I got this half written before skipping town for Boston, but wasn't quite able to pull off getting it posted. I took some photos of the quilts but not too many; my friend Lori took a lot more. If you're interested in seeing some of them, here's a link to her blog post about the Wicked exhibit, and about the rest of the quilts. Meanwhile, here's my belated post about my purchases at AQS QuiltWeek in Syracuse.
First--the fat quarters I needed to fill out the current project I'm working on. You wouldn't believe how hard it was to find (1) any fat quarters at all and (2) "standard" (more traditional) ones. Few vendors had fabric, most was on bolts, and the fat quarters that were available were largely batiks or brights that wouldn't work in this quilt at all. This small pile represents three different vendor booths. Weird.
Some Valdani perle cotton from the Primitive Gatherings booth. I think I visit their booth at every show! I'd thought I was getting all size 8, but when I got home I realized some of this is size 12. I didn't have any 12 at all before this triip--now I've got lots! (More in a bit.) No particular project in mind--just colors I don't have and really liked. The lower right is a deep teal--it looks black in this photo.
Some more new embroidery threads. It's like candy. In fact, these were so gorgeous I did joke with my friends that I just wanted to eat them. These are from the Akoyne Kena booth--all their products are Fair Trade. So I have gorgeous threads and I supported artisans at the same time. Wait--let me buy more!
These are Perle 12's, one small collection, and then the other is a larger collection named "Summer." I also bought a collection of Perle 8s named "Spring"--they were more pastels.
And embellishments! Yummy yummy beads, some ribbon lace, and an applique that will work on my butterfly project (no, I haven't forgotten about that one!). Plus a couple of new sets of needles.
I did succumb to a demo of this funky ruler. I think it was probably first made for woodworkers, then perhaps made it's way through the scrapbooking world, before now hitting the quilt market. The guy doing the demo referenced both woodworking and scrapbooking, and since I've been to a lot of vendors over the years and have never seen this ruler, and the instructions have a copyright date of 1991, I suspect it's only "new" to us quilters. It'll be pretty handy for drafting quilt designs and such.
I also picked up some pretty, pretty bright felted wools. No idea what I'll use these for, but they were too fun to miss. The vendor had a ton of colors--I just went for a selection of the brightest ones I could find.
And a couple of patterns for totes I couldn't resist. Remember? It's a sickness. I may not enjoy making these things, but I'm constantly in search for the perfect travel bag so I keep buying patterns. That being said, you'll see another blog post with a continuing story about one of these...
And finally, I found a Mama Bear. The Everything in Its Place bag that I made in Annie Unrein's class is great for embroidery supplies. However, it's really too big for airplane travel. It would take up too much room. Before my June trips, I picked up a cosmetics bag from Target that works well for travel, but it's pretty small. It's perfect for holding a small handful of embroidery flosses, a small hooped project, and a few supplies. But I quickly realized that for some trips, I needed something in between. I started thinking of the EIIP bag as "Papa Bear," the cosmetics bag as "Baby Bear," and I needed to a Mama Bear bag. Lo and behold, as BFF/BQF Katie was talking to a vendor about magnified natural lights on stands, I looked behind them and there was a notions display wall that had some supply cases hanging on it. Sure 'buff, there was my Mama Bear!
Similar to my EIIP bag, it has pocket pages inside--I can purchase more pages as needed, but too many more and it would be too big for travel. So at the moment, I think I'm sticking with the pages that are in it now.