The Official Sewing Summit Recap!

It's been a week since I returned home from the Summit. It's time for the real recap!

I'm going to try to stay chronological ... we'll see how well that works!

Thursday: 

I was flying standby (thanks Nick!!!) which means I may end up on the first flight I try for, or it may take several flights without getting a seat. Hence I started on Thursday! I checked in, was amazed that I didn't have to pay any fees for my flight (!!!), and I landed the very last seat on the first flight I tried for!!! 

Once in Salt Lake City, I met up with my friend Amy at the airport - Amy's a non-sewing summit friend, who took the trip out to hang out with me and be my roomie during the Summit. Pretty awesome! :) We hitched a bus ride to her friend David's work, dropped our luggage and went to see the city! We visited the temple area and all the cool Mormon stuff. My favorite was the roof of the convention center. It really was cool. How about those mountains??!! Did I mention it snowed Thursday? It did. I'm glad I brought my coat!

Amy and I had dinner with David - at fabulous Faustina's! Yum, I'm still dreaming of that butternut squash soup! We stayed at David's apartment Thursday night to cut down on cost - and because he's a great guy - with a really comfy couch!!

Friday we checked in to the Little America Hotel. Our room was beautiful, although it didn't have quite the view as many of the other rooms did! Amy and I took the Trax down to Pine Needles for some fabric shopping, lunch, then shopping around the village there. I definitely took two trips through the checkout line at Pine Needles, and ended up with a lot of loot! 

Friday  night was the welcome reception, which was really cool to meet so many online friends all at once! I also heard several "oh I read your blog" comments from people that I didn't even know! What a great feeling! I also met up with most of my {Sew}Beautiful Bee ladies. We went out to dinner at Settobello's and it was amazing! David and Amy came along too. 

After dinner Amy and I joined the crazy party in Kaelin's room where everyone was turning in their FQ's for the FQ swap on Saturday. We sat around talking about fabric and sorting everyone's FQ's by color. It was so surreal to me to sit in a room with that many people who knew all these fabric designers etc. Very cool.

Saturday:

Saturday was packed! Starting with my Couch 2 5K run in the morning (week 7 finished!!) then breakfast and classes all day! I took Bag Making 101 with Bari J, then Quilting at Home with Allison. I've been a reader of Allison's pretty much since I started reading blogs, so that was very surreal. I guess I already know how to free motion quilt on my home machine... so I just practiced a bunch. I was working specifically on my fmq'd words. 

After lunch I took Creative Fabric Selection with Jeni. Pretty awesome, and at the end of the class - a great big surprise! Kona color cards for all! Amazing! lol.

After Jeni's class I took Marvelous Mini's with Amanda. Let me tell you, this was the class I was looking forward to the most. I'm not exactly sure why. Was it because I love making mini quilts? Or because I've adored Amanda's work forever....? Both? But the reason that the class spoke to me the most I think was the excitement and encouragement in the way that Amanda spoke. I can't put it into words but it made me want to sit down and make a million doll quilts and feel awesome about it. Also, she showed a picture of her journal cover, that inspired mine, and the girl next to me noticed! :) Fabulous class all together, and we got to see lots of her mini's and share our own too. 

After the class I had to go give Amanda a hug! I'm not sure she knows how inspiring her work is! She's a pretty awesome person to chat with too. 

For dinner Friday night a group of 12 participants were chosen for a discussion group/dinner with Martingale publishing. The food was mediocre, but the conversation/questions were pretty cool. They wanted to know a lot about what we're looking for in books, how much we use technology (blogs/flickr/etc) for inspiration, etc. I really enjoyed the discussion, even though I never follow patterns and rarely use patterns from books either. I love looking through books though in the same way I love flickr and pinterest. I think Martingale heard a lot of new things from us! As a thank  you and as part of the discussion they provided us each with three new sewing books. None that I would have bought myself, but pretty to look at. 

Saturday night was the FQ swap - I can't believe nobody got trampled. lol. And I went home with a fabulous stack of fabrics!! 

