Quiltcon 2019 Nashville Experience

#QCGreetingsfromNashville

So for my first Quiltcon experience I loved it. Now as said this isn't my first show but one of the biggest I've been to. But this is the first one to feature exclusively modern designs. I loved the experience and was very happy to get a chance to go. I only had one day and bit of a drive to get there. The weather was terrible. It rained very hard all day all over Tennessee. All the way there we had flood warnings going off like crazy.

Getting there we first went to the vendor area. Now all the quilts in the show are in front of that but I wanted to get to certain booths to make sure I got some things I was looking for. We spent the majority of the time in this area. I got tons of deals and great patterns. I made sure I went by the Soak booth and picked up two bottles of flatter. When I went by the Pink Door Fabrics booth Tula Pink was there. The crowd was crazy and I didn't really want to stand in line, so I did not get to meet her. I did go back to the booth and got a pattern I had been looking at before.

One of the first few booths I visited was the Sewing Party booth. I met the designer of the "Rose for my Boyfriend" quilt pattern and was able to see the original one done for the magazine. I also showed them a photo of mine and they asked me to email it to them so they can post it on their Instagram! I love sharing my quilts and am so happy the designer liked mine.

One of the fun things about the show is they had a lot of areas you can sit and sew. They had booths that were doing charity quilt blocks. They give you a pattern and you can go through scraps and sit down and sew the block for them. These blocks will go into a quilt that will be sold for charity.

They also had a hand stitching area where you got to try out a free hand stitching design provided by sulky. It was printed on a dissolving interface so you can put the guide on and not worry about it messing up the final look. This was a nice area to go visit cause I was really exhausted and needed a bit of time to rest. Also this lead me to go back to the sulky booth for another free design. I found glow in the dark thread that was a must have.

After that it was time to go through the quilts. They had a collection of antique quilts and a collection of youth quilts that were both very interesting. There was a feature of quilts using a mix of fibers like faux fur or knitting. I also got to meet a few of the people with quilts in the show walking around.

Afterwards we went to the Flying Saucer for dinner. I have been to this place before. It's a pub/taphouse type place that has tons beers and ciders on tap as well as in cans and bottles available. I have been trying to do a low carb diet so I did not get one of the ciders that I wanted to but did get a burger. Mom's sandwich ended up being too spicy for her so we swapped what we got.

In all the trip was a success. Mom and I had a huge bag of stuff to split when we got home and I've got a lot of new projects to add to my to do list. I have sprinkled pictures through the post of the different things I saw but I also have more photos available on google photos.

Quiltcon or bust

So I've only been to a handful of quilt shows and it has been way too long since I've been to one. The last show I got to attend was AQS Chattanooga in 2016. It had been a birthday trip for me and I remember it very fondly. In the past few years I would put a reminder on my phone for local shows in hopes I would get the time to go. Unfortunately I haven't had the opportunity.

This year Quiltcon is in Nashville, which is a short 3 hour drive for me. Mom and I decided to make it a day trip. We're leaving early Saturday morning and I hope to get there before lunch.

I have been  stalking the Quiltcon tag on Instagram in my excitement to go. I also decided to join the Modern Quilt Guild in advance of the con. Of course I'm just getting a one day ticket but I have seen enough to get me excited.

I did make a little ID pouch to carry at the con. I've made bags before but I found a pattern for an ID wallet and kinda improvised to make this small bag. There's a lot of errors but it came out pretty good for going off without an actual pattern. Some of the ideas come from previous bag patterns I've seen and I had some of the hardware I already needed. I did not have the metal piece to make the handle adjustable so I improvised. If it gets annoying I can buy what I need later.


This is the first time I have made something with a clear ID window. I already had the vinyl for another project I never got to so I was happy to put it to use. The fabric was a recent purchase from Mountain Creek Quilt Shop in Greenback. I don't get there that often but it's nice that they remember me when I do come. It is from Fair Isle Friends by Anita Jeram. I got the little white fabric from the salesman sample bin of some Japanese fabrics. Over all it's cute and works for a first try. No one else will see it close enough to see my mistakes.

