Look Who I Ran Into!

The wonderful thing about the sewing/quilting world is that in spite of being a global, MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR business, it really is quite a small industry. It’s such a joy for me to travel anywhere in the world with Janome and run into some familiar faces who’ve also travel for business.

Imagine my delightful surprize when none other than Montreal’s own, and ultra-talented Janome Artisan, and fabric designer Tamara Kate was in the booth right next to Janome’s at the recent Courtepointe Quebec quilt show, which was held for 4 days in the College Lionel-Grouix in Sainte-Therese, Quebec May 31- June 4, 2018.

Perhaps you might not recognize Tamara’s face, but surely you’ll recognize THIS face!

Yes! THAT Tamara Kate!

Tamara designed the special edition Janome Canada 150 QDC model for Canada’s big birthday last year. You know……. the model which FLEW out of our warehouses so fast that even I didn’t get one! lol!

Some people bought multiples; one to sew on and one to keep as a special memento for future generations. One lady I met a few months back said she kept her Janome Canada 150 model in her home in Florida so she had a little bit of Canada (home) with her while she sewed down south all winter.

You might also remember Tamara’s beautiful work with the special coordinating pillow which was offered as a free download through Janome.ca last year.

Or the STUNNING wall-hanging in our Janome booth last Quilt Canada in Mississauga.

In the lower right side of the above photo you’ll see the cute and ultra-useful Blue Fig sewing luggage which Tamara designed as well. My bosses at Janome gave me a set of this luggage when I first started as an Educator two years ago and it’s truly worth it’s weight in gold! It takes a beating but still looks good as I schlep half a sewing room and AV tech studio around with me for various shows and presentations.  Ask your local Janome dealer about it.

The luggage came in handy yet again while at the Courtepointe Quebec show because I (once again, lol!) bought more than an arm’s full of Tamara’s gorgeous fabric, which she designs for Michael Miller.  It was too hard to resist being right next door, and with colours and prints so vibrant and playful, how could I not pack her fabric into my Tamara Kate roller tote!?

You can never have too many Fat Quarters, either, right?

And what a great project to sew with them! These cute little baskets could hold all sorts of goodies!

If the fabrics weren’t inspiring enough, Tamara had some of her beautiful quilts in the booth to share, too. Talk about eye candy!

Yet another reason I think it’s so important for sewers/ quilters/ creative people to attend as many shows and events as they can so they get new ideas, new techniques flowing. We’re always learning from each other and there’s always SEW much to share – especially with Janome by our side.

Inspiration is everywhere so in a future post I’ll share how the creative light bulb went off for me while chatting with Tamara one day at the show. As a little tease/ hint, it has something to do with the skirt she wore in the photo at the top of this post. Stay tuned!

Editor’s note: Oh, Michael, how sweet of you……does this mean you will make me a skirt??