QUILTCON SATURDAY

 I started the day, early at 7am, volunteering a shift until 10am.  I worked in the ticket booth.  People came by to pick up their prepaid tickets or to purchase a day pass.

We started out by tearing the bracelets sheets apart.  I was told they were expecting to sell 1700 today!

I gave each a bracelet for their wrist which would get them into the show.  I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of husbands and companions that were accompanying their quilter.

Then I was off to a lecture about writing Artist's Statements by Robert Bosscher.  It was more informative than I thought it would be and I'm glad I took it.  I will look at artist's statements differently now.

The Featured Speaker this year is Jacqui Gehring.  It was amazing.  The whole house was brought to tears by her emotional talk.  Amazing.

Me, Ethylene and Claudia sat together.

Then, I took another spin around the quilts.  But, somehow ended up in the Vendor Mall, again.  I might have a bit of room left in my suitcase.

Another of the patient but bored companions that was dragged to the show.

QUILTCON THURSDAY

 First day of Quiltcon in Raleigh.  There were so many people!  I was volunteering at the Merchandise Booth from 8am to 10am.  It was non-stop.  I heard they ran out of tote bags before the show opened at 10am.

The big award winners - Ethylene's is right there!

Here is the Best of Show quilt.

"What We Will Use As Weapons:  School Supplies" 
made by Ginny Robinson of Chapel Hill, NC

The back of the quilt

It was so wonderful meeting up with my BravePatch Friends.  We mostly just meet on zoom every week.  Some of them I had never met in real life.  I met Claudia for the first time.

Some of us went out to dinner at a great Lebonese restaurant, Sitti.  The waiter had better things to do, but the food was excellent.  They gave us a postcard with the history of the restaurant and I included it into my sketch.

Dinner with Ethylene, Kim, Robin and Maggie.

GOING TO RALEIGH

 I left Seattle somewhat early for a non-stop flight to Raleigh North Carolina for Quiltcon!  There were lots of other quilters on my flight too. 

I made it to town in time to go to the Awards Celebration.  I sat with my friend Ethylene.  It was so much fun to be there with her when her quilt  won Best Hand Quilting.  Yea Ethylene! and she totally deserved it.  It's a great quilt.

REGISTERING FOR QUILTCON

 Good grief.  This morning at 7am registration for the events at Quiltcon 2024 began.  You can login early and then are randomly assigned a place in the queue.  I was number 2121.  I didn't get a chance to pick events until after 7:35am. 

 I didn't get what I wanted, a tour of the Special Exhibit with Mary Fons.  They were all sold out by the time I got there.  None of my buddies on Brave Patch got in either.

Oh, well.  I did get the lectures I wanted.  I wasn't going for any workshops.  I don't need any more projects.

DAY 4 OF QUILTCON IN ATLANTA

 Last day of Quiltcon and I finally get to actually walk through the show.  I only have one lecture to go to and it's the last of the weekend.  It's a retrospective of the last 10 years of Quiltcon.  

They actually showed my Rhythm in Blues quilt.  I was stunned.

Afterwards, I had to dash off, back to the airport to pick up my rental car.

Then it was back to the hotel to pick up my suitcases, which I had left in in their care.

I ran into Ethylene at the hotel again.  She was on her way to the airport, so I offered her a ride, which was great for several reasons, one of which that she was able to charge up my phone, which was dying.

It was nice to spend a few more minutes with her.

Good bye Quiltcon - see you all next year in Raleigh!

DAY 3 OF QUILTCON2023

 Saturday!  I had a 9am class with David Owen Hastings, "Composing Modern Quilts from Architecture".  I was late because I got lost.  I walked right by the workshop and went way too far in the wrong direction, then had to backtrack.  

David is a good teacher.  He introduced us to the SnapSeed App he uses to manipulate photos.  Then he uses the photos as a jumping off point for quilt designs.

A very interesting class.  I left with lots of ideas bouncing around.

We cut up the images he provided and rearranged them into pleasing composition.

The keynote speaker was Chawne Kimber.  We all rushed after our workshops to the Lecture Hall, which was back over in the hotel.  When I got there the few seats left were in the back row.  But it was a good seat.  There were two big screens next to the stage.

Chawne's speech was excellent.  That's all I'll say.

Afterwards, Ethylene, Sandy and I went out to dinner at Meehan's, an Irish restaurant right down the street from the hotel.  Ethylene and I had Reuben sandwiches.  I gotta say, it was one of the best Reubens I've ever had.  

