This will be a very photo-heavy post. I did not edit any of the photos due to time constraints.
We had a successful QuiltCon trip. We had a safe drive there and back. The vacation rental we reserved was very nice, clean, and quiet. QuiltCon was very busy and, at times, overwhelming. They said there were over 10,000 people there the first day! My husband and I arrived about 30 minutes prior to the opening time on Thursday. We got our pass and ticket very quickly with virtually no wait. I was not one of the people lucky enough to get a swag bag upon check-in. I heard those had rulers and fabrics and patterns and were really cool. Oh well.
There was a gigantic, two-level line to get in to the show floor. We decided to stand off to the side and wait for the line to clear, which took over 20 minutes. It was all of the floor we were standing on, up the stairs to the left, and a lot of the floor above that.
We looked at the quilts first because it was less crowded than the vendor side. I was shocked by how many people kept touching/handling the quilts despite signage and announcements requesting that you not touch. Things I noticed were that there was a lot of straight line quilting. Many of the quilts were faced rather than bound. The artistic concept seemed to be more important than the technical execution, or at least equal to.
Here are the quilts that caught my eye.
The next three are youth quilts. So cute!
Here is a view from above of part of the hall.
We did a bit of shopping. My husband always urges me to buy things if I express the least bit of interest. I'm typically much more...frugal, shall we say? There were some booths that were always really crowded. We couldn't even approach the Ruby Star booths until right before closing the second day. Many things were sold out. I feel like people were buying a lot more stuff from the vendors than what we would see at Paducah or IHQS. There were booths where you could sit and sew projects for free. Those were, of course, quite busy.We picked Charley Harper fabrics (I didn't have any), a couple FQ my husband picked, and a FQ bundle of Ruby Star fabric. |
On Friday I met up with my Longarm League business buddy friends, Holly and Christina. We meet every other week on Zoom, but this is the first time we've met in person. My husband and Holly's husband, Tim, hung out most of the day.
I sat next to the amazing Karlee Porter in the Longarm League booth and watched her drawing tattoos on people. I didn't talk to her, just lurked, because she was working and they were paying for the tattoos. I didn't get one because of the care required. Maybe some day. I have to get over my personal issues first. Karlee is really a wonderful person.
I also met a group of ladies who are taking the Pattern Writing Academy with me.
I saw many "famous" people but didn't talk to most of them. It sort of feels like invading peoples' privacy to me. I will say that it felt like many people knew each other already. There were also a lot of people that seemed to cause a stir that I didn't recognize at all. I did introduce myself to Cheryl from Meadow Mist, who introduced me to Yvonne from Quilting Jet Girl, and I spent some time chatting with Michelle from From Bolt to Beauty during the Social Hour event. That was fun!
One of my highlights was talking to David who used to work at Crimson Tate. You may know him on social media as @crimsontavid. He was back working at the booth for the event. Years ago he made my daughter feel really special for finishing a project during a time she was struggling and it meant so much to us. He remembered her and her project even though it's been like eight years. 💕 He's such a fine human.
I had lots of work waiting for me when I got back home (thankfully!). I've quilted two of Annie's t-shirt quilts and still need to bind them. Diagonal Plaid on the top quilt, Boho Boxes on the bottom.
Last night's guild speaker was Gyleen X. Fitzgerald, who is a really fantastic speaker. She was also in town in March 2020, right before the world shut down. Funnily enough, the topic she spoke about was her journey to modern, based upon issues she experienced with prejudice/ageism in the early days of MQG. I'm taking a class with her at IHQS on Friday. I don't have much of the prep done yet, so it will be a busy two days.
I thought it was weird that Kona called the jelly roll color way "sunset". Not what I picture for a sunset. |
The only thing I've worked on at all besides the above fabric cutting is creating my selvedge yarn. I worked on it a little bit one night in our rental and much of the ride back home. I'm starting to think that selvedges work the same way as scraps--you start using them and feel like you've used a lot, but the bin seems to be just as full as when you started.
Linking with My Quilt Infatuation, Quiltery, and Alycia Quilts.