Tea today is my ever loved Starbucks green tea. I got an iced latte on the way home from Mountain Creek. I usually get the frappe but I wanted something a little different

WIP Happy Haunting Halloween Wall Hanging

Laying out the applique 

So this thing is coming out bigger then I expected. It will end up being more like a throw. The size issue started right from the beginning. When I started making this in 2016, the middle section is from a quilt pattern. I was starting with the block sizing that was given in the pattern. I should have at that time made the blocks smaller but they say hindsight is 20/20 and I can't change it now. So we're going with the larger quilt.

Top without letters

I have it broken up into three sections. I'd be done piecing it but I decided to try to quilt them separately and then put them together afterwards to make quilting it easier and give me a chance to do a higher fill pattern. This is the same technique I used when making my row by row quilts, so I'm fairly confident in going with this route. I've built in strips to cover the attachment points. 

The top portion contains a large open spot and a panel. I found this batik in my stash that has a floral print. Even though it's a floral does seem to work with everything once I put the letters down.

I have appliqued the words from the bonus pattern we got for going to all 4 shops. I didn't get the kit for this pattern because I didn't honestly think I'd use it at the time. I'm still glad I didn't because I got to use the colorful scraps from the corners of the blocks in the center section. They contrast nicely with the background and strangely I don't think they over crowd the whole thing because of the color differences.

Center without 2 inch border strips

Also note this is the first time I've used my machine to applique. Usually I do that by hand but it takes forever when I do. It's hard to get a sense of this because I didn't take a photo of everything laid out together. I'll have to have one for my next update post. This section is complete and has been basted up for quilting.

Bottom portion ready to baste

The center section is suppose to resemble a calendar page. I have 5 rows of seven blocks with two of them being small round accents from the panel piece I got. I just did a small border around this to use as a buffer and to help when attaching the top and bottom sections.  The photo was taken before I added that in. It's the same batik fabric used in the top. This piece hasn't been basted because the fabric I used for backing on the other two sections is too small. I'm going to do some decorative patchwork with the  scraps to fill out this a bit more. It will probably resemble my flying geese type row on the bottom section.

Appliqued letters

The bottom section has the majority of the applique work. I used the kits I got with the house, tree and trick-or-treaters to make this cute scene. I did not measure my fabric when I cut it for this section. I cut it the same size as the top section. The problem came when I realized my appliques were too large. Now I could have quilted it and then attached it to the center then put the applique on, but I decided I didn't want that. So I used all the triangle scraps my Tri-Tri Again blocks left over and made a sort of flying geese pattern row. I did cut the white squares new for this row. I hadn't used that fabric yet. Since it came in the layer cake, I wanted to try to use at least one of each of the fabrics. This section is also basted up for quilting.

Basting down

I'm actually stopping for the night so I won't be tired when I start quilting. I still have thread choices to make. I have some orange variegated thread I'm thinking of using for the center section and maybe a grey or black for the other sections. I have to look at my collection a bit more. The piecing and applique portion of this quilt has only taken about two days. I went out for part of the days and put my work on hold. I'm hoping the quilting doesn't take long because I've already got the next project bugging me for attention.

For tea today I found this Hibiscus Peach by Pure Leaf. It's been a while since I spotlighted their tea because I always get the green or black unsweetened tea. I've become diabetic and need to watch my sugar. This is a new product of theirs and is sweetened but it's not overly sweet. I found it very refreshing.

Village Quilters Guild Meeting and Mom and Meg Quilt Shop

So my mom joined the Village Quilters Guild in Tellico Village, TN. Even though she lives in Knoxville this is a guild she has gone to meetings for often and also has been to many of their quilt shows. The guild is hosting a bus trip to Missouri Star at the end of April, which I jealously can't go because I can't take the time off for work.

I don't know who this quilt belongs to.

