This was my first craft festival. I believe this was the 8th year this was held in San Diego. It was a 3-day event, with a ticket $8 full price (down to $4 with coupon), which was good all 3 days if you wanted to go all days. Parking was $7 day due to the venue chosen. I found that outrageous to park on dirt.
There were probably over 100 booths there. I would say subjectively 80% of them were quilting booths, selling mostly quilting patterns and displaying examples. There were four sewing machine dealers, Bernina, Pfaff, Viking and one that sold Brother and a few others at one dealer. Several of the booths sold quilting fabric at approximately $9/yard. Several booths with fat quarters, etc. One booth was dedicated to craft books, again mainly quilting. Funny enough there were even booths selling soap and mops (!).
My likes were seeing several quilts people had on display. I am not a quilter, so that was interesting. However, because I am not a quilter, much of the fair was not all that pertinent. I do know the price of quilting fabric around town though, and the prices for same quality were about the same or higher than locally, and selection was poor IMHO. Many quilting notions that seemed to be what you can get locally as well, rulers, binding, patterns, thread, interfacing, etc.
There was one booth aimed at sewing garments, and the prices began at about $20/yd. It was very small and probably had less than 100 bolts on display, no patterns. Some interesting fabrics, some so-so. Definitely nothing I couldn't get locally or via the internet for cheaper.
The book seller had a good selection of quilting books and a few notions and other small patterns. I did purchase a kids pattern for the price I would have paid online, but without shipping. It was a pattern for an activity book. Browsing the books was interesting but not spectacular.
The workshops were not inspiring enough for me to attend. There was one on beginning scrapbooking and some on paper piercing I recall. Nothing stood out. The classrooms were tented off areas in the corners and appeared to be very noisy from the showroom area. They appeared not well attended.
I gave it one star because it was inexpensive and I enjoyed seeing quilts and found a pattern locally I only could find elsewhere on SewBaby online. I didn't find it to be spectacular at all though, fairly small and almost entirely for quilters though the name of the festival did not indicate that. Prices at the booths were high or average for an uninspiring selection. It was my first show and thankfully I chatted with several women who stated this was way at the low end of the scale in terms of interest. I will hence probably try a different show (i.e., they aren't all this bad).
This is a traveling show, so content probably varies widely by city. |
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I certainly know from your review that I won't bother with this expo because I want garment only expos. Thanks.
3/16/05 11:11 PM