Tag: Quilt Show

ColorPlay and the Creative Spark will return soon!

Day 2 of QuiltCon 2018 started out slowly. We didn’t have any classes and our lecture wasn’t until late, so we lazed around a little bit in the hotel. It may not have been the wisest move, because I poured hot water all over my hand and had to stand letting cold water run over it for several minutes. It was painful all day, but after many applications of cream and some Argan oil, I don’t have a blister and it doesn’t hurt anymore.

Quilts

Once we got to the show, we went straight into the hall that just had quilts. (The other hall has vendors and quilts). It was a nice viewing experience. There was good light and it wasn’t super crowded.

Overall impressions: solids, improv

My favorite quilt, Singularity by Jenn Nevitt of Fort Worth, TX, was almost the first one we saw it was made up of half square triangles. This quilt does not have any improv, which is an added bonus for me. I like the precision, the distribution of color and the varied sizes of blocks. It shows the power of a single block and the impact that one block can have if a design is executed thoughtfully

I thought I would feel resentful at all of the solids, but I didn’t. Some quilts I didn’t care for, but the ones I liked I thought were really well done – good fabric choices, interesting designs. I do know why the Carpenter’s Wheel didn’t get in this year. It wasn’t made of solids.

Vendors

Canvas Fabric, Day 1 QuiltCon

We haven’t gone through the entire vendor hall, but there seem to be more vendors that last time. We have gone through about a row and a half of vendors and I bought one yard of fabric. It is canvas and I plan to use it for a bag, perhaps the Rockstar bag by Sew Sweetness. Perhaps something else. We will see. I am determined to make something out of it soon and now allow it to lay around.

The FreeSpirit fabrics are flying off the shelves. I saw bolts that had just been cut in almost all of the booths we visited. I am sure the designers, if not FreeSpirit itself, will be snapped up quickly and things will continue, mostly, as before. Still, I guess the smart move is to get your fabrics while the getting is good. 😉

I saw a lot of fabric and supplies I liked, but didn’t want to commit to buying yet. Beyond the Reef had a lot of great fabrics, but I restrained myself from buying the Palm Country Layer Cake and random other yards of fabric from them for the moment. I did want a few of them, but don’t have an immediate use. I may go back and buy some things later, but want to see if I am still thinking about them tomorrow or the next day.

Brooklyn Haberdashery was there and they had a knitting needle case that I covet. It was $95, however, and that is just not happening, especially since I just bought needlecases with some Christmas money.

One thing I may buy is a binding buddy. They are about $17 and slightly too cutesy for me, but they seem really useful. Shari Butler was showing how they work. You roll your binding around the body of the binding buddy, When you are ready to bind a quilt, you put the Binding Buddy on the thread holder, which allows the binding to roll of the buddy either from the back or the front depending on the way it is originally rolled on to the binding buddy. The nice part is that you have somewhere to store your binding while finishing the quilt.

Education

As mentioned we had a lecture yesterday. The speaker was Christopher Tomlinson (IG: the_tattooed_quilter). He spoke about using prints in quilts.

He comes from the fashion industry so is influenced by the work they do when creating fashion lines and color ranges that support those lines. Surprisingly, he uses the focus fabric method (that I describe in one of my tutorials)! Chris, like me, also considers scale while selecting colors. In the process, he uses terms that are more fun than mine. Instead of focus fabric he calls it a Hero print. Large Marge is a large scale print, Tiny Dancer is a small scale print, etc. Perhaps I’ll be up there presenting if I had better terms and was more entertaining. 😉

He admitted to not knowing the technical terms for color theory, so there was some confusion when he was talking about shades and tones, but I ended up getting the jist.

The lecture wasn’t a revelation to me but it also wasn’t boring and was definitely entertaining. The slides were really well done.

Social

Today was also a day of visiting with friends. We ran into a number people from the guild, had dinner with Tim while Cyndi took a class. We ran into Annie Smith in the vendor hall as well.

We were also able to have some coffee with Luana, the owner of eQuilter. We had about 45 minutes to chat and the location was pleasant since we were surrounded by charity quilts.

