ConKerr Pillow Cases

ConKerr Cancer is a non-profit that makes pillow cases for Children with Cancer. Just that simple! It doesn’t’ take a lot of time, or effort. Anyone can learn how to help. We encourage you to contact their organization or local representative and see how you might contribute a little of you time and efforts to bring brightness to a child who will be so grateful.

We stopped at their booth in the Quilt, Craft & Sewing festival because we do a volunteer effort thorough SewKnotCreative.org to provide blankets and quilts for families of preemies who have passed away at a local hospital.

We are so appreciative of those who share their talents to benefit others in times of need we had to thank them for being at the event.




Event:
Orange County Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival, Oct 6-8 2011
Orange County Fair Grounds, Costa Mesa, CA

Leilani Arts, Exotic Yarns, Fibers, Textiles and Beads

The rich, colorful yarns displayed at this booth where stunning. Finding out how they where created made them more interesting.

Leilani Arts works directly with women's collectives who hand make these rich yarns. The material is donated by sari factories in India to local women’s cooperatives. The women sew the residual silk remnants together end-to-end to compose a continuous skein of silky ribbon. Another process of production is to recycled silk sari yarns, shredding the sari scraps and hand spinning it into a colorful, textured yarn. A great ‘green’ production process. Details, show schedules and products are listed at Leilian Arts webpage http://www.leilaniarts.net/

Event:
Orange County Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival, Oct 6-8 2011
Orange County Fair Grounds, Costa Mesa, CA

Handy Caddy

The Handy Caddy is a transparent clear view organizer that came out of Sharon Lee’s need to better organize her quilting tools and supplies when going to classes. It is a simple and delightful approach. The only limitation for use is your own imagination and the particular need. Easily carry tools for Sewing and Quilting tools, Knitting or Embroidery, Scrapbooking, Cosmetics, Children’s school and art supplies, office supplies: business cards, credit cards, pens, rulers etc. This has not been at many fairs or shows yet because of her current obligations and schedule. Details can be easily found at the Handy Caddy Site http://www.handycaddy.net

Event:

Orange County Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival, Oct 6-8 2011

Orange County Fair Grounds, Costa Mesa, CA

Jillions of Buttons

Jill Gorski, buttonnoliogist jill@jillionsofbuttons.com only offers products at shows. She does have a website where you can see the tremendous variety of buttons, books and other items she offers. We asked her what might be worth showing on our blog and the suggestion was two bands ‘Incomparable Buttons’, handmade buttons from Africa and those of designer ‘Cindy Webb’. Selecting something from the wide variety of each category was a challenge. If you don’t think the one shown here are particularly interesting go to http://www.jillionsofbuttons.com/ and be prepared to spend awhile to see just how much selection there is.

Event:
Orange County Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival, Oct 6-8 2011

Orange County Fair Grounds, Costa Mesa, CA

Trapezoid Non Slip Strip Ruler

2 ½” Trapezoid Non Slip Strip Ruler by Creative Grids. What a mouthful! But really the product is handy.

Saw this tool demonstrated at Ginger's Quilt Shoppe booth by Larene Smith (http://www.thequiltedbutton.com/id1.html). Not sure how new is it but it was the first time that we recalled seeing it. If you are a quilter you’ll understand why this is a great idea for cutting half-square & quarter-square triangles in addition to other shapes and strips. Go to the demo YouTube video and the instruction page at the Creative Grids website http://www.creativegridsusa.com/products.cfm?item_num=CGRSRTRAP&ref=c. Seeing it in use will make sense.

And please visit Ginger’s Quilt Shoppe site http://gingersquiltshoppe.com/ and encourage them to keep introducing good products.

Event:
Orange County Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival, Oct 6-8 2011
Orange County Fair Grounds, Costa Mesa, CA

Orange County Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival & Sugar Plum Festival Oct 2011

This year both the Orange County Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival & Sugar Plum Festival took place at the same location (Orange County Fair Ground, Costa Mesa) and the same days. It was a nice arrangement. The only drawback for the vendors might be that attendees with a budget may have spent before they saw all the booths. Best approach for patrons may be to walk both events and then go back to do your purchases. As always there are a wide variety of items and vendors to see. This doubling up of events makes for a really good day. Hope this happens again.