That evening Amy came down to the sewing room with me and sewed up some charm squares -- her very first stitches by machine!!! She did pretty awesome, and pieced together a little doll quilt top. She headed to bed since her plane left early Sunday morning, so I finished it up for her to take home!!

Sunday:
I took Photographing your Creations with Vanessa. She taught us a cool thing or two about taking pictures. Then was Improv Piecing with Jessica. We were in the Baby-lock sewing machine classroom and received scraps to work with. Here's my block... which was promptly made into this mini quilt when I got home!

And then just as quickly as it started, the Summit was over. :( 

Since I wasn't leaving until Monday morning, I stayed with Cara Sunday night, and hung out with Michelle, and Cherie too. 

So ending thoughts on the weekend? I had an excellent time. I only spent about half of my fabric budget (a fact remedied on that first day home! Thank you online fabric stores!). I loved meeting everyone - both those who I knew online and those that I didn't. It really was surreal. On the downside though, I didn't feel very challenged by any of the classes. I guess maybe that's a good thing, I'm ahead of some of the crowd right? I was however, really really inspired by the classes. The whole weekend was very inspiring. It felt very good to be a person for a while, rather than just a mom. It was cool to eat without distractions, and shower when I wanted to. lol. I would consider going again next year if I'm financially able... it was pretty expensive in all though, so we'll see. I have a couple posts to share about things I've made since the Summit, that were inspired by the classes I took there. Also on the downside, my skin and lungs hated Salt Lake; it was too dry or something, and I've been wheezing and itchy ever since. God help me with all these stupid allergies. lol. 

PS it was still 70 degrees out here in Chicago when I returned! 

Quilt Dreams

Here's a first look at my Sewing Summit inspired doll quilt! 

This weekend I took free motion quilting (by Allison of Cluck Cluck Sew), improv quilting (by Jess of Urban Patchwork), color theory (by Jeni of In Color Order), and Doll Quilts (by Amanda of Msmcporkchop Quilts).

I left with lots of inspiration and we can all say that Amanda should be the resident motivational speaker for doll quilting! I left thinking, "I need to make a doll quilt now!!" Which, so to say, isn't out of the normal since I love making small quilts anyhow. 

On the plane ride home from Utah the idea for this quilt popped into my mind. I took my improv block from Jess's class, added a bike and some free pieced words (thanks Martingale for making me look again at that hideous book -- I didn't follow the patterns for their letters, but I did glance over when I was stuck on the "m"). I also imployed my free motion quilting -- and attempted that roboty square FMQ style. I'm not very good at it but it was fun. 

Oh and I used my new friend Dana's tutorial for loopy FMQ'd hearts! So now we're even, she used my tiny wonky stars tutorial, and I am completely in love with those loopy hearts! 

In case you're wondering... the title of this post is the name of the quilt. Quilt Dreams... you know, the girl on the bike (me) dreaming of quilts as she's riding! I think I'll rip out the bubble around the "quilt" and re-do it though... it's not round enough! I'm pretty much in love with this little one.

Linking up to Fabric Tuesday over at Quiltstory!

It's going to take a while for me to decompress enough to be able to share everything amazing that happened this weekend. I'm working on it. At this point I'm mostly exhausted! The summit was great and we had an awesome time... I got home yesterday to an empty house (my husband and daughter were on a trip with his family) and I had some fun sewing time. Then today I didn't feel like getting out of bed at all... I literally slept until 2pm! And I still feel like a train hit me - exhaustion! It was all worth it though!

practice from the FMQ class.

I'll share a few little peeks into the weekend now. But don't worry, I'll be posting in full about it soon! I'm really glad I was able to pull it all together and get there! What a spectacular time! I'm so lucky to have been able to meet so many wonderful people! I'm really inspired right now (and exhausted, did I mention that?). 

View from my room the last night.

So, these pics will have to tide you over until later! Enjoy!

I'm not sure how I made it home without checking any baggage!

IT'S HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(almost)

The Sewing Summit! I can't believe it's this weekend!!!!!!!!!!! 

