropping it off on my way to catch the train in May? And tell them that they can have a long time to clean on it - meaning, they could take an "emergency" first - and get it when I come back)

Also, the guy there said they could renovate a treadle machine so if my mom sometime soon decides to devolve hers onto me - I can get the belt replaced and the timing checked and get it cleaned and actually have a functional treadle machine.

I also found out a new quilt shop has opened up in town. (This is what comes of not getting a local newspaper - you miss these things. But I got so fed up with our "Daily Disappointment*" that I just never renewed when the subscription ran out.

The new shop is inside an auto dealer. So I am guessing it is small. I also suppose this is the future of niche businesses: they have to "partner" with a more-profitable business to stay afloat. (I am guessing, though I do not know for sure, that the husband of one of the women - or maybe her father - runs the dealership).

At any rate: it will be worth checking out some time.

(*And yes, I know, some people call The Daily Oklahoman that. Well, maybe ours is "Daily Disappointment, jr.")

I voted for the "people's choice" quilt. I chose one that would normally be very different from my style but it was technically so well-done I felt it deserved it - it was black and flame-orange (!) and it was called St. George and Friends - it had embroidered dragons on it and was quilted in a pattern of other mythical creatures. (Okay, maybe the unicorns slightly influenced my choice).

And yes, I went to the "Merchant's Alley" (which is where I found out about Savvy Quilters - the place I can take my machine for it to have a spa day - and the new local quilt shop).

There's also a cool sounding place in Denison ("Home a la Mode") I didn't know about because it's in an old house and I may very well have driven buy it and NOT EVEN REALIZED it was a quilt/gift business (they also have a tearoom, and apparently do retreats. If a quilting friend of mine ever comes for an extended visit, we will have to go there - at the very least for shopping and tea).

So it was worth going for that information.

It really can be hard, when you live in a small area that doesn't have a lot of prominent businesses, to find out information about places - I discovered Quixotic Fibers at the BPAFF (which apparently isn't happening any more, at least there doesn't seem to have been a 2016 one, more's the pity). I suppose the answer is "Facebook" but ugh, I don't want another time suck just so I can find out that a little shop opened up somewhere. (I am on Quixotic's e-mail list, and I signed up to be on Savvy Quilter's because they will send reminders about sewing machine repair days).

And yes, I bought some stuff. I worried on Twitter that I didn't really have a lot of cash on hand, but of course, these days, if you are a merchant with a smartphone, you have some kind of an app that will accept credit cards. (And yes, I don't totally trust those; I only used my "semi-disposable" low-limit credit card to buy stuff, because if the merchant gets hacked, I'm not in deep doo-doo like I would be with the card I use for essential stuff).

One of the shops was selling BIG pieces (6 yards) for $36. That is about half what fabric runs per yard these days. I am guessing these were maybe bolt-ends: things that didn't sell and are a couple years old. Don't care: I liked one of them and it will make an economical backing on a quilt:



I don't have a top in mind, but I have lots of pink fabric and lots of plans. So it will be a backing eventually.

I also had to get a half-yard piece of this. It has tiny monarch butterflies in it; it will eventually wind up in some kind of scrappy floral quilt I do:



And then at the shop based in Denison, this:



The roll of fabric is a "Jelly Roll." Yes, I have too many of these ahead but the fabrics are not printed in great quantities, and usually a "run" only lasts 3 months, so if you see one you really like, it's worth buying it right then. (And yes: more novelty fabric. I love novelty fabric. Inasmuch as I have a "thing" in my quilting, it is probably novelty fabrics). This one is a sewing-implement theme, and it's in the sort of 30s-inspired colors I like.

And the mammoth: Yes, I have too many stuffed animals already. But this one was so cute and I made the mistake of picking him up and then that made me decide I wanted him. The "official" name (given by Jellycat, the manufacturer) is "Winston the Wooly Mammoth" but I'm going to have to think if I can find a name for him I like better.

And this is apparently another one of my "things" now, so:

(In this photo I have removed the "hangtag" attached to his ear. When I was a kid and got a stuffed toy, I felt like it was "really mine" after I cut the little plastic doodad that was holding the sales tag in its ear or fin or whatever). 

Update: mammoth has tentatively been renamed Hannibal, after he-of-the-war-elephants but really more for the leader of the A-Team. (I never watched "Silence of the Lambs" so when I hear "Hannibal" I think either "crossing the Alps" or "I love it when a plan comes together")

Bonus: my newest t-shirt, featuring a Dumbo Octopus (shirt is from Sharptooth Snail):