QuiltCon Wrap Up Part 5: Lady Harvatine Sightings (and the end!)

Saving the best for last?  I might think so but I'm clearly biased.

First and foremost we have the Log Pyramids quilt that I entered into the show.  I didn't win any prizes (boo hoo) but I was still super excited to have my quilt hanging among so many other amazing quilts.  Plus I've since found out that my quilt was selected to be a part of the Best of QuiltCon Traveling Show!  So far the show will be making appearances at HMQS in Salt Lake City, Sisters in Sisters, Oregon and Patchwork Europe in France with more stops possibly in the works.

Although I did not win anything, this mini quilt inspired by my Confetti Quilt tutorial won an honorable mention!  The quilt was made by Felicity Ronaghan from Vancouver and was entered in the handwork, small quilts category.  Felicity gave me a very nice little shout out in her quilt description.

And last but not least, there were a couple of sample quilts made from one of my patterns hanging up in different vendor booths!  This was such a great surprise!  (Mine is the the one with all of the squares.)

You may or may not have seen this pattern before.  For the last several months it has been available on the Robert Kaufman website but due to my lazy blogging I never got around to sharing it here.  The good news is that you can now get the pattern from my shop!  It's called the Mosaic Lap Quilt and I will do a much more detailed post about the quilt and the pattern very soon.  But if you're interested now you can check out the pattern here!

QuiltCon Wrap Up Part 4: The Good Times

Are you tired of these posts yet?  I'm alllllllmost done.  Just one more after this.

It probably goes without saying that I had a great time at QuiltCon.  The LAMQG had a great contingency and it was so much fun to hang out with everyone.  We also had several guild members who've moved away come to QuiltCon and it was so nice to get to see them all again!

This is only some of the LA guild that was there.  It was hard to get everyone together for a photo.

This was highlight from my weekend, for obvious reasons!  I promise I only asked to take a pregnant lady photo with Anna, it was her idea to touch bellies!  Of course I was secretly hoping we could do that.

 Emily, who's one of our LAMQG members gone on to new frontiers, was one of my roommates.  Here we are at the Michael Miller booth.

Lovely ladies out for dinner before the 80's Dance Party.  The party was tons o' fun, and that's coming from a pregnant lady who couldn't have any cocktails and who didn't think she would be up for dancing very much (she was).

And of course, the good times wouldn't be complete without sharing the loot that I brought home.

QuiltCon Wrap-Up Part 3: The Workshops

I took two workshops at QuiltCon.  The first was a half day class with Lotta Jansdotter, textile printing. I love Lotta's fabrics and I just wanted to spend a little time with her and learn a little about the way she works.  The class was really fun.  She had us try two different methods of printing, stenciling and block printing.

The little half moons in the photo below are my stenciled design and the triangles are block printed.  Because this was just a half day class and we did two techniques, we really just got a quick overview of each.  But it was great to learn from Lotta and to see that, no big surprise, she's got a really loose and free-spirited attitude when it comes to printing and design.  We kept hearing "Figure out what works for you!"  I know there are people who don't respond well to such loose structure but it's definitely a big part of the way I work and I enjoyed it.

The second class I took was a full day, block printing with Lizzie House.  I know it seems weird that of all the workshops I had to choose from I picked two on the same subject but in my defense, I didn't know that Lotta's class would entail block printing when I signed up.  Once I realized what we would be doing I was a little nervous that Lizzie's class the next day would be a little redundant.  Thankfully I had nothing to worry about.  

Lizzie's class was completely different from Lotta's.  She has a very strong background in block printing and she treated the workshop like more of a class you'd take in art school.  She had us start by drawing, giving us prompts like autumn, sewing notions, etc. to inspire us and we moved onto the block carving from there.  She was very helpful and engaged with each student every step of the way and gave us tons of useful information and tips while still having fun and chatting with us.  At the end of the class she made sure to reserve plenty of time for us to display all of our work on a design wall and had us each talk about what we had done and get feedback from her.  

Below is the geometric print that I came up with.  I wanted to make something like this with a repeat and Lizzie gave me great advice on how to make it happen.  While I love the free wheeling, organic approach of Lotta's style, my left brain really appreciates the structure and focus of Lizzie's.  After all, I do have degrees in math and computer science.  The logic and structure love is still strong within me!

When I chose these workshops I was trying to pick things that I probably wouldn't do on my own, which is how I ended up in two printing classes (I also considered a class with Malka Dubrawsky!).  I do really well teaching myself things from books or the internet, or just figuring stuff out as I go so I never feel a great need to take quilting classes.  However, I did learn through taking a class with Elizabeth Hartman last fall that it can be very fun to just spend a day trying something new with a cool teacher, even if it's something I could figure out on my own.  At QuiltCon, I found myself wishing I was going to do some sewing (duh), so next time around I will keep these things in mind and really push myself when choosing workshops.  The ones I took were really wonderful and I'm so glad I took them but I had time for more and I wish I had taken advantage of it.  Of course, the amazing thing about these classes is that even though I didn't get to sew in them, I got to make some awesome fabric that I can't wait to sew with.