In case you don't know what I look like... you'll notice me right off - I'll be the nearly bald one! :)

I hope someone brings a pair of lefty scissors ... lol. 

Staying Organized At The Summit

Here's my goal. To have this book with me at all times.

I'll be

• taking notes
• writing down names
• writing reminders for myself (ex: look for this book...)
• sketching ideas
• writing down funny "remember-whens" (these always occur in high frequency with Amy around!)
• and asking for your autograph! (just kidding ... although I may be tempted with all of this talent around!!)

I'll also have my new envelope system with me. So I don't over spend. And also truthfully, so I'm not affraid to spend money that I've saved just for this. I've never made/used one of these before, but have seen them on pinterest so I'll make one and give it a shot. I plan to keep a tally of what I've spent and where on the outside of the envelopes. My categories will include money just for fabric. :) 

Maybe I'll even make one of these bookmark/book holder deals too. 

Moo! (mini)

I used the Sewing Summit as an excuse to finally order myself some Mini Moo Cards. I've been enthralled by them ever since I received one in a swap package (some time ago). They're only about $20 for a box of 100 but it took me a long time to break down and buy them since they are completely unnecessary

. 

They sure are cute though!! The fronts have closeups of some of my work, and the backs have my name with links to my blog and flickr accounts. :) If you're at the summit be sure to ask me for one! :) 

Playing Fabric Store

This time it's me playing fabric store! 

Today I sat down to decide which fabrics I'd bring for the FQ swap at the Sewing Summit. I've never really cut fabric before but it wasn't too bad. I folded them in the same way that my local quilt shop (Quiltology) does. I added a couple new ones from Quiltology to the pile too. I sure hope someone likes those shopping ladies. I've got 9 FQ's to add to the mix there... hopefully I'll come home with nine that I'll use right away!!

Oh those shopping ladies!

Let the countdown begin!

My Name Is...

I finished my name tag for the sewing summit. Ok ok, I do still have to pink the edges and add a pin to the back. But to me it's finished! The star there is my signature block - a tiny wonky star... it measures just about 1" from point to point! Then I free motion quilted my name, flickr name, and blog name too. My biggest worry while at summit is that I'll forget which name goes with which blog... lol. So at least with this others won't have to worry about remembering my names!

In just three weeks I'll be there!!! Sewing Summit here I come! :)

Sewing Summit - one more month!!

One month from now I'll be in Salt Lake City for the Sewing Summit! I can't believe it's almost time already!
If you've been following along on their website, you'll know that they've been hosting a series on bags and such for travel (travel to the Summit that is!). I finally got my act together and made up a couple travel items for myself.

First I made this awesome purse. You can see by my pinterest board that I've been thinking of making myself a new purse for a while. I've had three problems with this idea, 1) I don't like buying patterns, 2) I don't like following patterns, 3) I don't tend to have more than a FQ/quarter yard of any one fabric in my stash... (with the exception of fabrics that are designated to a specific project). I decided on a whim to cut into the yard of the new AMH fabric that I had (after declaring my need to buy the blue color-way for my mom's quilt instead) - and used a great pair of corduroy pants that I have loved forever (but the button ripped on them so they're not wearable/repairable). The seam you see down the middle of the corduroy side happens to be the side seam of the pants... This pattern barely fit! :)

I used this tutorial from very purple person. It was very straightforward and not hard at all. I put this bag together in just an hour or two one evening. I didn't use any interfacing at all - since the corduroy has a bit of weight to it already. I don't think my pattern pieces printed out at the right size - from the pictures her bag is a bit bigger than mine, but I like mine just as well. And I only used about half a yard of my beloved AMH fabric! So I can make more pretties with the leftovers.

I have thought about ripping out a couple stitches to add a magnetic button, but since it's reversible I can't see a way to make that work... any ideas??

Then last night I decided on a whim to make a couple cute luggage tags for the trip too. Although I'm not planning on checking any luggage, I'm sure this will look just as well on my carry-on. I followed this tutorial pretty loosely - and used a freezer ziploc bag instead of the plastic stuff she'd had on hand. So far it seems to have held up pretty nicely. I made one for my friend too - I hope she gets a kick out of it when she gets it in the mail! :)

The Sewing Summit!!!

