Amber and I just got back from sunny Austin, Texas for the first ever QuiltCon! QuiltCon was a convention open to the public put on by the Modern Quilt Guild. It was awesome! There were workshops, lectures, a marketplace, and of course, quilts! Amber and I took workshops almost the entire time. Here is the lowdown on QuiltCon 2013.
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| Handmade ribbons awarded to quilts at QuiltCon |
My first class was a Patchwork Skirt class with Jay McCarroll! It was soo fun to spend a day sewing with Jay. He was super encouraging and even drafted us up a pattern when the class balked at the task. We patchworked fabric together during the first part of class and then assembled our skirts.
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| Jay McCarroll drafts a pattern |
I made mine out of a crazy Japanese cat print mixed with some neutrals. I managed to finish the skirt just in time and totally impressed Jay!
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| Jaime and Jay with finished Patchwork Skirt |
On day one Amber took Malka Dubrawsky's Color Your Cloth class, where she learned wax resist fabric dyeing techniques.
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| Malka used a potato masher fro this pattern! |
Everything from veggies to cardboard to kitchen tools like potato mashers can be used to print pattern on fabrics!
On day two, Amber and I were lucky enough to take Improvisational Patchwork with Denyse Schmidt together. This class was so inspiring! We sewed as fast as we could and by the end we each had enough improv blocks for about half a queen quilt top - we're almost there!
Denyse was a fantastic teacher and took time to give everyone some critique and encouraging words. All the class put our blocks up onto boards to view and discuss after each round of quilting - it was a great way to spend a day sewing.
Denyse also had about a dozen of her quilts on display at the QuiltCon exhibit. It was so amazing to see all of these works in person.
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| Some close ups of Denyse Schmidt Quilts and a view of several of her quilts on display. |
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| This is the quilt Denyse actually uses on her bed! ♥ |
There were tons of people at QuiltCon! Quilters, bloggers, designers, everyone! We ran into quite a few friendly faces while we were in Austin including Alexia Abegg of Green Bee Patterns and Design. I happened to be wearing my Amelia dress designed by Green Bee so of course we had to have a photo.
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| Jaime and Alexia Abegg of Green Bee Patterns and Design |
On day three I took Textile Printing class with Lotta Jansdotter. I have always been a fan of Lotta's designs so it was great to meet her and learn from such a master. We learned both block printing as well as stenciling.
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| Jaime's practice block prints from Lotta Jansdotter's class |
Ms. Jansdotter was the sweetest person and I couldn't resist having a photo with her while I was wearing my dress in her print!
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| Jaime and Lotta Jansdotter |
Amber's day three class was Improv Round Robin with Sherri Lynn Wood. In this amazing fast-paced class, each person started a quilt top and then at a certain point everyone in class passed their quilt along for another person to work on.
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| Some of the quilts from the Improv Round Robin class. Amber started the top left quilt, but many hands made all of these! |
By the end, nine folks had worked on each quilt, and it was so interesting to see how the quilt evolved as each person added to it.
And now for your viewing pleasure are some of our favorite quilts from QuiltCon!
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| Victoria Findlay Wolfe - Grand Prize Winning Quilt! |
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| Thomas Knauer | Latifah Saafir |
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| Ben Darby |
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| Latifah Saafir |
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| Carolyn Friedlander |
We can't wait for next year, I hope you can all go!
