QuiltCon 2017 Report

I can't believe it is already two weeks since I came home from QuiltCon - it really seems just a beautiful dream to me now! But I was there and I'm sure you want to hear all about it!

The photo above is the crowd surging into the show on the first day, and you can just see ahead the quilt that one Best in Show. 

This was the completely off the scale 'Bling' by Katherine Jones of Tasmania. Oh my goodness this was SO impressive! I can't get my head around how you would even start to make this! Just WOW!! And a huge congratulations to Katherine who I met not long after she got her prize - she seemed a little stunned by all the attention! 

Just to give you an idea of scale it was 98 inches square.

But let's rewind a day. The show started on the Thursday but Karen, Pam (one of my Edinburgh MQG buddies) and I got there on Tuesday night. After a little prep for Karen's classes on Wednesday morning we were free to be tourists for the day. Here's me and Karen on River Street, Downtown Savannah as we start to explore. Unfortunately it was a little grey and very soon it was a lot rainy!

I really wasn't expecting Savannah to be so drop dead gorgeous is it turned out to be. These few snap shots do not do it justice, round every corner lay more beautiful streets or gorgeous houses with wonderful architectural details.

Lining every street were 'Live Oak' trees, they don't look anything like oaks but are green all year round and are covered by 'Spanish Moss' a cobwebby type of lichen which gives a wonderful atmosphere to all the views.

On Karen's recommendation I had been reading 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil' which is all about Savannah and centres on the murder trial of Jim Williams who lived in the (now called) Mercer Williams House. We went to take a look at the house and were delighted to find we could do a tour that was starting in 10 minutes! The tour was excellent and really brought the book to life for me. 

After a delicious lunch at the Bohemian Hotel with Pam and three lovely Danish quilters Helene, Suzanne and Maria, in which I tried Fried Green Tomatoes for the first time (a wonderful revelation!) we were off for more wandering.

I spotted this lovely woolly fellow in a delightful yarn shop (which was also full of quilters - of course all of Savannah was full of quilters for a few days!!)

One of the first things I did when the show opened on Thursday was to find our Edinburgh MQG Charity Challenge quilt and have my photo taken beside it. The charity quilts were absolutely stunning with so many different interpretations of the theme!

One of the best exhibits in the whole show was the Quilts For Pulse stand. After the terrible massacre that targeted the LGBT community at the Pulse night club in Orlando last year the local MQG started a quilt appeal. They asked our community to send heart blocks to make quilts for the victims and their families. They hoped to make 200 quilts...

... they made almost 1800 quilts!!! They were able to give quilts to EVERYONE who was involved in the tragedy, including all the first responders (police, fire, ambulance), hospital workers, legal aid, city council workers...

The stand was one of the most moving things I have seen and I am tearing up again while I type this. I spoke a couple of times with the Orlando MQG members who were at the stand and every time we all ended up crying. Huge congratulations to the Orlando guild, the work involved in doing this was IMMENSE!

They had a photo of every quilt on the stand all collaged into heart shapes. Our guild made blocks and then Lesley turned it into the most amazing quilt after attending Sarah Fielke's wonky letters workshop. Lesley made 'love is all you need' and surrounded it with the heart blocks. I was therefore able to find and photograph our quilt amongst the others as it is the only one that says this. Thank you so much for doing this on our behalf Lesley.

I attended three lectures which were all excellent (and more about one of them in my next post). One of them, by Shruti Dandekar, was about traditional Indian quilts including those made by the Siddi people in Southern India like the example above. The way they are made and the story about their history (they were Africans brought to India as slaves by the Portugese and then left there) was absolutely fascinating and very inspiring.

And then there were the amazing quilts!! Oh my goodness, so much beauty! My eyes were hurting after 10 minutes! Here are some of my favourites (but this is the tip of the iceberg for that category).

Above is View of the City from the Suburbs by Kim Soper. Below is Fireworks by Jeannie Jenkins.

Here is a detail from Hills and Valleys by Cassandra Beaver.

