Stories from the Sewing Room

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 blocks in this quilt were all 1" finished!

Look closely at the quilting!

This next one was my absolute favorite. I voted for it for People's Choice. It did end up winning. I studied this one for a while. It's not often that I can't figure out how something was constructed. The circles were paper pieced. The black parts--I'm not sure. We could find a vertical seam every other black piece. I just don't know. It was really nicely done.

Close up of the quilt above to better show the quilting. The quilt on the left was comprised of tiny little pieces smaller than 1/8". I captured it with the heads to show scale. The creator had two similar quilts and both had well over 10,000 pieces in them.

Dolly was in the Moda booth.

I've seen so many photos of the quilts on display posted on social media. The weird thing is that there are some that I simply don't remember seeing even though I went through many of the quilts twice.

Here is a view from above of part of the hall.

We picked Charley Harper fabrics (I didn't have any), a couple FQ my husband picked, and a FQ bundle of Ruby Star fabric.

I partially made a scrunchie at Holly Anne Knight's booth. I bought a ridiculous iridescent ruler that I don't think you could actually use to cut. I got five Cotton + Steel mini charms using the passport to visit some of the designated booths. The only things I purchased in this picture are the zipper, ruler, socks, and seam gauge.

Sorry this photo is so washed out. These are the stickers and business cards I got. We purchased two and the rest were freebies people gave me. I met some ladies from the Bloomington-Normal MQG and they gave me their pin. We were Bloomington buddies. There's also this year's Longarm League pin and a sample thread gloss.

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 felt like a giant! My friends are very petite. Also. I now feel very self-conscious about my arms of all things. I mean, I know I've put on more weight than I'd like, but man. Those arms. I was already feeling sad about my hair due to a really bad haircut last time. I'm trying a new person at a new place after my hair grows back some. And I was squinty or had my eyes closed in almost every picture I was in. Good grief!

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.