Classes, Shows, Fairs,
Festivals and Events

Past Events

VV's Victorian Prints appeared at the following:

The Association of Pacific Northwest Quilters' 8th biennial juried & judged exhibit of the finest quilts from Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, Northwest Territories, Oregon, Washington and Yukon.

This is the first year Quiltfest has been at the Washington State Convention Center. It outgrew the Seattle Center. The new location offered a larger space for more juried quilts, special exhibit quilts, vendors, lectures, and workshops!

Ginny Eckley from PhotoEZ Silkscreens came all the way from Houston Texas to be in the booth with Val demonstrating her silkscreens. Theresa came down from Blaine, WA to help us cashier.

For more information click on APNQ's logo link below.

Spring Fairy Festival
Saturday March 29, 2008
Tacoma WA 98421

As part of the Vending Village, we sold Fairy Rubber Stamps, CDs and other related products at this unique event. For more information:

The Art of Digital Printing on Textiles Class
Saturday, October 13, 2007, 1:30-4:30 pm
Bellevue Community College
Bellevue, WA 98007-6484
Driving Directions

Iron-on transfers were okay for t-shirts, but not much else. Benefit from Val's research and experiences printing on fabric using an inkjet printer. We'll discuss printers, inks, fabric sheets, digital cameras, scanners, all-in-ones, software and more. Learn money saving tips and examine samples designed to inspire new ideas for showcasing your photos. Bring a photo (or you can use one from Val's collection) and we'll print it on fabric! With technology changing so fast, if you've tried fabric printing or have been thinking about it, this class will teach you how make your fabric images soft, colorful, washable, and lightfast. You will take home a printed cotton poplin and silk fabric sheet. Fee includes materials. For more information:

Leavenworth's 12th Annual Quilt Show
Friday, September 7 - Sunday, September 9, 2006

Family Events of Leavenworth's 12th annual "Meander Through Quilts" in the Village included Challenge Quilts on display throughout the village. There were over 200 quilts in the show.

Val taught two classes in the Festhalle during the show: "Dyeing Silk Scarves" on Friday, and "Fun with Kumihimo" on Sunday. Kira demonstrated spinning Alpaca yarn with her spinning wheel on Saturday. We sold some of Kira's Alpaca yarn in our booth and showcased some beautiful purses, scarves and other items made with Alpaca.

We have already signed up to do the show again next year as it is one of our favorites.

For more information:

Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival
July 19-21, 2007
Denver Merchandise Mart, Denver, CO

This was our first time at this show. It's always fun to do a show in Denver because I get to visit with my sister and her family. My sister helped with set-up and was there for the beginning of the show. She learned how to do the Japanese braiding (see above) and is now hooked. She asked me to leave a couple kits behind for her.

My nephew Nick was there helping for the whole show. He also learned how to do Japanese braiding, and showed me that guys love them too. We gave his hemp choker a spikey end that looks very cool and masculine. Nick also made himself a hemp wristband. Nick's older brother Tony (who starts college in the fall) wanted one too, so my sister promised to make him one.

While in Colorado I had the opportunity to visit with Kristal Wick (who is teaching a class in Houston making purses using some of our images) and see the two prototype purses. I also had lunch with a new associate who has some amazing software to create kaleidoscopes (see New Products).

We met so many nice people at the show and even saw a few familiar faces from the show I did in Colorado in February, 2006. They were happy to see us there and purchased larger packs of the fabric sheets.

We so enjoyed the mini puppet shows mom (Andria) and grandma gave little Maya that we asked to take pictures for our website. We are going to be bringing the handmade puppets to future shows as children (and adults) enjoy them so much.

For more information:

22nd Annual Block Party Quilters Club Quilt Show
April 13-15, 2007
Friday-Sunday
Issaquah Community Center, Issaquah, WA

The theme of the show was SPIRIT RUN and the featured artist was ROXANNE CARTER.

My friend's daughter Allison helped at the show as my cashier.

