This year's QuiltCon was held in Pasadena, CA this past Thursday to Sunday. I traveled out there Wednesday morning and got home late last night! I was also a Super Volunteer meaning I did over 16 hours of volunteering at the event! I look forward to going to Nashville in 2019 and Austin in 2020. It was a super packed few days, so this is a longer post even though it's a summary. Here are some of the highlights:
The quilt show was AMAZING! There were so many great quilts, challenge quilts, and charity quilts. You can look at the #quiltcon2018 hashtag on Instagram to see a much larger gallery, but here are a few of my favorites! Also photographs do not do the quilts justice! (Click on the photos to see the full caption for Quilter information)
Here are my favorite Charity Quilt photos:
I learned so much this year with all the different classes.
On Thursday, I took Exploring the 9 patch with Amy Ellis.
I made 2 different 9 patches that I used PhotoGrid to duplicate. I think these have promise but I still want to do a few more tweaks before I'm happy with the pattern. The lighting in the room was awful and my coral color turned orange and my dark grey turned green!
I did try a 3rd block, but I messed up a few cuts/measurements, so it turned into an improv experience for me! Then I continued and made a few other bits and pieces as well! This was the first time that my square engineering brain let me just play with improv.
On Friday, I took Embrace the Chaos with Libs Elliott. I LOVE this quilt and the process to get the design was super fun! We picked blocks and then did a randomization exercise for placement.
I chain pieced the entire quilt and broke down everything into squares of Half Square Triangles, so I didn’t need to think about all the different types of blocks! My PINK Sunflower Quilts thread cutter was my personal MVP. I forgot to pack mine, but I picked up a Pink one at their booth! Purchase a PINK one here
I was still able to finish the entire quilt top (30"square) minus the fact that it's not very well pressed.
On Saturday, I took a 2 different quilting design classes. The first one was Christine Perrigo where we discussed how quilting could be added as a layer of designs. It was a great class! We were given exercises on paper to fill in with potential quilting. One of the best things that I realized was the 365 Days of Art Challenge has helped my creativity! It was significantly easier to look at a pattern and figure out what to fill up around/over it. I will now need to take finished quilt top photos, print the out, and start planning my quilting!
I took a free motion design class with Angela Walters, too! She is such a great teacher and went through several motifs with modifications to make them different.
On Saturday night, I took a screen printing class with Karen Lewis! I have wanted to do screen printing or really any type of printing for a while, but never tried it! I did 2 different prints during class, and I bought more supplies to do some screen printing at home at a later date! We screen printed on paper before printing on fabric. The white smudges on the fabric were from my hands because I got paint all over my hands! This is also why I don't have many process photos; screen printing is extremely messy. Overall, this was so fun and I can't wait to do more!
On Sunday, I took a class with Weeks Ringle working with the grid design. She also taught us color theory along the way for determining the color of our fabrics and how to use them in a grid. I decided to make a smaller version of her Off the Grid quilt and went through many iterations for color and placement.
I finally decided on a placement and started the grid work background, but I didn't finish the corners of the quilt that will also be in black. I also wore what I finished like a sash!
This was a crazy few days in classes, but I also got to meet some really awesome people. Vanessa Christenson of V&Co. was at the Moda booth the whole weekend. I am obsessed with her fabrics and she is so sweet in real life!
The best part, my mini swap partner, Michelle Bolt, even got the mini she made for me signed by Vanessa! Michelle knew that I loved Ombre and included an amazing English Paper Pieced (EPP) geometric shape in ombre for my mini. How amazing is this quilt?!
In the blogger friend's universe, I also met Liz Wilson from Savor Every Stitch! She is an amazing quilter and it was so fun meeting in real life!
I also got to meet Sarah Maxwell from Designs by Sarah J. She is so sweet and she gave me a bundle of her new fabric to play with and design something fabulous! I can't wait to work her designs!
I even found my quilt block I made in a charity quilt! Michael Miller Fabrics gave away fabric last year for people to send in a 6.5" block to be made into friendship quilts. These quilts are then donated to Quilts For Cure after the event. It was so cool to find my block that I made in one of those quilts!
These are JUST the highlights. I will try to do some more in-depth thoughts on the projects as I finish them. If you are on the fence about going to the next QuiltCon, you should definitely go! It was so great.
See you in Nashville!
Join me again on Friday for Friday Foto Fun and on Sunday for the #365DayOfArtPBQChallenge! Link up and share your progress on your own projects!
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