We chatted briefly with Zina (IG: zanymouse) about dinner.

At one point, Julie wanted to sit down , so I went into the vendor hall. Almost immediately ran into the fabulous Christa Watson (IG: christaquilts). I chatted with her for 10 minutes or so until I had to leave to meet up with Julie. We talked about her new line of fabric and I helped her rearrange her display of quilt samples and books. She told me about her fabric and that she will be coming out with a new line as well. It was great to catch up with her. She is just as positive in person as she is online.

We went to Tokyo Wako, a restaurant across from the convention center for dinner with Tim (IG: timnrwc). It is. The food was really good and the whole experience was fun!! They were very attentive to my #glutenfree needs, which was great.

The chef came over and put on a little show while he cooked on the grill in front of us. He was nice and was able to cook the food exactly to our liking.

It was a great day, though tiring. I look forward to a good day today as well.

We are already having a good time. I drove down to Julie’s house Tuesday and spent the night. I had dinner with her family and looked at all of her quilt stuff before we left. We set off for SoCal on Wednesday.

The drive was not bad. I mean we were in the car for several hours, which isn’t that great, but there was limited traffic. Julie was able to drive the whole way, probably because we needed to stop every two hours or so.

We made it to Pasadena by 3 or so. We checked into our hotel room and got settled a little bit. Sadly, my ladies maid was sick, so I had to do most of the settling myself.

At about 4:40 we headed over the Convention Center to get our badges and enjoy happy hour sponsored by Culcita Fabrics. The line was LONG.

It was fine. We saw some people we knew so we could chat while we waited. They started checking people in a few minutes after 5pm. Julie and I both received goodie bags, which were moderate this time, but had some useful stuff.  We met Tim and Cyndi as well as Kathleen and Sarah. The drinks for the happy hour were really expensive, so popped over to the Sheraton and took advantage of their happy hour prices.

We checked out the Culcita Fabrics booth, which was right outside the registration area. They have a modern fabric subscription. They send out bundles of fabric every month or two months. They have specials for QuiltCon. The fat quarter bundles seem reasonably priced, but I thought the half yard options were a little on the pricey side. Of course I am tempted, but 1) space in my fabric closet is at a premium, 2) I have plenty of fabric. They have bundles from past months for sale and I might buy one of those. We’ll see.

Kathleen rushed us off to dinner and it turned out to be a group of 7 – Julie and me, Kathleen, two Canadians, Marianne and Susan, and two ladies from Sacramento, Angelina and Judy. It was great to chat with them. It was a very intelligent group of women.

We gorged ourselves on Brazillian style skewered meat served at the table by cutting off slices. There was also a buffet of a variety of salads. I ate a really nice beet salad, some rice, fruit and cheese.

We had a lot to talk about so the conversation was free flowing the whole time. There were definite opinions about a lot of things (me and improv!).

All this and guess what? The actual show doesn’t start until tomorrow!

I can’t seem to stop writing about QuiltCon. Different aspects of the event are in my mind often.

The thing about this conference was that it was more than a quilt show. It was like a conference I have attended for my professional organization. People knew each other; there were opportunities for learning aside from just quilt classes. Everyone was very focused on a shared set of …values or perceived values. [Actually, I am not sure if that is the right term, but it sort of gets at what I am trying to say.]  It was an event with aspects of a quilt show. I wonder if the AQS shows are the same way?

I know I have said before that there was an excited buzz in and around the whole conference. I really liked being in a place where everyone was excited about quiltmaking.

Yes, there were people walking around who looked miserable. Yes, there were people there who were so absorbed by their phones and tablets that they couldn’t talk with anyone. Yes, there were people who only wanted the free stuff. Beyond all that were those who were taking advantage of opportunities. I tried to be one of those people.

I was thrilled to see all the different solids in one place. I didn’t even know Northcott had solids until this show. It was wonderful to see vendors, albeit a small group, with the freshest, newest fabrics rather than the old junk that vendors feel ok with bringing to PIQF. I was thrilled to meet people I follow on Instagram. It was great to see manufacturers there! I was excited to talk with them, see what they brought and, on occasion, play their games. It was great that a few of the vendors brought donation quilt activities with them. It provided a good opportunity to sit and rest our feet while doing some good.