Our best selling item was the new polynosic shirts. Almost everyone who touched the shirt ended up buying one. They feel like silk, but can be washed along with your laundry, are great for traveling, and are breathable and lightweight.

For more information:

Sewing & Stitchery Expo 2007
March 1-4, 2007
Puyallup, WA

Val assisted Maggie with her Versatile Silk class and helped in the Things Japanese booth for part of the show. Val's friend Torri also helped Maggie during her class on Saturday. Val wore one of her newest products, the Port Authority Signature polynosic shirt (silkscreened by Ginny Eckley). We're doing a special promotion with the polynosic shirt where you get a discount price and a little plastic bottle of gold paint on our website.

Northwest Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival
November 16-18, 2006
Puyallup, WA

Our booth was located upstairs in the Pavilion. Torri helped set up the booth and get everything looking nice before she had to leave for Bible study. We sold lots of silk scarf kits for Christmas presents (great gift idea),fabric sheets, silk ribbons and CDs.

We couldn't help noticing the cool Japanese braiding going on in the booth next door to us. Val wondered how the River Silk Ribbon would look braided and had to try it. Val's friend LouAnn came to help on Saturday, so Val was able to actually try it with the River Silk Ribbon. The braids come out very tight, intricate and beautiful. The first braid was done in pastel color silk ribbons, the next incorporated some cocoons and hankies, and now Val's experimenting with adding some Fun Fur to the silk ribbon. Val ordered a bunch of the soft disks used for braiding and will be putting together some kits with our River Silk ribbon. For more information:

International Quilt Festival
November 2-5, 2006
Houston, TX

It was nice to have our booth located in the row with other members of the Silk Experience group again.

Nancy O'Keefe (pictured below, holding one of Hirata's image CDs) and her sister-in-law, Kay Niederhauser (the one moving the ceramic tile display) flew in from Seattle to help in the booth. Kay made some beautiful silk clothing for Val to wear in Houston. She also made an outfit for Maggie, Nancy and herself using Colorhue dyes to get just the right colors.

Our special guest from Japan, Takuo Hirata, presented a special lecture on Friday at the Festival entitled "The Silk Stocking Story." The elegant era of rustling silk dresses and silk stockings resulted in an explosive demand for Japanese raw silk to be imported to America dating from 1876 to 1929. Hirata is a descendant of silk producers, and his own grandfather came to America and was directly involved in the profitable silk stocking trade. Thanks to his grandfathers letters, carefully recorded notes, and wonderful photographs, Hirata was able to transport attendees back to a fascinating age, when silk was the queen of fashion.

Trish Grant, president of APNQ (Association of Pacific Northwest Quilters) was one of the first to purchase one of Hirata's new image CDs. When Hirata wasn't in our booth autographing his limited edition set of art postcards and image CDs he was photographing the quilt show. Be sure to check back to see his pictures soon.

Visit Hirata's website at HirataDigital.Com

For more information on the Quilt Festival:

We introduced our Silk Scarf Dye Kit at this show. Torri and Val had a blast dyeing silk scarves and silk cocoons.

Val made ornaments for the Christmas Tree that will be on display in Houston at the International Quilt Festival. The white tree will be decorated with all silk ornaments and garland. It will also be on display at the class taught by Carla Peery on dyeing silk cocoons.

Here are some pictures from the show.

For more information:

Family Events of Leavenworth's "Meander Through Quilts" in the Village included Challenge Quilts on display throughout the village. There were over 200 quilts in the show. Leavenworth is such a charming village. My friend Bev who was helping at the show said it felt like we were in another country. Frank Calapristi strolling through the Festhalle in his lederhosen playing the accordian was a nice touch. We enjoyed Bavarian, Italian, Mexican, Chinese, French and American cuisine in the wonderful restaurants in town. Here are some pictures from this fun show.

We enjoyed seeing the quilts on display in the various shops and restaurants all over town. Even the Starbucks looks Bavarian.

