QuiltCon Recap Day Two

I woke up early on Friday morning, Day Two of QuiltCon, already a little exhausted, but I had an early workshop with Lotta. When I heard that Lotta Jansdotter was teaching a class on textile printing I knew I had to sign up. It's no secret that I'm in love with Lotta's aesthetic but there was also a desire to just share the same space with her for just a little while as well. Artistically speaking I can't draw very well so I was hoping that her class would also help me stretch myself a little. And it definitely did. 

During the first part of the class Lotta taught us how to carve our own stamps and we learned the art of fabric stamping. That little voice inside of me that always reminds me that I can't draw immediately had me a little nervous. I started getting in my head (even before the class started if I'm being totally honest) about what shapes I would design and carve and then finally I was able to let go.

I decided to take a cue from the quilt I had in the show and I made a broken triangle stamp. Once I got into the groove I quickly discovered this process was liberating for me in it's simplicity. The same imperfections I am drawn to in hand quilting inspired me here. I love the slightly flawed look of hand printed fabric. I think that's one of the (many) reasons why I'm drawn to Lotta's aesthetic. Even though she has perfected the repeat in her mass-produced fabrics, they retain a handmade quality that I find so pleasing. 

It was so much fun to carve the speedball and play with the fabric inks, seeing where slight blemishes arise and deciding to either fix them or leave them. With some of my speedball leftovers I played around with more random patterns as well. It was so inspiring to see all of the amazing designs that my fellow classmates were creating. 

The second half of the class we learned about stenciling and made our own stencils, then tried printing on some of Lotta's fabrics to see how we could enhance existing prints. I actually came out of the class invigorated and ready to try the process at home. I think I, personally, prefer the block printing because of the more organic, handmade feel but I will definitely be trying both processes at home sometime soon. 

After Lotta's class I had lunch with Liberty, one of my favorite ladies and one of my roommates here at QuiltCon. Oh, how I do adore her. I had the pleasure of meeting her at the first LAMQG retreat I attended last year and our friendship continues to grow. We tried some down-home Austin BBQ and then headed back to check out the vendor hall before she (and a few of our other friends) had to run back to class. 

My afternoon was free, so I explored the booth and the Quilt show in between lectures. I dropped into the panel discussion, moderated by my amazing friend Latifah, on getting published your work in a magazine and another lecture by Angela Walters on Free Motion Quilting, which I found very interesting and funny. Angela is a crackup! Then, lucky me, my name was picked in a drawing and I won an entire set of the Setacolor fabric paints - the same ones we used in Lotta's class. 

After the vendor floor closed for the day I met my old friend Jay for drinks and then dinner, which is always a good time. Then I quickly changed and met him and Matt back at the 80s party, along with many of my other friends. 

Then Jay, Matt and I had a hair brained idea to go out for drinks after and took a pedicab to another part of town, but we didn't like the scene so we god back in another pedicab and called it a night. Good friends, new skills and some surprises made for a great day two.

QuiltCon Day One Recap

Oh, I don't even know where to begin with documenting the whole QuiltCon experience. I am still basking in the afterglow, and trying to catch up on some sleep. It was amazing and I am already planning for the next one in 2015. I think to do it justice I might have to break my recap up day by day to avoid sensory overload. I also have a plan to share a virtual quilt show for anyone who wasn't able to make it to QuiltCon so everyone is able to experience all the wonderful quilts featured there. 

I flew in on Wednesday night and my flight was delayed so I got in very, very late and didn't get much sleep. I had a plan to wake up early on Thursday morning to get to the show and the vendor floor early, but, instead, I took my time getting there, partially out of fatigue and partially out of a little fear. I'm not ashamed to admit that I was a little intimidated walking in on my own, not knowing anyone. 

The pile 'o crap that I accumulated while at QuiltCon. It's a mixture of swag, class materials and new purchases.

