The Sewing Expo … Coming To A Town Near You

The Expo Experience

It’s that time of year again: the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo is coming to town and I can’t wait! It’s actually been several years since I last attended; they had stopped coming to my area for a few of those years. But if I remember correctly it was about 2011 and I had taken my then 7-year-old daughter (she’s 15 now! My how time flies!) along with me to join in on the excitement. We shopped in the huge exhibit hall where we were greeted by hundreds of sewing enthusiasts, merchants and vendors selling top of the line sewing machines, tons of beautiful fabric, tools, supplies, books, patterns, you name it!

Lots of walking and a flurry of activity… my poor kid! I think her enthusiasm had worn thin by the time we made our way through the quilting exhibit. LOL. 🙂

2019 won’t be any less of a disappointment. Inspiration and ideas abound with so many amazing exhibits. See more than 250 fantastic quilts, the Quilters Art’s display, the fashion show on the runway, trunk shows. Take in the latest trends in fashion sewing, quilt-making, embroidery, and needle arts. Get motivated to sew with what’s new and how-to classes and workshops. Have fun and make friends and maybe win a prize!

If you can, attend an Expo event at a town near you — and the best part — leave your sewing machines at home because you’ll be learning from the experts while seated behind a brand-new machine, generously provided for your use by sponsors and their local retailers.  If you love to sew, quilt or embroider it’s a must go!  It is the premier place for sewing enthusiasts to gather and sew, shop, learn, browse and even volunteer their passion for the creative arts with like-minded people.   

The Agenda

SHOP
From cute boutiques to your favorite manufacturers, new fabrics, patterns & products will get your creative juices flowing – and sewing!

LEARN
It’s a creative new world inside Expo classrooms. Everything changes when you try a new technique or learn a new skill from talented teachers.

EXPERIENCE
Creative energy happens LIVE – on stage, in galleries, in classrooms, in the Exhibit Hall. You’ll feel connected with so many enthusiasts!

VOLUNTEER
People like you are needed to make the Expo an amazing experience for all. No experience needed…plus you’ll get some great perks!

Classic Sewing At The Expo

Classic Sewing Magazine always brings along the best that their

periodical has to offer in fine sewing, top-notch designers and expert teachers so that you can take your skills to the next level. Take an opportunity to meet the experts at their booth and share what’s going on with your latest sewing projects.

In addition, Classic Sewing events feature small classes with internationally renown instructors for the sewist who wants to try a new technique or learn a new skill from talented teachers. Three days to get your creative juices flowing and sewing. This is Classic Sewing at its best! 

And let’s not forget to mention the fun and exhiliration of being surrounded by fellow enthusiates who enjoy nothing more than spending time exchanging and sharing ideas and talking about their love for sewing in this wonderful time together!

Martha Pullen Teacher Licensing

An extraordinary retreat experience…

Enjoy a unique retreat-style experience that blends the love of sewing, serging and machine embroidery with friendships, skill-building and business opportunity – all gathered into one spectacular experience at any of the Martha Pullen Teacher Licensing Retreats. Then, share it with others! Whether you are creating for your own personal satisfaction, making items to sell or teaching others these valuable techniques, the Martha Pullen Teacher Licensing Retreats deliver an incredible experience and value.

Who should consider attending?

You should, if you want to spend time with others who love sewing, machine embroidery or serging as much as you do, have a desire to enhance skills, add a ready-to-teach collection of exclusive projects to your business and/or distinguish yourself as a top-tier educator.

Enjoy learning the best techniques using the finest fabrics, threads, laces and embellishments, individually guided by the world’s foremost sewing faculty. You can use what you learn for your own sewing – becoming better and more confident doing what you love always delivers immense personal satisfaction. Moreover, when you become a Martha Pullen Licensed Teacher, you’ll be recognized throughout the sewing industry as a premier sewing instructor. Both are possible when you attend a Teacher Licensing Retreat.

