Slide night 1

I don’t want to bore you (says the woman who took photos of the manhole covers) but I just want to tell you that the after-quilt market bit, hanging out in Portland was awesome. It is a truly beautiful city. All the inner city streets are tree-lined and there is sculpture  and gardens and interesting things to look at absolutely everywhere.

There were amazing buildings with fire escapes ! (Why don’t we have fire escapes ?)

There was eating. Do you know that Portland has hundreds of food carts? We ate a lot at the food carts, so much variety and always lots of people hanging out. There is one whole city block of food carts, you can walk the whole block trying to decide what kind of cuisine to try. I wanted to eat everything (and I put in a damn fine effort I might add)

and shopping? I’m so glad you asked.

Jem didn’t complain once during quilt market (sore feet aside) so I felt duty bound not to complain as she dragged me through every vintage clothing store in Portland. We visited a great suburb that was practically lined with vintage shops and cool cafes and I truly thought we had shopped every shop imaginable. But like a bloodhound , she can sniff out a retro bargain among the moth balls and I believe at least 8 frocks (and a multitude of other things) made the journey home with us.

Not wanting me to feel left out, Jem even found a vintage shop for me.

Quilt market 2 : Colour and movement

I am guessing you have probably seen heaps of booth photos by now and you will certainly have read far better wrap-ups than you are going to read here.

It really was overwhelming. I had thought I would just wander around each day and take photos. Ha ! Not even close. To get around and try and see all the booths, I had to go early before Quilt Market opened and do a section each day.

I am still not sure I covered everything and some of my photos were shocking (big surprise)

If you want to see more photos you can check out more over on Flickr.

Oh and who is responsible for buggering up Flickr while I was gone?

Its dementing.

Quilt Market 1 or yes I had purple carpet

You all know how much I was stressing about the booth before quilt market, well I have to say, walking into that Oregon Convention Centre for the first time, seeing the forklifts and moving boxes and giant structures being built made me pause for more than a second. The place itself is Huge.

The booth space is a curtained structure with short side walls. Inside that structure you can build your booth (and I do mean build – one booth paved their floor with brick pavers).

On Wednesday Jem and I caught the train to Target and Ikea to gather supplies for the booth and to begin setup. I was super lucky that a blog friend (now real life friend) Angie had offered to loan me some furniture plus the use of her house to store stuff before market.  Angie came to help on Wednesday afternoon and we hung the curtains and got all the furniture and boxes sorted out.

(Yes an iron would have been a good idea, thanks for noticing but I didn’t pre-purchase an electricity outlet so we just went with the wrinkles)

Although this space is only 6ft x 10ft it sure took a long time to set up.

On Thursday we fussed and farted about for hours until eventually it was as good as it was going to get.

and as we left the Convention Centre on Thursday afternoon at about 3…. this is what we saw… People lining up for Sample Spree !

I was gobsmacked – they planned to sit there until 8pm.

and this is about 1/4 of the line by 8pm. It sprawled over three levels of the convention centre.

Sample Spree runs for two hours, exhibitors offer “samples” of their stuff at really reduced prices. Places like Moda and Riley Blake are completely mobbed with women four and five deep edging to the table to snap up fat quarter bundles and pre-cuts. It is a frenzy – nothing less. Wild crazy quilters running (I kid you not) into a room of tables and setting about to restore the whole US economy in 2 hrs.

Portland: City of books

 

Did you read that? four stories that take up an entire city block !

I think this is Portland State Bookstore.

Powells again.

And today, because I am a nerd-burger of the highest order I took a public tour of the Portland City Library. All the photos are on some other device. I marvelled at the beauty of the building, and admired the dedication of the staff, I visited the fun and noisy children's collection and loved looking at the original book illustrations. I felt very cultured and learned until I fell down the stairs (twice).

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Life vs blog

Life is going faster than blogging can follow right now

There is so much to see

And such a little bit of blog-time.

I apologise in advance for the possibly very dull slide-night of photos you may have to endure on my return.

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You gotta fight, for your right ... to party !

Or just crash a party at quiltmarket like me ! Technically I am not even sure whose party it was but I got to hang with some awesome people who I can't link to and then a sweet random man watched me walk up the street to make sure I got to my motel safe.

My internal clock is a disaster, and once again it is the early hours of tomorrow and I feel like I should be eating dinner. Today was a great day at Quilt Market, I talked ( no surprise) to anyone who stood still for 2 minutes.

I saw and chatted to a heap of famous folk, and even took a photo of Bari J's breakfast for you but it is on my phone and my phone and ipad aren't on speaking terms.

I am uploading to flickr so you can go and have a look over there (vintagericrac), lots more booth photos and I still not even halfway through the market floor.

I was determined to get an early night tonight and in a way I am...its early morning.

Night folks, I'll try not to snore.

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I didn't get far

Today I escaped my booth and walked ONE short aisle of quiltmarket

There is just so much to see, and I promise there will be more. I am going early tomorrow to have a wander before the show opens.

I was beyond excited to see Lisa of the Red Thread represented so well. (can't figure out how to link could someone add it in the comments for me). Her Hello Tokyo range looks great ! Lisa and I met at Stitches and Craft many moons ago when we were neighbours. Her work is delightful and she is worth following on any and all forms of social media.

Famous Folk 3: Met Bari J last night and had a great chat. She is lovely of course and this morning I saw her sweeping her booth floor. ( See... sweeping her own booth, can't get much more real than that). I wanted to take a sneaky photo but you know I'm too professional .