First off, upon registering I was presented with an amazing swag bag. I didn't even know where to start. And it was heavy. And I had to tote it around with me, along with my personal bag with my supplies for class all over the vendor floor. I had a couple hours before my first workshop so I headed to the vendor floor to check out some of the booths and the quilt show. 

My quilt hanging in the show.

The vendor floor was small enough for one to easily navigate in a couple hours. Hopefully next time, there will be even more vendors and more interactive booths. I must admit, the first thing I did was search out my quilt in the show. It was one of those pinch me moments and then, true to my nature, I started picking it apart in my head. I need to stop doing that. But, nevertheless, it was exciting to see it hanging with so many amazing quilts. 

My first workshop was scheduled for Thursday afternoon. I started with "Every Last Stitch" with Anna Maria Horner. Since I have a passion for handwork, I thought a hand sewing class with AMH would be perfect. And I would do anything just to be in the same room with her. She is so amazing and gracious. She just exudes loveliness at all times. She started the class by showing us some of her hand work and talking a little about her hand quilting and embroidery theories. 

We were each given a stack of Field Study fat quarters, batting, some gorgeous backing fabric, a needle and a set of AMH's pearle cotton floss - enough material to make a small quilt. All of us in the class decided to make a whole cloth pillow, rather than a pieced project, to practice our hand quilting. She then split us into small groups and circulated the room teaching us her basic hand quilting technique. Initially I thought there might be more stitches practiced and demoed but I wasn't disappointed because I know that I need work to perfect my hand quilting so I get even stitches. 

Sadly, I didn't get as far as actually getting to practice the technique she taught us because I ended up spending too much time chatting. It was awesome to find myself in a class surrounded by some of my online friends that I had never met in person before. I got to sit next to my friend Elaine, who I met through a swaps and is in a couple VQBs with me. We've been chatting for a while now, and even though she lives relatively close to me, we had never met. We totally hit it off and barely stopped talking the whole class. Then, much to my surprise, Courtney, who is also in a VQB with Elaine and I, was also in our class. And even more surprising, there were three Holly(ie)s in the class including my old co-swap mama. Not only did I get to meet old friends, I got to make some new ones. 

After class I met up with some of my good friends Liberty, Liz and Melissa we went back to our hotel to drop off our loot before I went to meet up with another online friend of mine for dinner. The dear, sweet Robyn, who I have known online for a long time, invited me to a wonderful dinner with a lot of fellow bloggers and even some fabric designers. There I finally got to meet Krista, another online friend, who is so kind and talented. Plus, I made some new acquaintances like Rashida, Penny, Monica, Melody, Kristin, Lizzy... the list goes on. 

After dinner a bunch of us from the LAMQG met up in the atrium of our hotel for a good, old-fashioned stitch 'n bitch. We even gained some more friends along the way. But we ended up getting busted around 10:30 PM and were told by security we needed to shut it down. Seriously, I'm running with the bad crowd! ;) So a couple of us moved up to our room for a little more chatting before calling it a night. Jam packed, I say, but not a dull moment.

She Made Swap

After I had made the decision to cut back on swaps and bees, I had already committed to a few. One of those, the Modern She Made Swap, is wrapping up right now, so I can check one off the list. I jumped on board the Modern She Made Swap back in September when I thought that I would actually be in town for the majority of the Fall. Thankfully, I did find enough time to participate and make a (hopefully) thoughtful package for my partner. I just didn't have as much time to post pictures of my progress and comment on others photos as I would have liked. 

 

I must admit that I was a little confounded at first when I got my partner. She was way wide open and seemed to be happy with anything and ultimately I just wanted to please her at the end of the day. So I did some stalking and carefully watched how she would respond to pictures other people posted in the swap and I finally decided on a (mostly) solid Mini Quilt for her. I knew she loves solids and the theme of this swap was "Triangles" so I made her a herringbone mini, that ultimately was hard for me to part with because I loved it for myself.

