It’s Okay to Bump into Other People’s Auras

I was told on Thursday about the huge “Sew Expo” in Puyallup, Wa. It is a 4-day extravaganza of what I fathomed had lots of material, quilts, people from other states, and a few surprises. I decided to attend on Saturday. Turns out I was right, except that I was pleasantly surprised more than a few times.

You know what it’s like to attend an event where thousands of people are: bumping into the one you didn’t see, “Oh sorry!”, slowly moving forward with the sideways head, what we like to call “tourist pace” when we attend our local Farmer’s Market every week; we know what we want, how to get there with the shortest trajectory, but visitors, who we are glad want to visit Olympia, slow us down with our game of getting in and out of there in record speed. I was a turtle, too, don’t get me wrong. There were things I saw that made my jaw drop; beautiful pieced quilts that painted pictures of a jazz musician and a ballerina, how to machine embroidery flowers with the smallest of ribbon, adorable hanging cottages in pumpkin shapes, soft sculpture dragons and elephant purses, glorious glorious East Indian fabrics with gold and shimmer in deep, deep shades of pinks, purples, and greens, hand beaded ribbons that almost made me faint (ha), and amazing Japanese fabrics with swans and chubby faces.

I talked to many nice people, saw a few seminars, had a Gyro and Mr. Pibb at 10:30am and it was delicious, walked at least 3 miles, and was the only one carrying an oilcloth bag. I even heard a bag seminar person say she doesn’t like oilcloth, ‘it’s too hard’. *sigh*

I saw; a fun fashion show from Simplicity patterns inspired by my favorite “Project Runway”, those same patterns were $5 at their booth so I bought a few, I bought a beautiful brown knit fabric which I had put back on the shelf twice because I wasn’t sure it would work with my pattern to make a tunic, a really nice sales lady helped me with that question, a lady got in line behind me to buy from the same bolt because she loved it, too, there was a cute teenage girl deciding which knit fabric to get and she chose a purple and black which was gorgeous and I winked and gave her a thumbs up and she smiled the biggest smile, and her mother had asked to borrow my pattern for a bit when I was talking to the sales lady.

I am so jazzed about new ideas that I can’t wait to try, I saw feeding frenzies (after product demos-Quick! Buy it now at this incredible price!), miserable, bored husbands which always make me laugh, booth after booth of cotton swatches, an amazing quilt with African face profiles embellished with shells and hoops from a vendor from Alabama, I met another Yoder from Florida, lots of mothers and daughters together which made me wish that my mom had been with me, matte board cutters, irons, many software booths to make your own patterns for those fancy machines which I do not own, and six hours of other memories I can’t remember.

It was very inspiring and I am so glad I went. I didn’t see anyone doing what I am, working in oilcloth. I am trail blazing on my own path. And that is alright.

Thanks for reading.