The February meeting was her first meeting as a guild member and they had a trunk show and guest speaker from Mom and Meg Quilt Shop in Dandridge, TN. Mom came back from the meeting raving about the quilts, the speaker, and wants to plan a road trip to Dandridge sometime in the future. Maybe we can go in May as a mother/ daughter trip. Maybe I will get a chance to accompany mom to the next meeting.

Now some of the quilts were brought by guild members and the photos she sent me she did not clarify who owned what. She did send me photos of her spoils and got a pattern for me. I can't wait to make this Elizabeth Hartman quilt. I have her Greenhouse pattern which is another WIP on my to do list. I've got the top complete. I just need to make a backing and quilt it.

One of the Teas Organic Apple Red

Our Table

As for the tea for today I'm actually going to talk about an event I did get to go to. My co-worker's church had a Ladies Tea the Sat after the guild meeting. Both of mom and I went and had fun. They had lots of sweets and a huge variety of teas. Some of the church members played hostess at the tables and they decorated the table and brought in the teas and some even brought beautiful cups. I collect tea cups also, so I enjoyed seeing the variety.

A Rose for My Boyfriend Finished!

No more WIP posts for this one. I have a finished quilt! It's not my fastest quilt time but I did finish it pretty quickly compared to my average quilting time. So, Lets start with a little time line of my quilt.

• Dec. 29, 2018 to Dec 31st- Piecing. I Found the pattern out of Simple Modern Quilts & Crafts # 15 which I believe is the December 2018 issue. It hadn't been out long. I got the magazine for a cute penguin pattern but decided to do this one first. I still want to make a penguin.
• Jan 6th 2019 - Backing and Basting. I started the backing the next weekend out of the scraps from the quilt top. This was an excellent use of scraps and left me with almost nothing. I've been tempted to toss my remaining pieces but I keep stopping myself. Most of the backing is a sold black fabric I picked up from JoAnn's on New Year's day. I decided that if I finished it quickly I would try to enter it in a local quilt show. I've missed that deadline now but It was motivation to not stop. 
• Jan 7th to Feb 13th- Quilting. I'm still slow at sitting down and quilting because my work area has always been slow. Last minute inspiration from the web showed me an idea on expanding the work area so that I'm not hurting myself so badly pushing and lifting the fabric. I am no expert at quilting. Anyone who sees my stitches will not argue with that, but I am learning and getting better. 

  

  Almost no scraps!

• Feb 14th- Binding and Finishing! With the final week of realizing how close I was to finishing I was able to get myself to work harder and finish everything on Valentines Day. I do still have to label it but for now I call it a good finish. The binding fabric was a scrap from a walker bag I made for my aunt years ago. It was a large piece maybe a little smaller then a fat quarter. It matches the pinks in the quilt and even if it's adding a new fabric to the whole project it matches the thread color I used. 

Back of the quilt

Now I'm not sure I want to continue to do so many of the bed size quilts but I do have a few tops this size to quilt. I think I have a better idea on what to do to make it easier. One thing I want to invest in is a walking foot or a free motion foot for my sewing machine. I use a Project Runway Brother I got several years ago on a black friday sale. It has been a wonderful machine but I never bothered to buy extra feet. 

Now that this quilt is done I will start on my next WIP and I'm thinking about the Halloween one. 

For tea today I have a Ginger Peach Green Tea. I picked this one up recently at Tuesday Mornings. It's very peachy. I love the smell of this one. The tin had 50 bags and I got it at a good price. Inside they were packaged into tow foil pouches of 25 each. I took one pouch to work and left one at home so I can have the tea both places. The cup in the photo is one I picked up at world market a few years ago. I like it because the green part is silicone so it keeps you from burning your hand on the warm glass.

WIP - A Rose for my Boyfriend

Time for a work in progress check. I think I'm 1/3 done with the quilting now.

As much as I complain about the process of quilting I always feel very proud of my final projects. Piecing is my favorite part, and quilting is fun on smaller projects. If the project I'm quilting on is larger then a crib sheet size then it's a major pain in the butt. I mean I could avoid this by paying a long arm quilter to do it but I do enjoy when a project I'm working on was all me.

