Right off, I'll just say
QuiltCon was nonstop, overflowing, overwhelming, and absolutely amazing. Every day, we hit the ground running, and we fell into bed late at night filled to the brim and exhausted. It's hard to even know where to start when it comes to sharing the experience, and knowing so many of us have shared extensively on
Instagram, now that I'm home, I'll just share some highlights. It could take a few posts, but I certainly don't want to forget.
One of the things I was most looking forward to was the Emphasis class with
Carolyn Friedlander. Honestly, when I registered for the class, I thought it was topical - about adding emphasis to a quilt. In actuality, it was a paper-piecing class making the pattern Emphasis, from Carolyn's book,
Savor Each Stitch: Studio Quilting with Mindful Design. I was eager enough to meet and learn from Carolyn that I took the class anyway, even though you know paper-piecing isn't necessarily my favorite. BUT, I learned several new techniques in the class that made the actual paper-piecing in the class easier, so I'm really pleased I took it, am excited to finish the project I've started.
Carolyn and all of our projects on the design wallThe other class I took was Basic Improv Quiltmaking with the
Quilters of Gee's Bend. It was definitely an honor to be in class with them, and touching to have them begin class with a song and a prayer. After that, though, there was no instruction other than "start sewing." So we did. After working on my piece for a while, one of them caught me mulling over what to do next. I was told, "your heart will tell you."
The Quilters of Gee's Bend - China Pettway, Mary Ann Pettway, Lucy Lee Witherspoon, Gloria Hobbins - and meAfter making a
Cargo Duffle specifically to take to QuiltCon, I couldn't resist joining in on the
Noodlehead bag meet up, though I know there were
way more Noodlehead bags there!
And another fun thing to do was to take the Test Your Kona IQ challenge! You got 2 1/2 minutes to try and identify 30 colors, and I came away with a score of 200 (out of 300). Not bad! Made me realize I really need to see all of those newest colors though.