I have been asked to serve on the advisory committee for this show and attended a lunch meeting today. The lower-than-expected attendance was the focus of our discussion. We hope that next year more people will know about it and come. If you missed it this year, I am sorry. It was a beautiful show!
Quilt by The wonderful Jane Sassaman.
I always love seeing Bodil Gardener's latest work. Utterly charming!
The venders were great too. My fabric purchases from designer Marcia Derse.
The other big event of the day was my grandson, Marco's 4th birthday. Marco is our ray of sunshine and loved every minute of his special day.
When Sofia came to my studio this week she had an idea for a special gift she wanted to make for Marco— his own super hero cape. He loved it! There is a big yellow "M" on the back for Super Marco.
Tonight was also the reception for the Sneak Preview show for the Washington County Artists Open Studios at the Washington County Museum. Sadly I have not yet figured out how to be in two places at once, so I missed it.
I didn't learn about it until last week! I would have considered attending (I live in Washington). I hope to hear about next year sooner. It looks like it was a great show.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed Quilt Knit Stitch, but was mystified as to why they did not continue through Sunday. Those of us with jobs were out of luck. I took an all-day embroidery class with Judith Baker Montano - great class. However it was from 9-5 and the booths etc were only open 10-6. I would LOVE to have shopped more than about 90 minutes, and would have come with friends on sunday for at least another couple of hours. As it was, racing through the booths barely talking to anyone was not very satisfying, though there were not many people there at 5pm so easier to shop. Was there a reason it wasn't open Sunday? We theorized that the organizers were from a 'churchy' place and didn't think anyone would show up on a sunday.
ReplyDeleteCould it be that, in spite of the resurgence of interest in knitting, combining these three areas was a bit of a turn-off? I do all three but I wasn't that interested in traveling to this show where all was represented. Perhaps my brain thought one of two things - that I'd be overwhelmed as I was in Chicago the first year IQF was there with exhibits and vendors that straddled two disciplines, or that something would get short shrift in combining the three into one show so it would be disappointing. Or it very well could be the timing - it's still very much summer with so much going on - a show like this seems more apt to be in the fall or spring. Just some uneducated guesses here based on my own reactions. I'd considered going but then bought tickets for concerts here in Sandpoint andf later realized that the dates conflicted.
ReplyDeleteI attended this show every year it was in Long Beach, California, an hour from my home. I agree that the quilt exhibits are top notch and I loved shopping the vendors. I was in a class with the show organizers that last day of the last show here, and there was an assumption that all of us loyal attendees would travel to Portland to this show. Not so, many of us said. The organizers were quite enthusiastic in pitching it to us, (and I assumed they moved because they weren't happy with attendance here either) but I felt they were a bit tone deaf to the feedback they were getting. All of us who had been coming for years realized that whatever we said didn't make any different, that the die had been cast, and the show was leaving. I was sad to see it go.
ReplyDeleteI hope it does well in its new home, but I wonder if The Idaho Beauty hasn't spoken a truth? That splitting it into three parts of focus doesn't yield more participants, but instead, fewer (quilters maybe feeling that their interests will be not well represented)? Good luck on solving this dilemma and I good luck to the show.
I have been thinking more on this. Perhaps it takes a year or even two to get the word out and for people to plan to go to it. Right now, people plan to go to Puyallup's Expo (sewing/some knitting/lots of sewing classes/market), and to Madrona (knitting/classes/market) and to the Rose City Yarn crawl (knitting but more about buying than learning). There is also OFFF in September (knitting/spinning/classes/market). Also, it might be good to let the local guilds know so that we can promote it for you next year. I know I saw 4 of our members there (ASG) and they enjoyed the exhibits and the market. In my embroidery class there were several people that travelled to be in Portland for the class, so maybe more next year.
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