Updated work space

My arms have actually been hurting from pushing and pulling this quilt around. Up until now I have had no support around my sewing machine. It made me want to stop constantly.  It also makes me want to skip doing any of the fancy stuff. I've just been going around the block so far. I did one area with extra stitching on one of the big blocks. I figure since there's a lot of space there I need to fill it more.

My biggest issue with this has been space. I don't have a separate sewing room to spread stuff out. Today I managed to squeeze a folding table in behind the table that has my sewing machine on. This has worked wonders. I wish I had room for a table this big all the time.

I've gone through 5 bobbins so far and I may run out of this color thread before the end of the quilt. I got it as part of a limited edition set one Christmas. I don't really want to go out and buy more. I have a back up thread that is close in color to use once this does run out. I have used it to hand stitch around in flowers in the second to largest  block. So it won't be unusual for a change in color. Plus I was thinking of going back with dark grey or black when I do the largest and try to do some of the stripes in that block also. I do my best design decisions on the fly sometimes. If I hate it I will find a way to fix it. I think Bob Ross said "there's no mistakes, only happy accidents."

Hopefully my next update will be me putting the binding on and finishing this thing.

For tea this morning I'm just going to make some of the royal palace tea. Nothing new, sorry. It's very refreshing and it has grapefruit and lemon in it. The grapefruit flavor it's as obvious, but it has become more obvious as I've had more. I'm glad I bought two containers.

WIP - Spooktacular Halloween Wall Hanging/Quilt

It may be a bit early to be thinking about Halloween but since I was dipping into my WIP pile I have this one I started but didn't get far into. In Oct 2016 I did a small shop hop that consisted of 4 shops.

It was near the end of Oct. I don't know why I didn't blog about the shop hop at the time. I know that was around the time I lost my job and was very depressed. I did not get much from the hop because I wanted the patterns but needed to be conservative with my money. I am still very happy I got them because Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year and I don't really have many projects I've done with a Halloween or Fall theme.

The pattern was of an applique of a Halloween scene of trick-or-treaters that says Happy Haunting. The samples I saw were a cute play on the silhouettes that ranged from a quilt to wall hangings. I have the kits for all the people but the words.

At one shop they used part of a quilt pattern to make a quilt/wall hanging that looked a bit like a calendar. I wanted to do that with my project. I had a layer cake of Haunted Gala by Moda already in my stash and picked up the Tri Tri Again pattern for the day slots from the shop. I started this almost immediately and then something happened to make me put it aside. I don't remember what but it's over two years later and I've not picked it back up.

I have 29 of the Tri Tri Again blocks complete. I want the hanging to have 5 rows of seven so it matches a calendar page. Two of the blocks are going to be of the circular details in the center of the panel. I'm most likely just going to use the top part of the panel for the hanging since most of the colors are leaning to that color scheme. I will save the bottom house in orange for another Halloween wall hanging project.

I plan to work on it next. I'm still forcing myself to work on the Rose for My Boyfriend and I've not been able to work for the last week on that. I can't let myself switch or I'll never get this done.


The Shops that participated were:

Atomic Fibers - Oak Ridge TN
Gina's Bernina Sewing Center - Knoxville TN - This is where i picked up the pattern.
Lana's Quilts and Sew Much More - Cleveland TN
Chattanooga Quilts - Ooltewah TN (Also found this awesome article about them in the Badass Quilters Society blog)

I always like the trek from Lana's to Chattanooga Quilts because the path takes me by the Little Debbie factory. They have their factory store there and it's fun to stock up on snacks.

Today's tea is Bigelow's Orange & Spice. One of my favorite teas is the Hint of Orange that Petros sells. The celestial seasons Orange tea is closer and this one a bit bolder then the other two. I have a habit of picking up Bigelow's though because I don't always think of that. I just think "Ooh! Orange Tea", and grab it. I like the Bigelow's a lot also. I wouldn't buy it if I didn't.