I returned home from Austin late Monday and I’m still settling in. Quiltcon was an amazing, exciting, organized, super fun event that I can highly recommend. My head is spinning with inspiration and ideas…who wants to unpack and do laundry? Not me.
I had the honor of teaching 2 classes of lovely women. We made the Sweet Life Pillow from my book Present Perfect. The best part for me is meeting new people and getting to work with them in real life (I know, right?) as opposed to the virtual online world that I live in most of the time.
Here’s most of my Saturday class and their beautiful bees! It’s so fun to see all of the color and fabric combinations. It’s great when people grasp on to an idea or a technique and run with it! Making it your own is what it’s all about.
Here’s a selection from Sunday’s class (sorry if I missed photographing anyone’s!). They are all so different and wonderful and fresh!
We started off the class learning how to do reverse appliqué by stitching a “test leaf”. It was a non-intimidating way get started. This looks harder than it is! Because you layer the felt and fabric, stitch, then cut away the felt, you can’t really make a mistake.
I’d love to show you the quilt exhibit that I found so inspiring! The best way is to offer you some links to some media coverage that QuiltCon received.
I will share one photo I took with my phone on the show floor. This is just a portion of a quilt from Bill Volckening’s collection called Quilts of the 70’s. I LOVED these quilts. Most were made from unconventional fabrics (like bold polyester prints and neckties!) and the colors just jazzed right off the quilts! I am definitely thinking differently about my vintage fabric stash…
All in all it was a fabulous experience! I also got to take a class with Anna Maria Horner, hang out with my pal Melissa Averinos (who had an award-winning quilt in the show!) meet many new people and eat my way around Austin, yum!
Great class! Thanks so much!
Cool, I’m so glad you liked my groovy, vintage 1970s quilts. You can see more at my blog, Wonkyworld. The quilt pictured here is the very first one I acquired that was made in the 1970s. It triggered a frenzied four-or-so years of collecting, when I acquired 100 quilts and created the “Modern Materials” collection. Most of the quilts cost me $50 or less. It was stunning to see them in the show at QuiltCon.