This is 21 Blocks by Katie Clark Blakesley.

Round Peg, Square Hole by my pal Krista Hennebury (read on to see what Krista's Mum gave me when I met her at the show!).

This one below I think may be my absolute favourite this year - Big Island Blossom by Sheri Cifaldi-Morrill.

I love this little guy below by Stephanie Ruyle, in the small quilt category.

If you want to see A LOT more quilts from the show then check out my pal Tatyana's blogpost, Tatyana was taking way more photos then me!

On Thursday night we went on a ghost tour! Not Karen as she is a big scaredy-cat 😉

It was so much fun and actually quite scary at the end when we were all in the depths of an old chandlery and there were some quite clever special effects (certainly Pam got a bit more of a cuddle then she was anticipating!). Plus we also got a tour of another lovely old house, the Andrew Low House (not haunted at all though!).

I also took a couple of classes, but those are for the next post.

Meanwhile, in this chronological photo journey, it appears we are up to the last evening of my stay, and Karen and I managed to meet up for drinks with lovely Karin (Leigh Laurel Studio) at our hotel.

We had a bit of a laugh at our Thread House partner Lynne's expense after it occurred to us how much Karin looked like a 'Lynne stand in' here! Of  course in reality Lynne Goldsworthy is completely irreplaceable 😁

So it was goodbye to beautiful Savannah! Even the airport is beautiful! Pam and I sat in those rocking chairs for a bit before going through security (while chatting to Missouri Quilt Star's Jenny Doan, don't you know!)

One of the best bits about QuiltCon is connecting with old pals, and Dolores is one of my oldest blogging friends (from back in the Flickr days!). I got to spend a lot of time in Savannah with Dolores and her adorable hubby Don which was wonderful. And of course the very generous Dolores brought me presents! Fabric, thread and a Patchwork Threads T-shirt and badges!! That badge there says 'I quilt so I don't kill people' 😂😂 and there was a lovely Bearpaw one that didn't make the photo. 

But the loveliest thing Dolores gave me was this little mini quilt. I had been so inspired by this when I first saw it about 18 months ago that I totally stole used it as inspiration for the sewing shelves wall hanging I made for Popular Patchwork magazine. Thanks for giving me such a special gift Dee!

You will also notice those rather gorgeous handmade socks in the photo below. These were a gift (along with the mug in the pic above) from lovely Sybil who is Krista Hennebury's mum (Superknitter on IG) and who I met up with at the vendor hall. I had no idea I was going to get such a wonderful present - thank you Sybil!

 And speaking of the vendor hall... I may just have spent a few (ahem) dollars on this awesome stash of fabric below!!

Oh and did I mention all the FREE STUFF! Yes I got one of the goody bags (for the first 1000 people that registered to attend)!! Plus the fabric companies that were there were SO GENEROUS and gave away so much fabric!! Especially Cotton and Steel, AGF, Ink and Arrow, Andover, Northcott and Paintbox studio - thank you all so much!

I have shared a lot of this booty with my Craft Club members already, but have kept a little for myself.

There wasn't really an organised pin (badge) swap this year but I knew some people would still have them to swap (as it is so much fun!), so I got Thread House badges printed up (I did myBearpaw two years ago).

These are all the badges I collected in Savannah. And below is the bag I made when I went to Austin with all the ones I got there plus some from our Stitch Gathering badge swap last year. I think I'll have to make a new bag now!

They are such a great reminder of all the people I met. And QuiltCon is really all about the people. 

I had the time of my life but it wasn't because of the quilts, or the free fabric, or the classes. It was because I was with 'my people', my special tribe of quilters who are all warm, friendly, chatty, enthusiastic, inclusive, generous and funny! It feels like I never stopped talking and laughing for the whole 5 days I was there!

Of course the MQG does an amazing job organising this event, and it really does run like clockwork. I got a little peek behind the scenes this year (as Karen's 'assistant') and am even more impressed! Everyone involved works so hard, so thank you MQG!

And so what about Nashville in 2019??!!! I am definitely going to be there - I wouldn't miss it for the world!