Then we walked down a few doors to a bar where the LAMQG was hosting a get-together.  Pizza and other appetizers provided, buy your own drinks.  A great time was had by all.

SECOND DAY OF QUILTCON 2023

 It's Friday, and I was supposed to be in a workshop. But, I didn't go because I would rather have spent my day walking the show with Sherri Lynn Wood and other Brave Patch members.

I met up with them all at the Best of Show quilt at 10am. 

Best of Show "Bullseye" by Barbara Strick

I really liked this one - Awarded Quilting Excellence:

" Sawtooth No 3: Betelguese" by Simone Symonds

We had a great time looking at the quilts.  We moved slowly and didn't see the whole show.  

The big group broke up at lunchtime to find something to eat. 

I went to a lecture at 5pm "Printing for Patchwork"

Then it was out to dinner with the group of us that met at Irene Roderick's Workshop in Coupeville last July. 

 Lori, Me, Christi, Nikki and Chandra.

I had this great San Francisco Asian Salad.  Yum.

Some of us enjoyed our dinner more than others.

FIRST DAY OF QUILTCON 2023

 I spent my first day at Quiltcon 2023 in the Small World Workshop with Tara Faughnan.  Quiltcon is being held in a building right next to the hotel.  It was about a 10 minute walk.  Some of the signage left a bit to be desired though.  It was a winding path up stairs, down escalators, down long hallways and through lobbies and more escalators, turn here, turn there.  Follow the crowd.

It was a super workshop.  I loved every minute.  The nuggets of information from Tara were coming almost faster than I could write them down.  

When people asked me after what I thought of the class, my response was, "It changed my life."  And I meant it.  It has.

Wow.

And, the other great thing in this workshop was I finally met some friends I've only known on zoom.  We hugged - it was great.  Ethylene and I agreed to make one section of Small World every day for the #100dayproject.  We're already behind since that started a few days ago.  I'll have some catching up to do when I get home.

Afterwards, Ethylene and I walked through the show a bit.  She left me alone for a few minutes and I went into the Vendor Mall.  I broke my vow to not buy any fabrics.  I couldn't help myself!  I don't get a chance to buy African fabrics very often - and it was only 4 FQs.

Then we went looking for my quilt, Blissfully.

Later, a lot of us from Brave Patch meet for dinner at Sweet Georgia's Juke Joint, a short walk from the hotel.  It was fun meeting everyone, but difficult to talk - the music was too loud.

GOOD LUCK BLUES

I mailed Rhythm in Blues off to Quiltcon today.

Good luck and have fun!

THE FONS

It was a great pleasure and privilege to listen to Marianne Fons and her daughter Mary Fons have a sit down discussion about the past 40 years of quilting. 

Very special.

VFW

The featured speaker at Quiltcon 2020 was Victoria Findlay Wolfe.

I was there. It was a great!

QUILTCON 2020

Opening day of Quiltcon 2020 in Austin, Texas.

The line was long.  Darrell went with me and we went through the whole show.  Good husband.

At the end of the line.

Unfortunately, we were enjoying the show so much, I didn't take any pictures.  Well, we took one...

PINS FOR QUILTCON

Lucky me.  Just in the nick of time, StickerMule had a great offer on 1.5" pins.  Folks attending Quiltcon exchange pins - these will be perfect.

I quickly made up some artwork and sent it in.  The pins should be here next week.  

QUILTCON 2019

Here we are, finally at the main event, Quiltcon in Nashville.

Darrell dropped me off and went to do his own thing.  I waited in lines, first to get my entry badge, then the very long line to get it when the doors opened.

The event was held in the beautiful Music City Center

HELLO QUILTCON

We left early in the morning on Alaska Airlines for LAX.  Our plane was about 1-1/2 late taking off, but this was probably the only time I wasn't hysterically freaking out because we didn't have another flight to catch and we had plenty of time once we get there.  [Alaska Airlines gave us a $75 credit for a future flight, yea!]

We landed, got a rental car, had lunch and then headed to Pasadena.  Darrell dropped me at the Convention Center in Pasadena and he headed to the Gamble House (of course).

I had a great afternoon looking at the quilts and buying stuff.

Here are the highlights:

I didn't get a lot of pictures of quilts.  I didn't think about it until it was about time to go.  

 Goodbye Quiltcon, see you next year...I hope.