We stayed at Mrs. Anderson's, a charming bed and breakfast just a half block from the Festhalle. Al and Dee were great, the room was comfortable and clean, the food was good, and there was a quilt store downstairs from our rooms. Here's a picture of Dee in her shop. We were invited back for next year and have already accepted!

For more information:

In our booth we featured Fun with Silk kits, COLORHUE Instant Set Silk Dyes and River Silk Ribbons. The highlight for Val was meeting Laurie Wheeler and her daughter Sara from Camano Made Handspun Yarn & Designs. I got to film Laurie spinning from our cocoons, hankies and rods. And Sara was hand spinning silk thread from the cocoons. It was very cool to see how this is done. Up till now I've only seen the cocoons used whole in fiber art creations. Laurie even spun some of the rods with the wool for an interesting texture blend.

Sara modeled some of our garments and scarves in the fashion shows. Val and Amber had fun dyeing silk cocoons and fibers and Amber made her little brother Zack a colorful cocoon necklace after he saw hers and wanted one of his own. For more information about the Seattle Knitting & Fiber Arts Expo click on their logo.

Quilters Anonymous 25th Annual Quilt Show
Through the Eye of a Silver Needle
Friday, March 17 - Sunday, March 19, 2006
Evergreen State Fairgrounds, Monroe, WA

Each Spring Quilters Anonymous presents a spectacular quilt show at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe, WA. This year was special as they were celebrating their 25th anniversary.

QA Members work on their quilt entries all year long. The QA show is the oldest and largest annual guild show in the Pacific Northwest.

Val gave a class every day on how to print on fabric. People love seeing how easy it is and how beautiful the finished products look. Much nicer than the iron-on transfers.

Jean and Paul from River Silks Ribbons helped us introduce our newest product. The ribbons were very popular, and many attendees had experience working with them and were very happy to find them at the show. The collections especially were very well received.

For information about Quilters Anonymous, click on their link below.

Saturday was especially fun as we got to enjoy Maggie's grandkids having a blast silkscreening with Ginny, and dyeing silk ribbon, cocoons, carrier rods, hankies (not the kind you blow your nose in) and silk/bamboo with Val. Too much fun!

The Fun with Silk kits are available at:
www.funwithsilk.com.

Creative Festival
February 3-5, 2006
Denver, CO

VV's Victorian Prints came to Denver for the first time, and it will definitely not be our last. The Creative Festival is an educational, inspirational, fun-filled event open to everyone who loves to be creative.  With over 100 quality vendors from all across the United States and Canada in 172 booths filled with great things to buy that you can't find anywhere else, this vendor mall was definitely the place to shop!!

Internationally-known speakers presented pre-show workshops, seminars, fashion shows, and creative venues to excite the creative juices.  In addition, there were in-booth make-it take-it workshops, daily door prizes and more! We were well located in a great spot where we could see the fashion shows.

The best part was being able to work with my sister again in the booth (as well as her husband and two younger sons). I wish they could do all the shows with me. This is my second show with Louise and Vince (they also helped out in Chicago in 2004). Tony worked late with me Thursday helping set up the booth, and he and Nick helped out in the booth after school Friday and on the weekend. Louise's husband Vince did a fantastic job selling and cashiering while Louise and I took a lunch break together on Sunday (before the fateful Seahawks game). This show helped us introduce our fabric sheets and CDs to a whole new market of very nice people.

For more information about Creative Festival shows, click on the link below.

Northwest Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival
November 10-12, 2005
Puyallup, WA

VV's Victorian Prints was in booth #1111 for this festival where we sold our vintage art CDs, cotton and silk fabric sheets, crazy quilt packets, silkscreens, kits and more! Jessica wasn't able to make it, but her younger sister, Sarah, helped out. She too was a great cashier.

Thank you to my friend Kandy for having such great daughters!

Several customers who had purchased fabric sheets from us at local shows earlier in the year came to buy the bigger packs. One customer said she had purchased a pack of fabric sheets from every vendor at the show and found ours to be the best. No surprise there, but it was nice to hear it confirmed again. I love hearing from customers how much they love the fabric sheets.

