What's Up Wednesday: QuiltCon Friends

I've been home from QuiltCon for 36 hours and still adjusting to reality and the normal routine.  What a show!  A big thank you is deserved for the board, organizers, teachers, volunteers, vendors and show participants.  There's so much to share that it's impossible to recap six days/five nights of QuiltCon in one post, so I thought I'd start by introducing friends I saw and/or finally met in person (in the order of occurrence), and even that makes for a long post.  

Swap buddy Mary Anne

Mary Anne was the recipient of my For the Love of Solids mini quilt swap - the first ever online swap I participated in.  At the time of the swap, Mary Anne lived in Kansas City but had since moved to Austin, so I knew she would be at QuiltCon!

Photo with Victoria in front of her Best in Show Double Edged Love quilt

My guild buddy Kathryn informed me that Victoria's quilt had won Best in Show, and we went to see for ourselves right as Victoria arrived from the airport to see for herself!  It was exciting to see all the paparazzi surrounding Victoria's arrival, but best of all I was happy to see Victoria's excitement.  Congratulations my friend!

Six degrees of separation new friend Leslie

With Victoria was Leslie who's husband works with my friend's husband, and I was supposed to meet.    Wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to find her in all the thousands of attendees ;-)  Very small world indeed.

Carolyn, me and Michele

We ran into fellow Floridian Carolyn whose new Architextures fabric line was flying off the vendors' shelves.  She had several of her awesome quilts on display (with winning ribbons) as well.

Overachiever in the class Holly

I was happy to meet Holly, President of the VancouverMQG, and not just because she delivered my new camera strap from Krista ;-)  In our mini quilts class, Holly made the most incredible mini quilt using teeny tiny HSTs!

Sew Together Bag creator Michelle of Sew Demented

I showed off my Sew Together Bag to the pattern creator Michelle.  She was so sweet to ooh and aah over my bag, and she showed me her latest bag.  There were quite a few Sew Together Bags spotted in my classes.  Sadly, I didn't get a picture of Carmen or her bag. 

Tara, me and Penny

I was super excited to take (two) classes from Penny on her paper piecing techniques.  Sew Take a Hike is one of the first blogs I discovered, and I have wanted to meet Penny for a long time.  She is just as sweet as I imagined and a really patient teacher.  Happily, Tara was serving as Penny's assistant in class, which gave me a chance to met her too.

Krista of Spotted Stones

Sewing to my right in Penny's first class was Krista, who I've followed in the virtual world, and we chatted for several minutes before I made the connection.  More than likely there were others at QuiltCon that I should have known but didn't make the connection in time.  There was just so much going on, it was hard to focus.

Leigh

Sewing to my left in Penny's morning class was Leigh, who I met for the first time, and helped me out more than once when I had questions.

Primping for the 80's dance party

Michele was my awesome roomie for the conference, and boy did we have fun!  She was braver than I when dressing for the 80's Dance Party.  I settled on all black, lots of makeup and big hair (well, I tried for big hair).

A Quilting Jewel

I recognized my IG friend A Quilting Jewel on the dance floor and went over and said hi while joining her guild friends for a dance to Tainted Love.  Hope no one took any video of that ;-)

OMQG girls

I saw Jacquie every day in the convention hall workin' workin' workin', but I knew I would eventually get the chance to meet her because I signed up for her Machine Piecing Hexagon class.  Jacquie's  blog is another I have followed since the get go, and it was like seeing a long lost friend when we did eventually meet.  I am fortunate that Jacquie is doing a workshop with our guild this summer, so I get to see her again soon.

It's Jacquie!!!

I did not get a chance to attend Jacquie's lecture as I was taking a class at that time, but I heard from others that the crowd was moved to tears and gave Jacquie (the only) a standing ovation.  Luckily for us all, Craftsy has the lecture available online (free along with others from QuiltCon).  I have downloaded the lecture and plan to listen to it as soon as I publish this post.  From what I understand, you may want to have tissues handy.

Hexie class

Mary Anne and I were sewing buddies during Jacquie's class, and we may or may not have done more talking than sewing.  I didn't realize until later that Kristy was sitting behind me, and even later in the evening, I ran into Kristy at our hotel and she kindly gave our guild attendees a rundown on one of the lectures we missed.  

Elizabeth waving to my sister

The last class I took was with Elizabeth Hartman, and I guess I neglected to mention this fact to my sister.  I happened to call Michelle right before class, and she gave me a long list of things to tell Elizabeth.  I settled for "my sister says hi" ;-)

If you've made it this far, I thank you.  Soon, I will share pictures from my workshops and quilts from the show.  Happy stitching,