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Los Olivos, California, United States
You can reach me at fool4fabric (at) gmail (dot) com

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Portland, Puyallup and the PNW

I thought I would have a chance to post to the blog last week, but my time was jam-packed every day; I came home yesterday.

I flew to Portland last Thursday with a brief layover in Los Angeles, just enough time to take my daughter Maggie to lunch at a fabulous restaurant in Venice, Gjelina.

Waiting in Portland was my dear friend Carolyn (AKA Willie); she and I were roommates at UCLA, so we've been friends for a LONG TIME! Willie moved to Oregon several years ago and we occasionally get together for wonderful "road trips".
                                                  Willie

We stayed at a favorite hotel and went to a great restaurant (the name of which I can't remember) with some friends, after which we saw a very good play
about Mark Rothko. Early the next morning we left for the Sewing and Stitchery Expo in Puyallup, Washington.

Up front, I have to say we stayed for only 4 hours...it's billed as "the nation's largest sewing show" and it's an introvert's (that would be me) nightmare! We managed to find the booths which we wanted to see, met several kindred spirits
                                             Neufy from SG

                                           Lynn Elliott-Harding 
and attended the Marcy Tilton/Sandra Betzina fashion show and the Louise Cutting/Linda Lee fashion show. Both Lynn and I had pieces in the Marcy show,
                                  Lynn's beautiful felted wool V8430
and mine
the "mirrored" black silk V8620. No fabric buys for me...I saw some I liked, but the crowds were too much. So, a set of Kai scissors and some Derwent Color Blocks, and we were outta there! On we went to Tacoma, staying in a lovely hotel
which was filled with art glass.



Next morning we went to the Museum of Glass, which was fabulous!

The Chihuly Bridge of Glass is a spectacular beginning, then we watched artists blowing and carving glass. There were two exhibitions which I LOVED:
This one and this one. The museum is definitely worth a trip if you are anywhere near it.


On we went to Seattle for two nights at the Alexis Hotel, definitely one of my favorites. We shopped at Maggie's Shoes, where I found these new Trippens


had a glass of wine in the elegant lobby
dined well at the Metropolitan Grill
and went to the Gauguin and Polynesia show at the Seattle Art Museum.
Here is Willie in her gorgeous Itemz jacket
We had FUN!

12 comments:

  1. Welcome home! (again). What a fantastic road trip! Is it ok for me to just be unabashedly jealous?

    The Museum of Glass exhibits - omg I LOVE the pieces by the two woman artists (your second link). I'll be spending some time at their websites - ahMAYzing!

    And...[ahem]...don't tell anyone, I'm not ready to spill it yet, but I tried on my first pair of Trippens today. Actually, several pairs. Budget be damned, a spell came over me & I came home with my version of The Boot. I get it. LOVE! :D

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  2. Oh, and btw, I saw your jacket on Marcy's blog - big congrats for being featured! (you deserve it, of course!)

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  3. Sounds like you had a great time!

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  4. It sounds like you guys had a blast! Glad you had fun and welcome back!

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  5. looks like a lovely time! I can so relate to your introvert comment, btw......

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  6. It is interesting how we get incorrect impressions of people. I had assumed from reading your blog that you were outgoing and a life of the party kind of person. It really surprised me that you are an introvert.

    How awesome that your jacket made it into Marcy's fashion show!

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  7. ElleC...sometimes I AM outgoing and the life of the party! But I NEVER get energy from being with other people...I need to be alone to recharge.

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  8. What a fun trip. Getting together with friends who share a common interest is just the best. Love, love , love the shoes. I'm going to have to see if my store here in Chicago has these.

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  9. From one introvert to another, what a fabulous trip! I long to go to the Puyallup expo sometime. The one here in New England is quite small and mostly for quilters. I usually go for most of a day, but then I'm exhausted and need some alone time to recharge. Glad you had good times with friends.

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  10. Please come back to Sew Expo! Plan to visit on Sunday when it is much calmer. I said hi to you on Friday in the fashion show. Fri was probably the busiest most crowded day of the expo. It sounds like you had a great Sea-Tac visit. Isn't the glass museum great?

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  11. Sounds like a great trip. Love your jacket.

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  12. I just nominated you for A Sunshine Award 2012. If you would like to play along, the details are at my blog.

    http://ellecsews.blogspot.ca/

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