QuiltCon - Gifts, Friends, and Shopping

QuiltCon Atlanta concluded Sunday afternoon at 4 pm, but to get home at a decent hour (a six hour drive), we left at about 1 pm. I could have stayed longer. There was so much to see this year! 

Where to begin?

Well, my QuiltCon posts will need to be in installments!

This one is about friends I was privileged to hang out with, particularly those who I get to spend time with only at QuiltCon, and about shopping... because the first thing I've been doing (after laundry) is putting away my purchases.

As many of you know, I made travel trays to take and give as gifts. For those who may be new to my blog, you can get the free pattern by choosing "Tutorials" from my home menu. Travel Tray is the first tutorial listed.

I rolled-up each travel tray around a slip of paper that explains how to use a travel tray. 

I enjoyed giving these to special quilters. Below... the four quilters in the top row are people from whom I have taken workshops: (L-R) At QuiltCon, Laura taught "Reimagine the Classic Tied Quilt"; also at QuiltCon, Youngmin taught "Jogakbo with Ssamsol Technique"; in 2022 I took Amy's virtual workshop called "Improv Paper Piecing," and we shared an enjoyable dinnertime together in Atlanta; and Sujatah taught me Kawandi in one of her first virtual workshops in November 2020. 

Quilters in the bottom row have become good friends: (L-R) Candi is a member of the Jacksonville (FL) MQG, has taken two of my workshops, and we occasionally FaceTime to talk about quilting. She's standing in front of Rising Tides, her accepted quilt entry in the Windham Ruby + Bee Fabric Challenge; Sandra is a quilt maker from Germany who I met at QuiltCon 2022 in Phoenix; and Clara, who lives in NYC, is the quilter who's making a "Quilt of Things I Love" and is putting my ukulele block into that quilt.

Of course, I missed taking a picture of the first travel tray I gave away to Patty Dudek @elmstreetquilts who initiated and coordinated the making of our group Rube Goldberg quilt Patent Pending. But here we are. Patty, who lives in North Carolina, is on the right. 

Our group picture with the Patent Pending quilt was missing two contributors, but L-R are: me; Patty, Kitty Wilkin @nightquilter; Val @valbetweenquilts; and Charles Cameron @feltlikesweets

Pointing at the blocks we each made...

...with a close-up of my block - an Aurifl thread spool/wheel and a thimble. Patty did a great job of domestic machine quilting it so the viewer's eye could follow the "movement" of the ball, traversing from the upper left side of the quilt to the lower right. 

On the receiving side, three friends gave me these gifts! At the top is a covered notebook from Patty, who foundation paper-pieced a seam ripper using fabric scraps from Patent Pending. The same seam ripper is in the quilt! Patty wrote the sweetest thank-you note too.

The strawberry covered notebook is from Sandra (brought all the way from Germany!) and it already contains notes from a workshop I took.

The capital "L" embroidery in the little hoop is from Clara. She hand-stitched my initial, and the background is entirely hand-stitched palm fronds!

Such thoughtful friends!

The quilt show and vendors were on three floors of the Atlanta AmericasMart. Two floors included vendors - more than I've ever seen at a QuiltCon. By my personal count, there were 97 vendors!

My first purchase was QuiltCon magazine. I love the quilt on the cover! A couple other random items here are a Lego sewing machine kit from Sewtopia, and a color card (free!) of 50 Spoonflower solids.

The magazine cover quilt is Partisan, made by Susan Braverman @wildpoppyquilts of San Antonio for the Log Cabin Challenge. Susan had four quilts in the show, and all four of them sold!

Made by Susan Braverman

Restocking thread was a priority, so these came home with me from Wonderfil, Aurifil, and Material Goods booths. Nine balls of perle cotton are size 8 Eleganza (for Kantha), and two spools of size 12 variegated Spagetti are by Wonderfil (for Kawandi); ten spools of 80-weight thread are from Aurifil (for hand appliqué; I was thinking of you Anorina @sameliasmum!); and on the left is a skein of Sashiko thread that has been suggested for hand-quilting. 

Sallie Tomato, a shop that specializes in tote, purse, and bag-making supplies, offered everything in their booth 25 percent off! What you see below is 2 yards of aqua vinyl; ½ yard of cork, and some hardware. Aren't those zipper pulls cute? (scissors and snips) 

Not surprisingly, my biggest investment was in fabric. On the right are four pieces of Painter's Palette Solids - (a free fq of oyster is on top), followed by cherry bloom, pumpkin, and honey that are new colors; black and white striped fabric (of course!); five pieces of linen; a couple pieces of Kaffe Fassett shot cotton; a package of 12 5" X 5" squares of Kantha (fabric from an old quilted sari that was cut up); and an 18-fat quarter bundle of Anna Maria Horner fabrics. Since I never (or very seldom) buy precuts, you might wonder how I came by the AMH bundle. 

Saturday morning was a QuiltCon "Leadership Mix and Mingle," sponsored by FreeSpirit Fabric who gave away all manner of their precuts. To win, attendees responded to questions. The one that won me the AMH bundle was "Who here has been involved with the MQG for the longest?" I responded, "November 2012" because that's when I hosted the first meeting of quilters to help me start a MQG chapter in Florida.

Of about 40 attendees, I won the fabric bundle, though I quickly realized that I was wrong about when I started in the MQG! In fact, I was a co-organizer, with Doris Brunette @madebyabrunette, of the Des Moines MQG (now Central Iowa MQG) back in 2010. Guess you could say I'm a long-time MQGer!

Not to leave this blog post without more eye-candy, this is the QuiltCon 2023 Best of Show. It's Bull's Eye, a 70" X 70" quilt made by Barbara Strick of California.

These close-ups show you how organic her quilting is...

...and what the quilt looked like from the back. 

To see all the 2023 QuiltCon Award-Winners, go here. And I have more quilts to share in another post!  Linda