Who's with me???!!

Fat Quarterly Retreat 2014 Report

A very belated report on this year's Fat Quarterly Retreat! Once I got back I had a big deadline looming and I also needed to get all our Autumn/Winter craft classes listed and released, so I've not had a moment!

Finally I've caught up and can share the magic with you. First up is the Sample and Nametag swap. My very cute mini bearpaw block nametag was made by Nessy of Ecccentrically Green (and anyone who met Nessy this weekend will know where her name came from!). Thank you so much Nessy!

The other 3 items are from the Sample Swap, which this year took place inside for the first time and was still SO EXCITING! Waiting for your name to be called out and join your group is just ridiculously adrenalin raising!  I lucked out again with my group. The beautiful Liberty log cabin pin cushion was made by Birgit from Munich, the uber cute and funny little 'chicken gonk' is filled with Lavender and made by Tammy (who was in my group at the first FQR!) and Amanda Metro Quilter made the gorgeous linen covered notebook and zippered pouch! Thank you so much ladies, and thanks to Trash for all her hard work organising the swaps!!

I didn't think I was going to get a Goody Bag this year as officially I was a 'teechur' not an 'attendee'. But Trash rushed up at the end and thrust one at me! I went to visit my Sister-in-law straight after the event and shared quite a bit of the bag with her, so these are only the bits I kept above - lovely fabric from Robert Kaufman, Dashwood Studio, Riley Blake and Moda. Plus Aurifil thread and sachets of a new starch 'Soak'. There were also some cute Makower charm packs, thread from Coats and some Koribond haberdashery that went to my SIL. Thank you to all the sponsors for the lovely goodies!

My lovely pal Dolores came over for the Saturday and Sunday all the way from Virginia! As Dolores made it over to the first FQR and last year to the Stitch Gathering I really didn't expect her to make it this year. But last minute she decided to accompany her daughter Maria who was over visiting friends. It was SO great to see her again and get to hang out and sew with her on Sunday morning. Here's one of the only photos I managed to take this year (I am always so useless at this!) with, from left, Betty, Jane, Trudi, Jenny, my room mate Sarah, and Dolores in the foreground.

Dolores is also incredibly kind and generous and always brings me tons of fabric!! Here is this year's stash (tiny bit shared with my SIL too!), it was all wrapped up in that tea pot fabric, but the rest of it is all low and high volume including the amazing 5" charm pack she made up for me herself! Can't wait to get started using this - thank you Dolores xxx

In between teaching my 2 classes I managed to take one class with Thomas Knauer, Large HST's. That block above is what I made. Not sure what it will become but I like it! The fabric is gorgeous Maisie by Maude Asbury by Blend, my current favourite fabric (though it's all nearly finished!).

Thomas's class was more like a fascinating lecture than a workshop - what an interesting guy! He certainly gave us lots to think about. So of course I bought his book...

And lovely Karen's book! It was so good to see Karen again, we first met 5 years ago at a trade fair before this whole quilting/blogging community really got going and somehow we both ended up involved and both teaching at the retreat! I also couldn't resist buying some of her beautiful screen printed fabric at the Quilt Market. I'm thinking this would look great with that low volume charm pack from Dolores!

Ahh the Quilt Market on Saturday night...
As you all know I really DO NOT NEED ANY MORE FABRIC! But somehow I still bought some!!
Those 3 pieces on the left are from Beyond Fabric of Bethnal Green, the top piece was a de-stash bargain from Brioni (a big panel of Cosmo Cricket quilt labels for £2!), and the 5 on the left are from Eternal Maker (who always have the most unusual pieces that I like), I even got a piece of Cotton and Steel - get me!!
I also bought some Aurifil from the Village Haberdashery (I like to spread my purchases about to be fair!) but I've already used up a lot of that in the last week!

And what about my classes? Well they went very well I think. A little rushed as I had originally planned them for a 3 hour slot but they ended up an hour and a half (!), but I got great feedback from my lovely and very talented students. And I've also seen some beautiful finished pieces including this adorable bag that Hadley made for her mum's birthday!

