Original Sewing & Quilt Expo - Raleigh

What an exciting show the Original Sewing & Quilt Expo in Raleigh turned out to be! I was so blessed, I was able to stay with my daughter Maxi for the duration of the show, and she totally spoiled me with home-cooked healthy meals and lively company every evening...and even a little shopping too. She and her friend Sharon even helped me during the show, with Sharon lending her very talented touches to the booth set-up and helping in the booth the first day, and Maxi helping the last day and with the booth break-down...not the fun part. But they did such a wonderful job, they were willing models for my new "Fascinator Fun" hat, and Sharon even got to be a part in a videotape made by the show staff, lucky girl!

I love to teach, and was thrilled to be invited to teach 3 classes at this show. The first one was a zipper flower brooch class, and I put together kits of all colors of metal-teeth zippers for the students. Did you know you can dye vintage metal-teeth zippers? I used Rit dye to over-dye some of the zippers in my kits, even the metal teeth and zipper pulls dyed! I just dyed them like you would dye any fabric, keeping in mind if you start with one color, that will affect the finished hue. For example, I had a lot of yellow zippers; I over-dyed some of them in a very diluted dye-bath of royal blue, and voila! A beautiful shade of chartreuse. Ditto for some old grungy gold zippers, I over-dyed them in dark brown to get a nice chocolate brown for sunflower centers etc. The girls really did a beautiful job stitching up their zipper flower brooches, each one turned out different and truly a show-stopper!