Modern Stitching Affair Recap
Modern Stitching Affair, affectionately known as MSA, was this past weekend (also my birthday weekend). I spent it with my sister and a bunch of friends in a hotel in Madison! After MSA, I always question why I don't live in Madison to be able to be with all these fun people more often. Natalie Santini of Hungry Hippie Sews and Violet Craft were the instructors this year.
The weekend was so fun, and we got a lot of awesome swag! There were so many amazing sponsors for the event!
We also got door prizes, and four lucky people got brand new sewing machines!!! Here was my door prize.
Violet Craft taught us tricks for foundation paper piecing on Friday. I love taking classes from multiple people because I always find tips and tricks that I can incorporate! I had purchased her Elephant Abstractions pattern and fabric over 2 and a half years ago and kept it in a project tote box. I did NOTHING with it until this weekend. I was able to finish the entire trunk! Maybe... just maybe I'll still work on the elephant and finish the quilt top this year. We'll see! I also got to meet Kim of Persimon Dreams in person, so much fun to meet internet friends in real life! She too was also making an elephant with lots of color and prints!
My sister foundation paper pieced two different flowers and they turned out so great! I'm so happy she's finally fallen in love with quilting! Violet is fantastic and if you ever get a chance to take a class from her, definitely jump on it!
On Saturday, it snowed. Yes, it snowed in Madison at the end of April. I remembered why I moved south away from the crazy late snow of the north.
However, in this case, we were all inside hard at work on our vinyl and fabric backpacks! Natalie taught us the Wendy (vinyl) and the Trina (fabric) backpacks. The projects are named after the two founders and organizers of MSA. I had never sewn with vinyl before and absolutely fell in love! I made the large Wendy, and my sister made a medium Trina.
After finishing the Wendy, I started making vinyl pouches and whipped out these 3 in no time at all! I realized I could make a large project bag for my elephant pieces! I definitely see more vinyl sewing in my future. I cannot stress just how fast these sew together!
I just realized I never got a photo with Natalie, boo... maybe next time! She is so fun and sweet in real life with the most vicious dragon face! Take my word on it. Don't make her mad.
One of the other really fun things that happened during MSA is the pouch swap! All the pouches turned in got a number assigned and everyone that brought a pouch to swap, drew a number from a hat, and that's the pouch you got! I got a fantastic pouch from Addie. It's so cute, and she packed it full of goodies.
The coincidental part, Amie got my pouch, and my sister got Amie's pouch! Trisha who came with Amie got my sister's pouch! What are the odds?!
Next year, MSA is going to be the last weekend of April in Madison. I can't wait to go back to hang out with my people.
What is your favorite retreat event?
Join me again on Friday for Friday Foto Fun! Link up and share your progress on your own projects!
Visit my brand new pattern shop and check out directly from my website with Paypal. Click here or on the "Shop My Patterns" link in the toolbar above!
Need more fabric, tools or notions?
Amazon - Shop now!
Fat Quarter Shop - Shop now!
Like my Facebook Page:
Please note this blog post may contain affiliate links, clicking on my affiliate links will not impact the purchase price.
So I have questions! How do you find out about all of these retreats? How do you know about Natalie’s dragon face? Haha — I hope you didn’t make her mad (can’t imagine you doing that)! Last question — did you use a teflon foot while sewing the vinyl? Glad you had fun and so cool that you were able to go with your sister. The pouch coincidence is a great story!
I was actually trying to remember how I found MSA and the only thing I could think of was after I attend Winter Quiltfest (now no longer happening) I googled quilt retreats and found MSA. I jumped on the wait list last year and got in, so I knew about it for this year! Typically, there are multiple people that get in off the wait list because something ALWAYS comes up.
Natalie’s dragon face was during conversations and it was so funny! But scary, haha! I think it’s from her air force background.
As for the vinyl, yes I used a teflon foot! Tara also gave me a silpat sheet (used for baking) to cover the bed of my machine so it didn’t stick there either. It worked pretty well!
Sounds like such a fun time! I enjoy living quilting retreats vicariously through your recaps. Hope you finish your elephant sometime, and your vinyl pouches look so fabulous! One of these years I will make MSA …
BAhahahaha my dragon face made an impact! LOLOLOLOL This was fun to read, thanks Sherry! See you soon. XO
What a great retreat! Some year I will go on one of these – more geared to learning than just doing your own projects. I am glad you enjoyed the vinyl. I wonder if the Supreme slider would help too?
We actually talked about how the slipat sheet might be better than the supreme slider due to cost! The only issue for using the supreme slider in this application is that you’d need the feed dogs exposed, so you’d need to cut a larger hole in the supreme slider!