Quilting at the Big E

We got back from W. Springfield, Mass., around 11:30 Thursday night and agreed that we'd had a good time. After leaving at 6:30 am on Wednesday, I was quilting and sewing in Sheila's SM Creations booth by 10:00 am. Our booth was in the Vermont building of the Big E, the Eastern States Exposition, just across from the sugarmakers and Ben & Jerry's. The fairgrounds are huge and over a million people come during a two and a half-week period.

Each state has a building on "State Street" and there's a historic village (Storrowtown) along with the usual farm animals, food and craft booths, and other displays. Every day at 5 pm, there's a parade featuring various high school bands, and at 7:30 there's a Mardi Gras parade. We ate plenty of fair food, including lobster rolls in the Mass. building, tomato/basil salad (Conn.), apple pie a la mode (Vt.), artisan pizza (Vt.), and a New England turkey dinner (Storrowtown).

It was a thrill to see my tulip quilt (from 1994) and my tulip vine quilt ("Summer" - just finished below) hanging over the entry doors and quite visible as people left. I pointed them out to the Vermont tourism person who looked at them all day long, and I told quilters visiting our booth to look up when leaving. The third quilt was made by one of the sugarmakers in the booth across from ours.

I spent most of each day, from 10 am to 9 pm, quilting a colorful appliqued piece and sewing a few other pieces. I had prepared a few quilt blocks to hand piece as well as some appliqued items, including the Basket Case Quilters block of the month and a class sample in batiks. A lot of people stopped by to look at Sheila's quilt based on a photograph of sugarmaking. One woman called it "guy-catching," and it did attract quite a few men. Women browsed through the table toppers, tote bags, patterns for fusible applique, and other items. One couple asked for advice on buying a sewing machine, and a young woman showed me a photo on her phone of a table runner she had just made out of yo yos.

We didn't sell a whole lot, but I did chat with quite a few quilters and wannabes, as well as "Mr. and Mrs. William Gillette" who strolled by on Wed., Connecticut Day, to promote Gillette's Castle. I was also pleased to reconnect with some librarians, current and former, including ones from Wells River, Franklin, and Stamford/Wilmington. Paul helped out the sugarmakers who were very busy the whole time, and we decided it would be fun to come back sometime and "do" the whole fair.