The quilt above was the Viewer’s Choice, Mr. Swirl E. Bones by Victoria Findlay Wolfe. I voted for another quilt, but there was a lot that I liked about this quilt. It is a very interesting use of a panel. I also liked the kaleidoscopic effect she created by putting the different parts of the panels together. I also like the diamonds and the way the piece looks like a flower from far away (upper right photo). You also can’t tell that it is a skeleton panel with just one glance.

Windham gave away pamphlets showcasing their newest fabric designers. The snippets were about half a small page (8.5″x11″ folded in half) and had a few of the forthcoming prints with a headshot of the designer. It was nice to be able to look at a few pieces of fabric that won’t be out for months.

Quilter’s Dream had a very boring looking booth. It looked like they had just curtains up and stack of samples. Samples are always nice. Somehow I ended up in the booth and found out that those boring looking curtains were batting samples! They had unrolled some batting and had hung it up so potential buyers could feel it. What a great idea!!! I liked the thinness of that batting and also the different content they had: silk, bamboo, polyester made from soda bottles and many more. I want to get some to try in a quilt.

I dropped my card off a Schiffer Publishing. I have been wanting to send publishers letters telling them that I write book reviews and post them here. As you may remember, I donate 90% of the books I receive to my local library. My library is part of consortium, so those books are available to people in other local libraries as well. I haven’t heard anything, but my fingers are crossed. Schiffer does a lot of interesting books.

I loved working with the Sizzix in Victoria Findlay Wolfe’s class. I have been looking through their catalog of designs over and over thinking of what I can make.

As I said the other day, we attended lectures almost almost all day on Saturday. I am not sure why I signed up for such a marathon, but with one exception they were all very good.

Victoria Findlay Wolfe

My new hero. Have I said I want to be her new BFF? Actually I want to be her: tall, gorgeous, funny, kind and makes 14-20 quilt tops a week.

VFW’s lecture was called Creativity & Play/Process. This was a new lecture for her, so we were getting the unpracticed version. It wasn’t that she didn’t do a  good job; she did. She just wasn’t as familiar with the flow of the words. Any of you who speak frequently in front of a crowd know how it is to work out the kinks on a new lecture.

To her, process and play are the same. Process should not stifle your creativity or imagination. We are often trained out of using our intuition, which means that we don’t know how to use intuition in our work. She encouraged us to think about and document how we work, think about the colors we always buy then rip the process apart and see what comes from changing it up.

She encouraged the audience to put a story into the quilt in order to make a connection with the quilt.

Having an idea in our heads doesn’t mean that the quilt will end up that way, which means we have to be open minded in our quiltmaking. You can always make them into something else by cutting them up or appliqueing on top or….?

Making creative decisions means you are an artist (NO arguing with me or her about that!), which, further, means we are all artists.

The next section of the talk was interesting. She discussed types of creative people. Her types were:

• Creative Self Doubter
• The Creative Starter Junkie
• The Creative Rule Abider
• The Creative Free Spirit

One of the things she asked after describing these creative types was which one we thought we were. As she described the types I kept thinking I was this one or that one, then I realized I had elements of all of them in me. I panicked a little until she said she had elements of all in her, too.

Some of the overarching themes I gleaned when she described the types were:

• let go, there is always more fabric
• If you aren’t having fun, find a new passion. Life is too short and we are all just doing our best.
• Making mistakes is a learning experience.
• We are all perfect in our imperfections.
• Stand up and show your quilt at your guild meeting. That is the only way to find your tribe
• Play like children play. They don’t know where the story is going, but they start playing anyway
• Chaos and creating go together
• Not all great ideas are great, but why not explore them?
• Quilts don’t always happen on your timetable.
• The more you work on a project and come back to it, the more it tightens up
• Surround yourself with creative people
• consider the following strategy for people who give unsolicited opinions:
  • You hear it
  • You decide if its accurate
  • Let it go
• The more quilts you make the better you get at making them
• Slow down. Sit with the pattern or your sketchbook awhile longer. Sitting in the process awhile longer helps you make more connections
• Look for opportunities to learn
• Repeat techniques you learn so you can really master it
• think about what else you can do with a technique – something different than the teacher taught
• Make time; break it down into little morsels of time
• Every quilt is awesome. Your life will not end if the quilt isn’t awesome. Cut it up, change it, add something to it

