Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Portland visit...PNW Quilt Exp Sept 2011


Warning....the following could...
 be hazardous to your eyes,
 and...keep you from doing something "important".
But, if you dare...grab a drink, take a comfortable seat
and scroll on!


This was the first thing of interest when I landed
at the Portland Airport.  Can You guess what it is?
Nope, this is NOT a Mystery Monday question =P
I've never seen one of these before...it's a great idea tho!
It's directions for flushing the toilet in the public restroom.
I was all prepared for the auto flush...which, BTW,
I really dislike hate.  This is a great water saving
idea...AND, I get to control when I flush too...YES!


Very nice public transportation drops you right at the
airport.  Or takes you to the city to junctions to transfer
to other locations.  Even, nicer tho...is to have a
sweet friend who lives in your destination area and
picks you up at the curb and chauffeurs you all around!
Thanks, Mursie!


I LUV the skylights everywhere at the airport.
And, Portland weather welcomed me with
my FAVORITE...
"cloudy with a chance of drizzle"
(this is the parking lot at the Portland Expo center)


and...we enter for the quilt show excited
for the Fabric/Quilt Feast!


In the entry...
This view could be multiplied 3 times...I just don't have
a wide-view/panoramic type camera.  There were lots
of quilts hanging and quite a few raffle quilts by Oregon
Quilt Guilds and other charities.


This was a fun booth...lots of pretty Asian things.




A cool animal quilt.

Do you like the Twister quilts...using the
TWISTER template?


How about a mini Twister? Yep, there is
a template for this weee one too!


View down an isle of quilts and booths.

I really thought this quilt was interesting as I stood afar
to take the picture...then, even more...

interesting as I got up close....raw edges, free flowing
quilt design and uniquely dyed fabrics.



My friends talk over decisions about purchases.


Animal...fabrics/designs were quite apparent
throughout the quilt expo.  This one caught my eye
with a wavy half-square triangle using animal prints.

and...up close was really cool too!


I was excited to see Pendleton Woolen Mills booth.
Why?...Well, I'm kind of into wool-eee stuff too.


Here's a sheep-eee puppet sitting atop of
some beautiful wool fabrics



How about a folding chair covered with
wool felted design?  kinda cool...


a "celery" cat applique




This one is made from wedding dresses


pretty, unique dyed fabrics...
 
 
We finally took a break to eat after 5 hours of
drooling over all the quilt-eee things to see and buy.
But,  I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't anything
healthy to eat besides,
 a very small pre-packed salad $6.50.  Is this typical
for most quilt shows?  It's mostly what I've seen at
the quilt shows I've attended.  Would it be hard to
have fresh fruit (maybe not even precut) and/or
raw vegetables and low calorie dip option?
Or what about simple (not premade) sub sandwiches?
Getting down off my soapbox...with a sigh...
maybe I'm the only one thinking this way. =(

On the positive side...MORE quilts!


Petty designed fabric with "shine" and glitz...
What would YOU make with these?



A Fall themed wall hanging or...small lap quilt?


 
This quilt wasn't so striking from far away...
but,


...up close, the machine embroidery was
really pretty. 

The following two pictures are of the
First Place Large Quilt....


Beautiful...colors, lots of curved and small
pieces!  I would hate to be a judge of quilts...
OH-meee/OH-my...there are always so
many uniquely beautiful quilts.  It would be
so hard to pick just a few to give ribbons to.

There were several booths with stitchery items
This is one of my favorites!


A fun quilt...good way to use lots of green
scraps...yep, this is on my (albeit, long) list
of quilts to make.


This was a booth that was jamm-packed with quilty/sewing
gifty items.  I could've spent OOODLES in here...but,
I restrained myself to just a few things.  I'd already
spent some $$ on fabrics and I was going to
the Fiber Festival the next few days.
In total there were (I think) 79 merchant booths!



We checked into our hotel about 6pm.
This is the view from the floor that our room was on.
The tables below is where we had our free breakfast
each morning.


We were so tired from travel, and quilt show
walking...that we decided to have dinner at the
hotel's dinning room.
This relaxing indoor waterfall was right near
our dinner table. 

One of my friends made "boots"
with our napkins! You are sooo clever, Ivana!

After dinner, we...three friends went up to
the hotel room and shared our "pirate's booty"
and talked about the fun day before going to sleep.

Hope you all aren't asleep by now...after looking at
so much quilty "jibbberish"!

What's YOUR favorite thing about quilt shows?
Did you like any of the quilty things in my pictures?
or...are your eyes too tired and you've already spent
too much time to take time to leave a comment?  =P

9 comments:

Mommarock said...

Oh gosh loving all of the eye candy!! I wish I could see more. Yummm. I love the pumpkin quilt, and the Christmas tree quilt. And... and..and.. ohhh it is so hard to stop. My list of things I wanna make will NEVER end. I guess that will keep me young right??

Olga said...

Just beautiful...such talent out there.

Linda said...

Oh, that looks like so much fun! Love the first place quilt!
When airport toilets were first outfitted with automatic "flushers", my young sons wondered who had the job of sitting behind the little red light flushing when we finished!

Jean(ie) said...

Oh what fun... I know you are flying after this show. There's nothing like a show to spur one's imagination!

suemac said...

Were you staying at the Embassy Suites? I have been there. They have a great dinner menu.

From the heart designs by BJ said...

You make me smile .. and your pictures are great.. it's like sharing a day sucker!

take care
b.j.

Miss Hillbilly said...

There were some great photos there! You had tons of fun didn't you?? Did you take me in spirit? Huh, did you??I knew it! Thank you...had a lovely time :)

Chris H said...

OMG I love that first place quilt... and the mini twister is darling.
I hate self flushing toilets! They always flush when I'm still on the freaking loo!

Terri said...

you're killing me