Since we were on the aisle we got to display the big, beautiful fabric banner Willetta made for us for Houston. A lot of people came into our booth after reading the information on the banner.

If you do trade shows, you need to get one of these great fabric banners. Email me for more information.

There was a lot of interest in our upcoming Babyland CD which will be released before the end of the year. Wait till you see the precious silk baby quilt Carol made with some of the images. We decided not to display it at this show since everyone in Houston who saw the quilt wanted the CD.

Judy, who made most of our pillow and wall hanging samples was able to come to the show and see her work on display for the first time.
Teresa White, who made the crazy quilt and little boxes, also came by to visit with her husband and some friends. We made some Christmas ornaments out of the little crazy quilt packet materials and hung them on our little tree along with some of the actual packets.

It was so much fun making the ornaments that Val came up with some new ideas. We will soon be introducing exciting new ornament kits featuring our vintage images which require no sewing.

This was our first Rusty Barn show, but it will not be our last. We've already signed up for the 2006 October show and plan to also do the Phoenix and Denver show in 2007.

VV's Victorian Prints was proud to be one of the exhibit sponsors at the International Quilt Festival and Market. As part of the Silk Experience group, we co-sponsored The Silk Road Travels to Houston exhibit, featuring historical and contemporary silk art forms and processes. Eleven talented artists were invited to exhibit their contemporary silk works, utilizing modern processes and technology. And in addition, John Marshall exhibited his wonderful collection of historical Japanese textile art forms. The exhibit featured silk garments, quilts, dolls, wall hanging and embellished accessories.

This was our first time to go to Houston (and our second quilt show out of Washington state).

At Quilt Market we found some beautiful ribbons, beads and Mother of Pearl buttons to add to our crazy quilt packs. We also met some potential CD distributors in Japan and Australia.

At Quilt Festival we sold a lot of fabric sheets, CDs and some new products we got just for the show (dragonfly, butterfly & flower stamps that work with Angelina; sparkly beautiful fiber packs, silk fun kits, hand-dyed silk cocoons, carrier rods and hankies, 11 x 17 silk fairy fabric prints for painting and more). We introduced two brand new CDs - Vintage Automobiles and Wildflowers. Val was unable to finish Babyland in time for the show, but it will be coming soon.

The people in Houston were so nice. We made some new friends (we plan to stay in touch with) and met a lot of very friendly people. Didn't care for the freeway system, but we were able to get where we needed to go thanks to the helpful Houston pedestrians we asked for directions.

For more information about these shows, click on the link below.

This quilt show was practically in our backyard. Teresa (above) and Rachel (left) helped at the show and we tested our new booth layout plan. We displayed a lot less wall hangings & pillows, added some greenery, lights and fluffy texture and were very happy with the way our booth looked.

Teresa's crazy quilt and victorian lady boxes were on display and received lots of compliments. We sold little crazy quilt packets for the first time. This is one of the new products that will be available in Houston. We will also be unveiling our 3 new CDs - Vintage Automobiles, Babies & Wildflowers - in Houston.

We showed visitors the July/August and November/December issues of Quiltmaker which featured some of our products. What a nice group of ladies (and men)! This is a show we would like to participate in every year.

The Evergreen Piecemakers Guild fed us well with homemade soups, sandwiches, dips, and delicious desserts. We met some new friends and even found some new products that will fit nicely with our product line to introduce in Houston.

Evergreen Piecemakers Guild

VV's Victorian Prints was happy to be invited to be part of this show. My friend Rachel helped me set up the booth and helped out the first day of the show. I got a chance to meet some wonderful quilt shop owners who were also vendors at the show. Received all kinds of good helpful advice from the friendly folks at All About Quilting in Tacoma.

Meeting one of the featured quilt artists, Teresa White, was a highlight. We will be working on some projects together and both Teresa and Rachel agreed to help out in Houston.

