Monday, October 10, 2011

Sewing Summit!

view from hotel

I got home last night from an awesome two days at the sewing summit in Salt Lake City.   It was so fun to get to meet so many people that I had gotten to know online, take fun classes, and talk about fabric, sewing, blogging (and everything else) endlessly.  There were so many great people there that I wanted to talk to, my only regret is that it wasn't a longer event so that I could really spend time with everyone that I wanted to.

Natalie on balcony

One of the best parts was getting to actually meet Natalie, who I felt like I already knew so well from reading her blog and emailing back and forth.  I was really happy that we were roommates since we got to spend lots of time together and talk each others' ears off :).  Natalie is searching for an academic job now, which means she could end up moving kind of anywhere, and I am not-so-secretly hoping that she will end up in Portland with me!

Free motion quilting

There was so much going on that I didn't take a lot of pictures at the sewing summit (oops), not to mention that the lighting was pretty crummy... but they had a whole room of sewing machines set up that were used both for hands-on sewing classes and then were available for open sewing the rest of the time.  I got to do a lot of the hands on classes which was really fun!  I took a free motion quilting class with Allison from Cluck Cluck Sew - it was great to get her tips and get to practice more, I am definitely still building up my FMQ chops.  Check out the awesome floral design she quilted above!

Improv pieced block

I have really been wanting to try improv piecing so I loved the improv piecing class with Jess from Urban Patchwork.  She had some great tips too (and beautiful example quilts - wish I had gotten a photo of some but you can see lots on her blog).  I will definitely have to do more of this, it was so fun and low-stress and I love how it looks!

home decor panel

We participated in a fun discussion about incorporating modern sewing into your home decor - lots of great ideas came up and Erin had pulled together this great spread of examples too.

rainbow charms

I joined in a great rainbow charm swap that Kati of From the Blue Chair organized - what a great way to do this!  Now I just have to think what I should do with these lovelies...

stacked coins quilt top

I had brought a pile of fabrics from my stash in case there was time to sew, thinking that I could make a quick quilt top for 100 Quilts for Kids and get the quilt done before the October 14 deadline (um, just looked that up to put it in here and realized how soon it is - eep!  Hope I have time to finish it before then... if not, I will still finish and donate later).  Anyways, Natalie and I decided it would be a fun project to knock out in an hour or two (um, kind of late at night), and it was super fun!  I have never really sewn or quilted with a friend before, it was like having a fabulous quilt assistant - she did all the cutting and most of the ironing so I mostly just had to sew things together.  Plus she was a great advisor with tips for how to make a stacked coins quilt super fast (I had never made one before) and design advice.

swag and prizes

Last but not least, there was a ton of swag and prizes (and then we went to a fabric store on top of that), here is just a small selection of some of the stuff I came home with - an apron kit that I won, aurifil thread, a kona charm pack, an izzy and ivy pattern and clothing labels, insul-bright insulated batting (all of those from the amazing swag bag), and my favorite, the Kona color card that they gave out to everyone in Jeni's class on fabric selection.  Wow!

Hope to see all you wonderful ladies next year!!

14 comments:

  1. That sounds like the best trip ever! I am envious of your colour card too!

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  2. Hi Kate! Thank you for sharing your experiences! That must have been extra ordinary weekend! Amazing to meet all quilting and blogging friends! Everything look so exiting and interesting!
    xxx Teje

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  3. So glad I got to meet you, Kate!! And I'm super glad you got a photo of Allison's awesome flower quilting, mine turned out horribly blurry. Love that subtle curve in your improv block!

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  4. It was so great to meet you, and hang out! I'm glad you were able to knock out the quilt top.

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  5. It was so great to meet you :) It was a great weekend!

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  6. So fun to meet you! I love seeing your charms all spread out like that. I still haven't taken the time to organize mine. Such a fun weekend!

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  7. What a fun post! Sounds like you had a great time!

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  8. Awww, so many wonderful Sewing Summit posts floating around today. Sounds like an awesome time!

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  9. So great meeting you and hanging out for a few hours, Kate! Hope we can do it again next year. : )

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  10. Hey Kate, it was so cool to keep bumping into you there, now that you're in town, we can hang out more! It was definitely too short of a trip, but super fun, so many great people. See you at the guild meeting next week?

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  11. looks like you had a great time: very jealous!

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  12. I agree, it was such a great weekend!! I, too, think it would be awesome to live closer, that sewing together thing is amazing! I can't believe the weekend is over already, I guess we'll just have to do it again soon :)

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  13. It was so great to meet you! Love the curved seem on your improve block, mine are really wimpy. Your Quilts for Kids top is so pretty, can't wait to see it finished.

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  14. yah!! I loved reading your recap. It was an awesome weekend. Wishing we had crossed paths. I was born and raised in Portland. We could have chatted and not just about quilting and fabric.

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