Quilt Expo 2014: Fun, Fun, Fun

Imagine 7,000 quilters in one very large building over the course of three days ...

viewing 700 quilts ranging from traditional to modern with everything in every color in between. That is Portland Oregon's Quilt Expo.

Add to that hundreds of vendors with all of the latest sewing and quilting machines and every kind, color and style of fabric, notions, threads and everything else a sewist/quilter could ever want to see or buy and there you go..fun, fun, fun!

A friend and I drove up from Salem to Portland on opening day just as the doors had opened and it was prime real estate viewing for us. With no one to block our view of the beautiful quilts or enticing wares, it was just one colorful experience after another.






The overhead lights are clear and bright..too clear, too bright for my HTC One camera phone and it's focus was uber busy, so many of my photos don't do the show justice or came out well enough for my taste..next time bring a camera..or better yet just enjoy the visual extravaganza with my own eyes and save the photos to the experts ;-)

But no, I love to share them and look at them later..so here you go..a few photos at least to tempt you to visit that long lost school friend or family in the Pacific Northwest in September to catch this show!

It's so much fun, checking out the fabrics, the colors, the unique elements and specific details..whether it was from one of the wonderful challenges and themed display from Portland's 22 bridges, to the State of Arizona!

To individual concepts, themes, or unique talents and sensibilities...

Groups of us eventually gathered at specific quilts or table top displays, as this one above, and marveled at the use of real bark paired with textile bark..and debated which was which!

We returned to our favorites...looking at, or taking photos of specific details...

 We were just amazed and so appreciative of the extraordinary talents of so many amazing textile artists of all genres, all abilities, all specific and unusual styles using the most amazing materials.

Great, great fun, good companionship, and oh yes...I ran into at least a dozen other quilters that I knew or had once met before!

Fun, fun, fun!

Michele Bilyeu blogs With Heart and Hands as she shares a quilting journey through her life in Salem, Oregon and Douglas, Alaska. Sewing, quilting, and wildcrafting, with small format art quilts, prayer flags, and comfort quilts for a variety of charitable programs. And best of all, sharing thousands of links to Free Quilt and Quilt Block Patterns and encouraging others to join her and make and donate quilts to charitable causes.   Help us change the world, one little quilt, art quilt, and prayer flag at a time!