Have you all heard about the Sewing Summit? I sure hope so! It's a modern sewing and blogging conference that's happening for the first time this October. I'm going (thanks to my benefactors - my work for giving me a bonus at just the right time, my aunt for commissioning me for a big project that she's paying me for, and my parents who have sent "birthday money" to tackle some of the other costs!). Amazing right? I remember when this whole thing was just an idea.... It's really happening. And...

I just registered for my classes today! While I'm at the Summit I'll be taking:

•  Bag Making 101 - by Bari J. Ackerman - Bari offers the basics on handbag construction plus complete instruction on her popular Springtime in Paris Pocketbook. Kit available for pre-purchase on Bari’s website after 9/1. 
• Quilting at Home: Free Motion Quilting for the Modern Quilter - by Allison Harris - The free motion quilting class will cover all of the basics for getting started quilting your own quilts. Everything from set-up, preparation, positioning yourself and your quilt, and quilting designs both simple and advanced. Come learn how you can save money quilting your quilts on your own machine! (classroom fee $3) 
• Creative Fabric Selection: Moving Beyond Fabric Collections - by Jeni Baker - In Creative Fabric Selection, Jeni will help you overcome your color fears! You’ll learn how to put together unique color and fabric schemes for your quilts and other sewing projects! We’ll walk through the color wheel, discuss different types of fabric patterns, building fabric stacks and hopefully, get you thinking about fabric and color in a different way! 
• Marvelous Minis: Packing Lots of Punch into a Mini Quilt - by Amanda Jennings - Amanda will be focusing on getting the most out of small bits of fabric and using them to make heirloom-quality mini quilts. Topics will include finding inspiration, staying motivated, how minis are perfect for all levels of quilting and telling a story with a quilt block. She’ll be sharing my inspiration, mini quilts, examples from my sketch books and more! 
• Photographing Your Creations: Simple Changes for Maximum Impact - by Vanessa Christenson - Anyone who owns a camera can come to this class! There are a ton of photography classes out there that are excellent in teaching you about aperture, shutter speed, and ISO — these skills are awesome to have, but say you know all that stuff already …what then? I think setting up your “scene” is just as important as all the technical stuff. I’ll be teaching you how to take your product (your quilt you want to sell or the home décor you just created a tutorial or pattern for) and I will show you some easy steps to set up the perfect scene for that product. I’ll also touch on how to use a little bit of photoshop, and to use some of the free online editing programs out there to give your picture that much more “WOW” and having people say “did you take that picture? 
• Improv Piecing: How To Think Outside the Box - by Jess Berrett - A hands-on class, where you’ll have a chance to try new techniques for creating lively & unique patchwork, without patterns. We’ll talk about inspiration, simple tips to for better designs, & a little bit of color theory. Using scraps (some of yours + some of ours), you’ll create a small piece of patchwork, which can be used as the start of a new quilt – or on its own as a pillow, place mat, dish mat, etc. (classroom fee $3)

I've gone back and forth all day about whether to take the Photographing one or the ....something about authoring books one. I think that the photography would be cool and I haven't really any intention to write patterns etc. I guess I can go back and change them if I want... but the other one might be booked up.


Anyway. I'm really getting excited about this. I'm planning on flying on a standby ticket from our friend who's a pilot. So - I think I'll arrive at the airport early on Thurs to ensure that I make it in time! :) My friend Amy is meeting me there and we're going to be roomies. She's not going to the conference, but will be sightseeing around the city while I am. It'll be great since I haven't really gotten to travel with her etc since we graduated. She's really excited since she has never been to Salt Lake (she's a Mormon history buff and looooves that sort of thing). I'm excited!! :)

**Edited to add links to the teachers' blogs. I think I "know" all my teachers except for one!**

Are you going??? Let me know if you've signed up for any of the same classes as I have! We'll be class buddies!