QuiltCon Wrap Up Part 1: The Quilts!

I returned home from Austin Sunday night and I'm still riding high on a weekend full of amazing quilts, wonderful friends and incredibly talented and inspiring people.  A lot of people worked incredibly hard to put together this event and they all deserve a huge thank you.  It was an unbelievably awesome convention and I am so excited to go again in 2015.

I want to do a big QuiltCon wrap up so I'm going to split it up over several (five?) posts so you don't get too overwhelmed.  I hope that anyone who couldn't make it can look at these photos and read what I have to say and feel a little inspired and not too sad.  I know there are a lot of you out there who were bummed to be at home this past weekend.  Well I'll tell you now, it was completely worth the trip so start saving your pennies and making plans for 2015!  I want to see you there!

Let's dive right into the main event:  the quilts!  It was so great to be able to walk through a quilt show where everywhere you turned there was something beautiful and inspiring rather than trying to seek out any little bit of modern design amongst the hoards of traditional quilts.  These photos are just a small number of the quilts in the show.  Looking back through my photos I've realized I was a little too lax in my photo taking because some of my favorites aren't here, including some incredible quilts by my friends and guild members!  So if you want to see more than I have here I guarantee there are millions of photos that are yours for the browsing on flickr, instagram and elsewhere.

One of the first quilts you saw when walking into the main hall was the QuiltCon raffle quilt.  I'm sure you've seen this one around the internet.  The blocks were chosen from all of the ones submitted for the MQG challenge and the blocks that weren't chosen were put together to make 46 quilts for all of the beds at the Austin Children's Shelter.  Those quilts were on display in the lecture hall and it was pretty amazing to see them all up there together.

The center of the hall had an amazing display of Denyse Schmidt's quilts.  I know it's not news to anyone that Denyse is an incredibly talented designer and I'm sure it's no surprise that she has been at the top of the list of quilters I admire from the very beginning.  Seeing her work in person was truly inspirational.  Unfortunately I didn't get the names of all of these.

Glass House Shelves - Denyse Schmidt

Hope as the Anchor of the Soul #2

This is a detail shot of the quilt above.  Denyse had several quilts on display that had the selvedge edge worked into the quilt top in this way.  I thought it was such a beautiful detail.

Now for the rest of the show!

This next quilt was the best in show, a very cool, modern take on a double wedding ring pattern. 

Double Edged Love, made by Victoria Findlay Wolfe and quilted by Lisa Sipes.

 I really loved the quilting on this one.  I don't think it has quite the same effect in the photo as it did in person.  The quilter used multiple colors of thread, pulling from the palette in the fabrics.  I'd love to try this sometime.

Detail of Maasai Diamonds, made and quilted by Amy Ellis

 This quilt won Judges Choice and second place in the Handwork category.  I loved the little bits of different red fabric.

Untitled - made and quilted by Lindsay Stead

 This quilt was made by my good friend Alissa Haight Carlton and I got to see it at multiple stages of completion.  It really came out incredible!

Bias - made and quilted by Alissa Haight Carlton

You Rule - made and quilted by Brigitte Heitland 

Untitled - made and quilted by Lindsay Stead

Right Here - made and quilted by Thomas Knauer

RGB Modern - made and quilted by Sherri Lynn Wood

The Big O - made and quilted by Latifah Saafir

Impracticality - made and quilted by Angela Walters

Apiary - made and quilted by Casey York

These are far from my only favorites from the show but they're definitely a good start.  I will share more highlights from Austin soon!

QuiltCon here we come!

And by we, I mean my quilt and I of course.

I'm calling this bad boy Log Pyramids.  Get it? 

Of course, the quilt is already at the show in Austin.  In fact, I'm pretty sure it's already been judged.  Yipes!  Wish me luck!

I wanted to do a play on log cabin blocks using triangles as the "hearth" instead of a square.  The center triangles are random sizes as are the strips around them.

The solids are all Kona cottons and the rest of the fabrics are various neutral polka dot prints.

Since I couldn't find a triangle template larger than 12", I had a plexiglass template custom made so that I could cut the blocks down to size.  I couldn't come up with an easy way to trim them down to the same size while keeping them centered using regular rulers.

Because I designed and made this quilt expressly to enter into the show at QuiltCon, I was extra careful with all of my piecing and I must say, I'm very proud of the result.  Look at those points!

In fact, I liked this quilt so much that I used a photo of it to make this snazzy new case for my snazzy new phone!

I've been thinking of doing a tutorial for this quilt or even, dare I say it, a quilt-along?!?!  If I can drum up enough interest, it's on. 

I arrive in Austin tomorrow evening so I will miss the first day, including the awards ceremony but after that I'm in for three fun-filled days of lectures, workshops, hanging out with my quilty friends and hopefully making some new ones.  So if you're going and you spot me or my log pyramid phone case be sure to say hi!