We introduced our new line of rubber stamps at this show. We had one Angels set and two Fairies sets. They will be available on the website soon.

Rikki helped out on Saturday, and Bob helped (his first show) on Sunday.
It was fun to try something new. Interestingly enough, we sold mostly CDs and cotton fabric sheets. Turns out many of the rubber stampers/scrapbookers also sew. Of course, most of our samples were wall hangings, pillows, etc. We also experimented with selling a crystal embellishment kit. The crystals really dressed up some of our wall hangings. Rikki did a fantastic job putting on the Crystals Saturday night so we'd have them on Sunday.

I expect we'll do well with the rubber stamps at the next quilt/sewing show when we have some samples. They work great on silk scarves. Can't wait to try them on silk clothing.

For more information about Heirloom's rubber stamp/scrapbook shows, click on the link below.

Camano Island Quilters 9th Biennial Quilt Show
Quilting Memories from the Hand & Heart
April 8-9, 2005
Stanwood, WA

What a beautiful place to come for a quilt show. Jessica and I drove through the pouring rain after she got out of school on Thursday and headed north. Since I've always wanted to visit Camano Island (just a stone's throw from Stanwood), I made reservations at a gorgeous bed & breakfast called Inn at Barnum Point. The huge house sits all by itself on the point surrounded by water and wildlife.

My bed was next to the fireplace and had sweeping views of water and sky. Jessica's upstairs loft bed in the clouds was a girl's dream come true. Our only regret was that we only got to spend a few hours each morning and evening in the room enjoying the views since we were at the show all day. The innkeeper, Carolin Barnum Dilorenzo, made us feel so welcome, even getting me special chicken and portabella mushroom sausages for breakfast when she learned I didn't eat red meat. If you're looking for a relaxing scenic getaway, check this out. I definitely hope to return. Carolin's bath teddy made a guest appearance at the quilt show in our teddy bear display when I forgot to pack my childhood teddy.

After the show on Friday we headed up to RoozenGaarde to see the tulips (something else I've always wanted to do). Jessica loved walking on the soft squishy ground around the tulip fields. Owned by the Roozen family, specializing in growing Tulips, Daffodils and Irises, their operation is the largest in the world, covering Skagit Valley with more than 1,200 acres of field blooms and 15 acres of greenhouses. Each fall, the 3 acre show garden is planted with over two hundred thousand spring-flowering bulbs, providing a gorgeous display of color during the early weeks of spring.

For more information about the Camano Island Quilters, Inn at Barnum Point, or the tulip festival, click on their links below.

Each Spring Quilters Anonymous presents a spectacular quilt show at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe, WA. QA Members work on their quilt entries all year long. The QA show is the oldest and largest annual guild show in the Pacific Northwest.

For the first time, VV's Victorian Prints had a booth in this show where we featured our vintage art CDs and cotton & silk fabric sheets. Val had a bad cold and was unable to talk above a whisper which made the "Printing on Fabric" demonstrations interesting. Rikki Marohl and Jessica Hruby (who were helping Val at the show) were lifesavers. Rikki was Val's speaker/voice box for the demos while Jessica (pictured above) manned the booth. Val whispered directions to Rikki who delivered the information to attendees. Quilters who'd been using iron-on transfers to get images on fabric were excited to see how much nicer fabric prints are.

For information about Quilters Anonymous, click on their link.

Sew and Stitchery Expo
March 3-6, 2005
Puyallup, WA

VV's Victorian Prints CDs and fabric sheets were showcased in the Quiltworks Northwest booth.

This is the largest, most comprehensive consumer education and trade event for the sewing industry in the United States. Sponsored by Washington State University, this annual event draws more than 32,000 people from as far away as Spain and Australia.

Our favorite local quilt store, Quiltworks Northwest in Bellevue, invited Valerie to demonstrate and sell her vintage image CDs and fabric sheets in the booth. Be sure to meet and thank Quiltworks Northwest's new owner Stacie Baumeister.

