Friday, May 17, 2013

Portland Quilt Market

It's been a busy two days. Thursday was Schoolhouse. 14 sessions over the course of the day. I saw great fabric, great quilts, heard great ideas, and got great advice. "Schooling" is indeed the right name for the day. It's surprising how exhausting that day was.

After an intense day of brain work, we found Thai Peacock for dinner and had a terrific meal. Again the prices were reasonable, even though again we included a few beers on our tab.

Today was the first actual market day, and also exhausting. I did not make it through the whole show, so will have plenty more first-go-round visits tomorrow before The Big Finish on Sunday. Dinner tonight was at a little bistro called Mothers. More good food, and a few very interesting adult beverages.

Our encounters with the locals have all been positive although it seems to be a lot like Florida in that there are a lot of locals but not too many natives. Downtown Portland is indeed its own type of place with many, many homeless that appear to be quite welcome to sleep on the sidewalks. They run the gamut from young and seemingly very healthy to old and infirm. It's a different homeless population than I have seen in other cities.

The public transportation here is quite good and there doesn't appear to be much need for a car, anyway. The cabs are mostly Priuses: very smart! Lots of bicycling. Even the metro that we ride to and from the Market venue each day has space to hang bikes. Cool, huh? I think I'll come back to Portland one day in the not too distant future and get an even bigger taste of my own version of Portlandia.

But for now, there are fabrics to ooh and aaaah over, new paterns to be discovered, and plenty of eye candy of the fabric persuasion to savor over the next two days. I'll keep you posted! And as soon as I can synch the photos, I'll post a few pics for you.

Thanks for stopping by.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

And away I go

I'm at the airport (JAX), heading out on the first leg of my trip. First destination - Portland OR ( with stops in Atlanta and Salt Lake City.) Two new states for met today; Utah and Oregon. (Does a layover count as having "visited" a state?) I figured this was a good time to start blogging again since I've been so neglectful of this poor blog.

I'm headed to spring Quilt Market to see what's happening in the quilt world. Now that I've decided to do some more teaching, I need to stay up with what's hot and what's not. It should be fun and informative, so look for more posts in the next few days.

I leave Market on Monday, then head south for another visit to California. A short one, but California nevertheless. I've fallen in love with the Golden State. Stay tuned for upcoming adventures!

Thanks for stopping by.