I also made her a matching little fabric basket, that you've all seen before. And I included some batik fat quarters to go along with it, since she admitted to having a *secret* adoration for batiks. I haven't heard back yet, which worries me because she should have her package by now. I hope she loves it. 

Then, I received a fabulous mini quilt from Heidi. I just adore it. And I can't wait to hang it in my studio. She captured my love of modern, clean lines, hand stitching and low volume fabrics perfectly. She says it was a stretch for her, but I think it came to her naturally. 

She included a matching pin cushion and some Kate Spain (favorite) fabric scraps for me in the package as well. Lucky me! I love good mail days like this!

Ruby Star Dilemma

I’ve been moved into my sewing studio for some time now, but the place is still definitely a work in progress. There is still some clutter going on, things that need to be moved out and furniture that needs to be replaced with something smaller and more functional. But it works for now. Since my studio is basically a repurposed detached garage it also doubles as a storage space for us. We had a plan to hand curtains to hide the storage, and originally I was going to make plain curtains in a natural color out of either linen or Kona cotton and put a patchwork panel in each for a pop of some color using some of my favorite fabric.

Then, one day I had a gift certificate to Sew Modern burning a hole in my pocket. I went in with the intention of buying a neutral colored solid and came out with the most delicious splurge. In a moment of weakness I bought up some of my favorite Melody Miller prints. They didn’t have enough of the Ruby Star Spring Insect print to do all four panels I would need for my curtains, so I bought up what they had left (enough for two panels) and then enough yardage of the coordinating Ruby Star Spring Bloom fabric in Springtime for the other two panels.

Then it took us forever to get the curtain wire hung, but finally last week it we did it. I hung the panels just for show and measurements before I started hemming them and asked my husband to take a look. Sigh. He thinks they’re too busy. Granted, the space is a complete disaster right now (please don’t judge) so I am sure all the clutter is affecting it. So I tempted to take down the Bloom panels and just use the Insect panels with two panels of a light, matching linen. The other option is to just do plain linen panels with large strips of the Insect fabric running through. Or maybe it's just as simple as moving the panels around. What do you think? I need some help before I start cutting.

do. Good Swap Angel

And then there were swaps. Holly and I hosted a blind swap for all of the do. Good Stitches Circle Hosts. Unfortunately, someone had an unexpected turn of events and was unable to complete her gift so Holly and I jumped in as angels. Amanda was such an excellent swapper and we couldn't let her go empty-handed. Her surprises arrives well past the deadline, but at least she arrived.

When it became clear that her partner was MIA Holly and I got to work. Being friends with Amanda, Holly knew she would love some knitting accessories since she had a baby on the way and probably not much time to sew when her bundle of joy arrived. I started stalking her and pulled fabrics from my stash from some of her favorite designers in colors she loved. 

As I continued to stalk her, I discovered that she might like a bag of some sort so I found an adorable pattern in an old issue of Stitch Magazine and got to work. The bag came together quickly. I actually enjoyed this pattern more than the last one I tried from Stitch. But I did make one huge mistake. And, unfortunately realized it too late. Can you tell?

Yep. I put one of the pleated pockets on backwards. Oops! I don't think it looks horrible. Or am I just trying to make myself feel better? I was rushing and that's really my only excuse. Ugh. By the time I realized it (during this photo shoot in fact) I tried to think of a way I could fix it but couldn't come up with a concrete solution, aside from ripping the entire thing apart, which seemed extreme.

As I tend to do, I did make some slight modifications to the design. I will admit, on this project the design modifications were largely in part due to the fact that I used the last bit of this AMH Innocent Crush print that I had in my stash. It's a personal favorite, but I was so glad it was being used for someone who loves it as much as I do. I added coordinating Kona Solids on the pockets and the handles to make the AMH print go a long way. And I really love how the solids sneak in and break up the print.

I also made her a little pocket hoop for some cute, sewing space wall storage and included a bunch of extras in her package. So, Amanda, I'm sorry that your package came so late. Thank you for being so patient and such a great swapper! Congrats on your new baby girl, too!