Pacific Northwest Quiltfest
August 13, 14 & 15, 2004
Seattle Center Exhibition Hall

VV's Victorian Prints had a wonderful time at APNQ's bi-annual quiltfest in the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall. We demonstrated how to use our fabric sheets to create your own fabric designs and turn vintage art and photos into beautiful quilts, pillows, wall hangings and much more. The cotton poplin fabric sheets proved to be so popular that we ran out Saturday afternoon. We should have a new shipment to fill backorders and future web orders within a week. We also showed people how easy it is with the silk 3-yard rolls to create beautiful one-of-a-kind silk scarves and ties.

We introduced our three newest CDs at the show -- Dogs 1, Dogs 2 and Puppy Dogs -- displaying two beautiful purses and a mini quilt made with the canine images. Jessica, Val and Theresa enjoyed meeting and talking with attendees and vendors from the local quilt community, and from Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska and Canada.

For the first time, VV's Victorian Prints was part of a major national quilt show outside Washington state at the International Quilt Festival's second annual spring show in Rosemont, Illinois. My sister Louise and her husband Vince flew in from Colorado to help (and saved the day when I got very sick with a cold the second day of the show and couldn't even talk). Louise, I wish you could be at all my shows. You are a super sales lady!

In our booth we displayed quilts, wall hangings, pillows, lampshades and other items you can make with our vintage images. We introduced VV's Victorian Print's new slogan, "Quilting Is My Passion." Vendors, customers and even the staff at the hotel we stayed at were sporting our pin, wearing our t-shirt and/or drinking out of our water bottles! (Thank you Rosemont Embassy Suites for the hospitality. Your staff is the best!)

We enjoyed visiting with cousins in Chicago during the trip (below is a picture of us with our cousin Eddie). Our cousins made sure we did not go hungry, preparing some wonderful meals, taking us out. etc. Thank you Judy for bringing us the wonderful lunch and then staying to help us work in the booth. Sharon, the Indian dinner you prepared was awesome. We had so much fun seeing all of you!

Wall Hangings, Framed Prints, Pillows and other items made with images from VV's Victorian Prints were on display and for sale in the Northwest Artist's Gallery in the SeaTac Mall from November 1 through December 31, 2003. Owner Val Vavrik was in the gallery on Saturdays to talk to customers and demonstrate how images are cleaned up and restored.

Class Description: Val Vavrik, owner of V Vs Victorian Prints, scans drawings and etchings from her personal collection of over 1,000 antique books, cleans them up on her computer (removing stains, tears, pen marks, etc.) and saves the restored images on CD. She currently offers 20 different CD titles (e.g. Angels, Children, Fairies, Japan, Kitchen, Patriotic, Pets, Medieval Times, Night Before Christmas, Victorian Women). The high-resolution images can be printed on fabric sheets and then sewn into pillows, quilts, wall hangings, ornaments, clothing nd all sorts of creative crafts projects. Val will show images from her CDs and bring samples of projects that can be made with the unique images. Val will also demonstrate how to size the images, add color and print the images onto fabric sheets.

Call me naive, but when I signed up for a crafts booth at Oktoberfest in Leavenworth I did not realize what the event was. After the first day when we realized Oktoberfest was primarily a big beer garden with dancing and partying we changed our approach. We focused on selling vintage art tattoos and removed the vintage art prints from the frames and sold souvenir pictures of attendees with their tattoos and beer mugs. By selling tattoos and frames with digital photos we were able to recoup some of our expenses. We did meet a lot of fun people and got to know some very nice vendors from Leavenworth and surrounding areas as well as a lot of young men from various branches of our military on leave. Many vendors sported our vintage art tattoos, including some of Eastern Washington's finest from the Sheriff's Office. We will definitely participate in another event in Leavenworth down the road.

Even with all the new products, CDs were still the best seller by far. Seems most people like to make their own stuff. People were especially inspired by the beautiful, unique wall hangings and a few even plan to make a medieval quilt. We requested pictures of their finished products and will post them on this website as they come in.

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