Famous Folk 4 : I was walking along and saw a man and he seemed familiar so I smiled a vague smile and thought "oh he must be a dad from school" ...... dad ? oh that was quiltdad !!!!! So I did a quick about face and walked past again just to be sure. Then I raced back to the booth to tell Jemma who replied "quiltdad hey, so I guess he is some dad who makes quilts?"

My daughter is a craft heathen.

Weird stuff 2 : The light switches are the opposite to Australia so everytime I leave a room I turn the lights on ! It's quite dementing.

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Its not pretty but it's 1am

This is about a 1/4 of the line of people lining up for sample spree.

( people were in the line at 3.30 for an 8 pm opening time)

This is what sample spree looks like before it is set-up.

After sample spree opens, it is all a blur but let me tell you those crafty chicks can move.

Outside in the line, they might all look like mild-mannered crafty folk, but once those doors open, it was like a stampede. For future reference, do not get in the way of a quilter and the Moda booth.

There are heaps of photos on instawobblies if you use it. Just search the quiltmarket hashtags and see it all.

Oh, I'll show you the giant swan tomorrow.

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Arrived

So, it has started.

 

And it is HUGE ! and exhaustingciting ( Thats my new word) The travelling was, well, you know ....long might be a bit of an understatement. Today Jemma and I mastered the local light rail and located Target ( which sells alcohol and really awesome useless stuff for a dollar) and IKEA. I met Angie and her amazing family and we began the booth setup.

Famous Folk 1 : Saw Kathy Mack of Pink Chalk Studio from a distance

Famous Folk 2 : Saw Bari J's booth but she wasn' t there.

Weird Stuff 1: In Portland there are bubble taps in the street ( drinking fountains) that just bubble all the time. I find this even more disturbing than I can explain.

And its now tomorrow here and if you are where I left you, then its even tomorrower than that .

I'll see you then.

 

 

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Man, hasn't she gone yet?

I know, I feel a bit like the friend who tells you that she is pregnant 5mins after conception. That early knowledge makes for a long nine months. It is a bit the same with Quilt Market, I seem to have been banging on about it forever.

Tomorrow will see Jemma and I join Nikki and her entourage and set off. There is nothing more to done in any practical way. I found myself at a bit of a loss yesterday, life without a to-do list sits uneasily with me. Of course, I just started on the after-quilt-market list. ( lots of classes, kids ones, grown up ones- even a class in Cooriemungle!

I have been scouring the interwebs for crafty places to visit in Portland after the show, and will be mixing that in with a bit of definately-nothing-to-do-with-crafty-stuff shopping for Jemma. I have to admit to a bit of a giggle when I think of Jemma at Quilt Market....she has no idea !

For the longest time I have been focussed on the "work" of quilt market, the to-do list , the booth panic, the logistics, the not insignificant amount of time energy and dollars geared at this event. I got a bit over-it before it had even happened. People kept asking me if I was getting excited....and I would look at them like they had three heads.

'

But you know what ? its going to happen, regardless of whether I packed the right clothes, or the sensible shoes. No matter what my booth eventually looks like, or who stops by to visit, I am going to the USA and I am going to meet some wonderful, crazy, internet friends that I never ever thought I would meet in real life.

And that is reason enough to pack the Lady Depends.

 

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Craftsy to the rescue

Look over there on the right – see all those tabby things (made by a dear friend meg), well one of them still causes me grief.

The free patterns tab leads to tutorials and downloads and I get a huge number of emails from people for whom the download simply doesn’t (download that is).

So I struck upon a plan and I am going to add each of these (or most of them) to Craftsy. Craftsy is completely seamless in its downloadyness. Are you already a craftsy member? (it’s free). If you are you can find my shop and follow me if you like. (I guess that would mean you might get a notification when I add new stuff but I am just guessing)

So far I have added the party turtles and the pocket-bots – all completely free of course,  now with added downloadyness !

Just click on the photo and get downloading.

Now, who’s next ?

Crackle crackle

Howdy cowdies,

This is Jodie here, speaking to you from beyond the computer. In a quest to keep everybody up to date and bore you all rigid I am experimenting with The Blogsy App so I can blog from the Ipad.

Can I just add here, the number of interacting devices and associated passwords in my life has reached a point of critical mass. As much as I am keen to be able to post photos of my trip on every concievable platform while I am away, I can't help but think of the old days when friends went away and you had to WAIT until they got back to see their holiday photos. Cue, the interminably boring slide night effect of people describing every single photo to you. "This was our taxi driver" "This was a funny man selling stuff".

So maybe it is better if you just follow along, clicking "like" every now again if it behooves you. You can find me on Bookface and Instawobblies if you want it all blow by blow.

At any rate I can't get the "how-to" guide to show up so its all dumb luck from here on in. I can't figure out a preview thing, nor can I get rid of the acres of space. I apologise now for the fact I cannot locate spellcheck.

 

From where I am sitting this post looks like a bit of a dog's breakfast. Crazy spaces and teensy photos but you know what, I say Publish and be damned.

 

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Ingrid, and Donna and Jodie and Mary (all the people of the internets)

Today is the first of May and in 13 sleeps I will be heading to the Spring Quilt Market in Portland Oregon.

In 13 sleeps I will be going on my very first overseas adventure.

I can’t believe that this is actually happening

In case I don’t get a chance before I go, I just want to say thanks;

For hanging around and being awesome and saying nice stuff and having far more faith in me than I deserve.

(Of course if it all goes horribly wrong, I’ll be blaming each and every one of you)