Have you ever been to a sewing or quilt expo? I have been thinking about it and I’ve only been to one quilt expo/show. I’m not much of a quilter, but my mom is so I went with her. The quilt show that we attended was a smaller one and it was spread throughout various buildings on the campus where it was held. I really wasn’t impressed. There’s one, though, that I’ve been thinking about.

I think it was around 10 years ago that my mom discovered the Original Sewing & Quilt Expo. As a birthday/Mother’s Day gift my sister and I gave her a bunch of spending money for the vendor hall. And let me tell you… I think that she spent every penny we gave her PLUS some. If I’m remembering correctly, she came home with a new machine that year. I want to say that it was a serger, but don’t quote me.

If you don’t have quilt shops or sewing centers near you, but one of these Expos is within driving distance I highly recommend checking it out. Here is their calendar of upcoming events:

Fredericksburg, VA – October 1, 2 & 3, 2015

Minneapolis, MN – November 12, 13 & 14, 2015

Atlanta, GA – March 10, 11 & 12, 2016

Lakeland, FL – March 17, 18 & 19, 2016

Cleveland, OH – March 31, April 1 & 2, 2016

Worcester, MA – April 7, 8 & 9, 2016

Fredericksburg, VA – September 29, 30 & Oct 1, 2016

Minneapolis, MN – November 10, 11 & 12, 2016

Can you imagine going to a conference center and walking into the vendor hall that is filled with nothing but sewing stuff: fabric, machines, notions, books, patterns, filigree, etc.

If you plan on attending one you might want to start saving money for the vendor hall right now. And you also might want to skimp on Christmas…

The great thing about the Expo are the classes.

They don’t post the class lists for the individual shows until 12 weeks before the show takes place, so to get somewhat of an idea as to what they offer you can look at one of the shows coming up soon.

Looking at the Fredericksburg show I would be interested in taking these ones:

Leather & Lace – learn sewing techniques to use these two different materials in your sewing or adding to ready-made garments.

Elementary Fleece – learn simple techniques for working with fleece, including adding zippers.

Flowers, Buds & Leaves – using ribbons create flowers and fabric to create a beautiful bouquet that can be added to clothing, bags, hats, etc or add a pin to make it into a broach.

Business Set Up, Start Up and Launch – explore the basics of taking your business from idea to reality.

Fine Tune Your Sewing Skills – learn techniques to concentrate on the little details that are usually buried deep in books.

Anyway, take a look at the list to get a better idea of what they have going on. Based on the classes that I saw I think that I’m going to try attending the show this spring. I’m within driving distance of one of them, so maybe I can talk my mom into going with me. Hopefully they will offer the same type of classes at that time.

If you can’t get to one of the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo events do a search to see if there are any in your area. Sometimes these aren’t really advertised very well and you have to know where to look. They really are worth checking out.