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| SEWING EXPO Puyallup, WA Janice manning the booth! |
One market and three sewing expos and we are finally back home in Texas! A month is way too long to be gone from home and hubby! It is hard to believe that I left home a month ago today ~ first I flew to Seattle to attend the Northwest Fabric Show as well as THE Sewing and Stitchery Expo in Puyallup, Washington. If you have never been to this show, I think that all sewers should plan to go at least once! It is so awesome! This is one of the biggest sewing shows in our entire country. Its main emphasis is on sewing clothing as opposed to quilting; although there are a fair number of quilting vendors & classes. I was privileged to be asked to teach again this year. I had two seminars; one on ruffles and the other one on shirring. The classrooms hold one hundred in each and all four of my sessions were full. People come from all over the Northwest US as well as Canada to attend this venue. Lots of wonderful sewing sisters! It was so much fun ~ And, of course, our booth was super busy! I think that we are going to need more booth space next year and additional help. Janice, from the shop in Texas, joined me in Seattle for this Big show. It was critical to have someone who knew everything about our products other than me. Each year we get busier and busier in Washington.
A little over a week later, we both flew to Atlanta, Georgia for The Original Sewing and Quilt Expo. My dear sweet husband drove our truck - a twelve hour trek - full of goodies from Texas to Atlanta and even picked us up at the airport. Wow, the timing was incredibly perfect. We could not have accidentally "not planned" it any better! He even helped us set up the following day. It was wonderful to have an extra set of arms and legs to make the unloading easier. Then he returned home to rest and go to "work"! He says that my job in physically exhausting and the hours are too long! This was our second year to be in Atlanta, but this year I was contracted to teach two classes each day and do one stage presentation a day. Just like in Washington, we met so many wonderful people. The weather was better than Seattle as we went from snow, sleet and rain to Spring like temperatures! The flowers were blooming everywhere and it was so green.
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| Savannah's Cane River |
On Sunday, after the Atlanta show, Janice and I drove down to Savannah for a couple of days of rest and "playing tourist". Oh, my gosh, it was so beautiful!!! We walked and walked around town enjoying the gardens of flowers, the wonderful architecture, the ships, we did a little shopping and ate very well! We even got to eat at Paul Dean's restaurant! Every bite was incredible. We definitely went off the healthy eating plan that night!
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| Paula's 3 story restaurant! |
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| Downtown Savanah |
Then it was on down to Lakeland, Florida for our final and third show in just three weeks! By now, I had to go find some sandals as none of my shoes were going to work for temperatures in the eighties! Oh, I think that I failed to mention that I broke my baby toe three days before I left for this adventure. I only had one pair of loosely fitting boots that were semi comfortable. Or, should I say, bearable! And, suede boots in Florida would have looked ridiculous!
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| Shopping in Savannah! |
We have never done this particular show in Florida, so all was new to us. I had the same teaching arrangement, so we were plenty busy. There were naturally a lot more women who were retired that attended this show. They all seemed to be having soooo much fun! I guess not having to work anymore and living "on vacation" all the time will do that to you! Lucky ladies! Of course, not everyone who came to the show were in this group! We met so many wonderful sewing sisters in each city. We all have such a bond. Perhaps we should be called "Sisters of the Cloth"!
Wow, was that a very full month! Will I do it again? Hmm . . . perhaps with a few adjustments! I really missed my hubby!