How will you spend your days?

Sewing, sewing, sewing! There’s also laughing, sharing, learning, growing and creating ….. all the wonderful things that happen when you’re part of a well-planned, learning-rich retreat.

Moreover, the days you spend with others as passionate about fine sewing and creating gorgeous projects will be remembered for a lifetime. Your Martha Pullen Teacher Licensing faculty is the most machine-and-technique savvy group around, and they are extraordinarily generous with their knowledge. They’re in the classroom along with many skilled assistants, making sure you’ll have artistic and construction advice along with technical help whenever you want it. Each day teachers introduce a new set of projects, as they highlight and demonstrate new techniques. As your questions are answered throughout the days, you’ll receive individualized support and have lots of time to sew every day.

What will you receive when you enroll?

Each licensing retreat features a set of unique kits and projects. Of course, you may see favorite techniques repeated from project-to-project or from licensing-to-licensing, but the projects – complete with the finest details – are unique to their own Licensing curriculum. You’ll receive materials for more than 20 different projects – each in a beautifully packaged kit containing the fabrics and all the unique items necessary to complete them.

For those licensing curriculums that include machine embroidery designs, you also receive embroidery files of the multi-formatted designs for all embroideries used in that curriculum, and a collection of threads, including all colors needed for the embroideries as companions for the kits.

The techniques used in the licensing curriculum are generic, meaning that any brand of machine can be used. You can sign up for any licensing event at any time, and you do not have to take the classes in any particular order. Roman numerals in a licensing title merely indicate the project collection in that particular curriculum. In other words, Serger II would be a different curriculum (and project collection) than Serger III.

Your enrollment also includes your hotel room (on a shared basis with an option to upgrade to a single if you wish), snacks, all lunches, many dinners and more.

What about the curriculum?

You’ll receive the exclusive, ready-to-teach curriculum, for which you will co-own the copyright along with Martha Pullen Company forever. You can either make the projects for sale without limit or, if you are teaching, you can copy the project instructions for your students. Only students licensed for a particular curriculum can sell or teach these special projects.

If you have no plans to use these projects for business, that’s OK too! You’ll have the ability to create unique, superbly designed gifts with confidence, and use the techniques you’ve learned in all your other sewing. There is no substitute for having the confidence to tackle any project you like – and that’s what you get when you attend a Martha Pullen Teacher Licensing Retreat.

Remember, once licensed, you never have to return for re-certification. But, you may have so much fun that you will want to come back for more licensing collections.

Who else will be there?

Students from all over the country come to licensing retreats to explore new sewing, machine embroidery and serging skills, to add a ready-to-teach collection of projects and curriculum to their teaching business, or simply to spend quality time with others who also love sewing and serging.

In fact, many of the people who join our licensing programs have no plans to start a business, but an intense desire to gain in-depth sewing information, and take home limited edition patterns and projects.

Get MORE in the days before the Expo!

Immerse yourself in a one or two day workshop just before the Expo opens. This curated collection of subject matter from some of our top teachers offers a chance for you to to create something larger or more detailed, experience a deeper or broader learning experience and leave feeling even more satisfied than ever.

Choose your workshop and find yourself sharing freely in the guidance, shared artistry, technical advice and inspiration these expert teachers

Check out the dates for 2019:

Hope To See You There!

The Original Sewing & Quilt Expo is a place to find the latest techniques and products, and learn new skills with cutting-edge education. It’s three days of classes and workshops, stage shows, runway fashion shows, how-to demos, incredible display galleries, fabulous shopping and more… It’s where the sewing community comes together to encourage and inspire our own individual journeys to wherever the needle leads.

So if you can make it, by all means – GO! There is so much to see and do and when you first step into the event you are struck with a whirlwind of activity. So, bring a friend or two and lunch and spend the day shopping, sewing laughing, sharing, learning, growing and creating ….. all the wonderful things that happen when you’re part of a well-organized, learning-rich adventure!