Also At The Show . . .

Of course, half the fun of quilt shows is looking at the quilts, but the other half of the fun is visiting the vendors, right?! I thought the Manteca show had a great mix of non-quilt shop vendors. I was most excited to see that Tracy Souza of Plumcute Designs had taken a booth, because I had SO MUCH I wanted to talk to her about! She actually lives in the Sacramento area and teaches here but up until now, I kept just missing her at one event or another.

Do you subscribe to or buy Create and Decorate magazine? Tracy has published a series of projects in the magazines that are just wonderful, and they all use a bent spoon as a "hook"--take a look at the photo below to see what I'm talking about.

There was a similar heart in red and white around Valentine's Day and all of us in our little stitchery group showed the photo to our hubbies/significant others who told us they didn't know how they'd be able to bend a silver plated spoon the way Tracy did in her projects. So when I got to meet Tracy, that was the first thing I asked: How do you bend a spoon? As it turned out, it wasn't too hard after all! She uses a lighter weight, more bendable craft-type spoon and she had a bunch for sale in her booth. Easy-peasy! I purchased five! Tracy has a website if you want to browse, and although she doesn't have the spoons on the site yet, she said she will soon. (Click HERE.) She can also be contacted through the site via email.

I could have easily purchased everything in her booth, her stuff is just that cute! I DID buy a little Easter bucket kit I'll have to show you when I get around to making it. And some wool.

In fact, all of us bought wool at several vendors. Really, when you love to work with wool, you'll know that the best place to find it is at quilt shows, and Manteca's show was no exception.

One of the vendors had older embroidered (redwork) blocks--she had a pile that came from a quilt that had been cut apart, and I picked out two that I liked:

Can you tell I'm thinking about Easter? I'm not certain what I'll do with the blocks, but I was thinking about simply framing them. Any other ideas?

All of us visited the show's boutique at least once, if not more than once. I found several baggies of old lace, ribbons, buttons, and floral trim that were priced inexpensively. And there was a row of chairs in the hallway right outside the boutique that were perfect for resting while awaiting one's companions.

Are you a fast shopper or a slow shopper? Throughout the day, I found I was WAAAAAY ahead of my friends, so I spent a bit of time waiting, and those chairs came in handy! We noticed that some of the ladies who seemed to be working the show were wearing vintage--and somewhat eccentric!--hats, so I stopped one as she passed to find out the story and she explained the hats were worn by the persons working the show who could answer questions and help attendees. Another hatted woman appeared and we soon learned she was Janet Dyk, the person in charge of the whole show. Wonderfully nice women; but then aren't most quilters?

After we left the show and stopped for lunch at a delish Mexican restaurant, we made a short trek to Manteca's quilt shop, Ladybug's Quilts.

I hadn't visited the shop since it had changed hands a year or two ago, so it was nice to stop. Have you seen the fabric line Papillon by Three Sisters for Moda? Really yummy colors. Ladybug's had it, and of course, we NEEDED some! Outside the shop before hitting the road, we met another quilter, Judy from Lodi. It's so much fun to find such friendly people! Quilters are just the best, aren't they?! We finished our day back in Sacramento with an ice cream cone at Vic's, a long-time favorite creamery and grill for most of us around here. You couldn't possibly hope for a better day!

Speaking of the kindness of quilters, a very kind woman offered me the book I was looking for, Summer Weekend by Blackbird Designs. She told me that it and a few other books were ready to go to a quilt book exchange, so I didn't feel I was putting anyone out--thank you so much! But also, a few other quilters offered to loan me their copy, including the quilter whose quilt I photographed at the show, Lisa Van Groningen. (Lisa, I couldn't email you back as you're "no-reply," but I loved your quilt! Thanks!) I truly appreciate everyone's generosity. I know, too, that a couple other quilters left comments indicating they were interested in the book as well; once I'm done with it, perhaps we can set something up so that it will pass from quilter to quilter. I'll post something on my blog one of these days and see what we can set up.

Well, the weekend is over and it's back to work for me in the morning. I guess I'd better earn my paycheck, because the next quilt show is in two weeks, and I think I'd better replenish the coffers!

Thanks for visiting!