I liked her advice and thinking about what she was saying. I realized that I did cut up a quilt once: the Renewed Jelly Roll Race. It was horrible and now it is actually a quilt I am not embarrassed to show people.

Gwen Marston

If you haven’t seen her speak, get there NOW! If you haven’t taken a workshop from her, do whatever it takes to get into her class. She is awesome.

You might remember that I took a 2 day workshop from her around 2003. I made the Women’s Work quilt, which is still part of a series that I haven’t worked on any further. I will do it; I just haven’t yet.

Gwen Marston is a funny, confident speaker. She engages with the audience very well. I felt mesmerized and riveted by her talk.

She will have a book out in August, A Common Thread, which will be retrospective of her work. [Pre-order now and support the blog by clicking on the title.]

She started making quilts when she saw a quilt show at a Mennonite church in Oregon.  After that she went to the quilt group every week the whole year her family spent in Oregon. She only stopped going after er husband;s sabbatical was over and they returned to Michigan. She left with the knowledge to make quilts.

After that she got together with Mary Schafer. They both liked the irregularity of antique quilts and thought newer quilts seemed too coordinated and matchy-matchy. Antique quilts seemed spontaneous. She decided to model her quilts after vintage quilts.

Gwen wants spontaneity in her quilts. She embraced possibilities. She thinks good technique is important, but that an overabundance of concern about precision stifles creativity. She wants her quilts to be square with no ruffly edges.

When she makes a new quilt, she thinks about it as making up a new recipe – she gives herself parameters. She works a lot in solids, but also works with prints.

Gwen also talked about ghost blocks. These are blocks, or pieces of fabric that have no value change, so they disappear. Also, this concept is related to fabrics running together. When fabrics in different blocks run together, because they are the same or have the similar colors and values,they can merge into a block or piece next to them, changing the shape. Add bits and pieces to add interest and create new shapes

She kind of rocked my world about bindings. First, Gwen talked about Amish bindings. Amish bindings are on the straight of the grain. They put the sides on first and then the top and bottom. They do not miter the corners. I have never heard of this and have not checked it out. I also can’t imagine how they would finish the ends of the top and bottoms. Something to contemplate.

Then, she talked about how she uses single fold straight of the grain binding. I have always used a double fold bias binding. That was how I learned and I was always told they wear better. I was justified because I have never had a binding wear out. Gwen’s point was that if the binding wears out aren’t you going to replace the whole binding anyway? <—- Hhmmm

Gwen’s words of wisdom:

• Do your own work and don’t worry about what other people are doing
• Different sized blocks in one quilt add interest
• If you try stuff, some of it will not work. That is part of the game/process. Take a chance!
• Think about the practical or smart way to do something not the ‘right’ way.

I think I have a couple of more posts in me about random QuiltCon things, so stay tuned for those.

On Saturday, I think, we attended lectures almost all day. I am not sure why I signed up for such a marathon, but with one exception they were all very good.

Mary Fons

First off, we were 5 minutes late for Mary Fons. The lecture started at 9am and I could have used a lie in that morning. They started, apparently, right on time, thus we were late. I thought she did a good job talking about quilt history. It wasn’t a perfect lecture, but she did a good job discussing most of the history of the modern quilt revival such as the Whitney exhibit and the effect of the Bicentennial. Included was mention of a variety of cultural issues/discussion that are relevant to quiltmaking such as gender in quiltmaking (do men get more attention in a female dominated environment), how feminism relates to quiltmaking (it’s ok to put a casserole in the freezer and go to a retreat) while giving a brief overview of the resurgence of quiltmaking. The late 1980s and the 1990s, a huge time for art quiltmaking, rise of shows, guilds and tools was not discussed as much.  There was a discussion of the increase in TV shows, especially on PBS such as the groundbreaking Georgia Bonesteel show, Sewing with Nancy and, of course Fons & Porter.