Here's a photo from Friday night, there were a lot of us! And it was in the same very hot restaurant (with the same VERY hot temperatures outside as last year - what are the chances??!), but this year we were at the front of the restaurant and I followed clever Reene who raced ahead to get a seat right by the open door! So it was actually quite pleasant.
And the company was amazing! From left to right (those with heads facing this way) Reene (so pleased to finally meet you!), Marg (my first blogging pal!), Sarah (Fairy Face), Jen (editor Love P & Q), Hadley (Flying Blind...), Cindy (fluffy sheep) ad Trudi (quilting prolifically as always!).

I think this was definitely the best FQR yet. Whether that is because with each year I've become more relaxed and able to be completely myself (loud and opinionated!), know more people and so enjoy the whole experience more, or whether the retreat itself is settling into a lovely vibe I'm not sure, probably a bit of both.
But a huge thank you to Lynne, Brioni and Tasha, for organising it, and also to all the other lovely Retreaters who make this experience so special every year.
See you next year *waves*!!

Using up my class samples again...

I have been very busy with my workshops over the last few months. Most classes involve a degree of class prep plus I quite ofter produce a block during the class. So on Monday I had a great time using up some of my class samples and making them in to useful items.
I have also managed to finish a quilt! But I am saving it for the Blogger's Quilt Festival which starts a week on Friday, so you will have to wait till then to see it.

But I will tell you now that it is made with lots of polka dots and I used some of my scraps to make this Dresden Plate block, which was the sample for the class I did last Sunday. It just makes it look a bit more interesting having the prongs pieced too.

This piece of Circa fabric seemed perfect for the centre and then I couldn't help adding some hand quilting in different coloured perle 8's.

Making this reminded me of a cushion I made about 4 years ago, when this blog was in it's infancy and no one was reading it! It just goes to show that my love of heavy hand quilting over florals with added buttons has been going on for a really long time!
I didn't know about perle cotton number 8's then so I used stranded cotton. And the fabrics were from my long standing Kaffe Fassett collection along with scraps of denim from old jeans.

I loved this cushion so much that I started to make a quilt version. Alas it is still languishing at the bottom of my UFO pile, that level of hand quilting was just too much, even for me!

Over the last 8 weeks I have been teaching an evening class for my Modern Sampler Quilt. I have been making a block along with the class each week so that I can make a second version of the quilt (and it can go in the 'to quilt' pile along with the first one!).

But for some weeks I needed to make a block before the class as well as during (to make sure my method was going to work!), like this Chunky Crosses block (that's just what I call it - does anyone have a better name?).
So this has ended up as a cushion which is already for sale in the shop along with the Dresden one at the top (I really do have enough cushions at home!).

Here are the backs. Lovely Essex Yarn Dyed in black for the Dresden and an old piece of Cath Kidston stripe for the other one.



Week 6 of the MSQ evening class is this unusual Dresden Plate, which I think I am going to call Dresden Village (after a suggestion from someone on Instagram). You make this using an Easy Dresden ruler, which means that you end up with smaller wedge shaped scraps left over.

So I sewed these together and got a smaller, pointier version. Which has now turned in to a tote bag!

We've just got in some new fabric from UK manufacturer Dashwood Studio, And that tortoise print was absolutely perfect to use with this block.

Here is the back - another new dashwood print.

And of course I had to add some buttons too. The middle one fits so perfectly that it doesn't even look like a button!

Here is the tortoise fabric in all it's glory - I just love it!

But this Petite Street Grey Flowers is my favourite. They are very keenly priced at £12 a metre or £2.80 for a FQ of a yard and you can check them all out on our website or in our Edinburgh shop.

Plus we have put together a bundle of 8 fat quarters for only £19.99, including some of 'Flurry' a new Dashwood dotty fabric that Lynne has recently used for this stunning quilt, and which costs just £10.80 a metre!

I am taking a short holiday starting on Friday so don't expect to hear from me again until...