Novi, Michigan (Sept. 28-30, 2007)
I came, I saw…I didn’t exactly conquer, but I learned a lot and had some great experiences. A Gazillion (approximately) Midwestern women can’t be wrong, right?!

Photos:

• A shot of my quilt on display (with a winner right above it).
• My favorite entry from the competition, by Cindy Cillick Geist.
• Me messing around with paints in the Faux Batik class, instructed by Ginny Eckley.
• A cute plastic apron from an exhibit about antique aprons (private collection).
• New felting supplies…dyed alpaca wools and my “starter project” in progress.

Overall, I was happy with the balance of topics covered at the expo. As this was my first year, my mother and I attended all three days, Fri. Sat. and Sun. (there were additional all-day, pre-show workshops on Thursday that we decided to skip this time). We took a lot of classes, so we had to find time for the “vendor floor” in-between, but I think we got to see everything we needed in the amount of time that we had.

Some of the instructors were top-notch…excellent speakers, very knowledgeable, and sometimes entertaining (like the people from Simplicity, and also Kaye Wood) but others were downright unprofessional. I was very pleased with most of my classes, and even if I wasn’t impressed by all of the instructors, I at least left each class having learned one thing.

I would like to have seen more focus on high-quality arts (not just crafts), and maybe just a few more vendors with really great things for sale. There were also some organizational problems with class registration, but next year I’ll know how to plan around it! I also didn’t get into any of the shibori classes that I wanted (even though we pre-registered online!)—but despite the few frustrations, I think I’ll give it another shot next year.

We didn’t have time to see any of the fashion shows, but that’s okay. I went in with very high expectations for the fashion/clothing sections of the expo, and didn’t see much in that area that either caught my eye or made me think. But we ARE talking about Michigan here folks, not Paris, France! (Not that I’ve ever actually been to Paris, but you get my drift.) I will definitely have to enter more contests next year. In fact, I’m putting it on my calender this very moment!