She threw out some statistics,w hich I have heard before, but continue to floor me:

• 78% of US quiltmakers have at least a college education
• 21 million quiltmakers in the US
• $4 billion industry. FOUR BILLION!!!
• The major companies in the industry are dominated by men

In general, throughout the lectures, there was a repeated suggestion for modern quiltmakers to look to the traditional quiltmakers (who are finding their way to modern guilds) and to learn from them. There was a constant reminder that the fabric used doesn’t impact the skill set. I heard it at this lecture first, but then throughout the conference as well. I thought that was very nice and speaks to some of my concerns about the exclusionary nature of the modern quilt movement.

Libs Elliot

Libs Elliott was not on my radar until I heard about her from Kathleen and found out that LE is teaching at the Make It Modern Event in Reno in June. I didn’t know what to make of her. I am really excited about her now.

Libs Elliot is an excellent speaker. She started off her talk with some comments about her family, telling us she is Canadian and grew up outside of Toronto. I got the impression she still lives near there. Her parents are antique dealers which provided a nice segue into her thoughts about objects, including quilts, having secret lives, they all have stories. She also said that when we make something, we are leaving our own marks and should feel a sense of pride.

As an aside, thinking about the ‘lives’ of objects is an interesting concept to me. I like thinking about what the objects have seen and whether they absorb the history of where they have been. Kind of like Ashakic Records, but for objects.

For her the past is calm and the future is exciting. Ms. Elliott likes clear simple lines. She enjoys using new tools and thinking about ways to use technology. She is particularly interested in the intersection of technology and traditional craft.

Creating designs using a computer code generator is an interesting concept to me. Some might think it takes all the work of the artist out of it, but there are still a lot of decisions to make: color, design modifications, size, fabrics.

Elliott explained the process very well, incorporating that into the trajectory of her quilt career. Her lecture clearly showed how she was moving forward within the space of creating quilt designs with code.

The message I got was “never be afraid to ask”.

Scrap Management Panel

The good thing about this lecture was that it was a panel and we got to hear about the different ways people deal with their scraps. I wasn’t able to appreciate the people who have one bookshelf full of fabric. I may have too much fabric, but they don’t have enough. JMO, of course. The members of the panel were Mary Fons, Christa Watson and Judy Gauthier. It was moderated by Rossie Hutchinson.

You can see a picture of the panel on Christa’s site.

Another good thing about this lecture was that I found Bungalow Quilting and Yarn. The owner, Judy Gauthier,  was a fireball, a great marketer and an inveterate scrap quilt maker. She has a new book, Quilts for Scrap Lovers out by C&T. She has written a number of quilt books and guides. I was only able to take a quick peek at the new book. Go and buy it anyway. She was awesome.

As you can imagine, methods of dealing with scraps run the gamut. Mary does not usually use whole lines. She stores in scraps by color in an old, but refurbished dry goods cabinet and a large rattan basket. She also advises not to buy what you think you should buy, She encouraged the audience to love what you buy.

Mary also talked about the ‘precious fabric problem’. If you have fabrics that you love and pet and don’t want to cut into, put them on the back of a quilt for you. You will be able to enjoy them more. She encouraged the audience to enjoy your fabrics by using them.

Christa is a minimalist. Her philosophy is Know It, Use It, Love It. I can appreciate that sentiment since I buy fabric to use. She cleared out her fabric sometime in the recent past and has one large cabinet for fabric storage. Christa buys and uses a lot of tone-on-tones. She also buys pre-cuts because she can use them up quickly and get a scrappy look easily.

Judy’s philosophy is buy as much as you can and keep as much as you can. She stores her scraps by color. She does believe that the fabric should move you.

Rossie put her two cents in as well and says she destashes scraps. She encouraged people to let go of fabric with which you are finished. She said to buy what you use and don’t be influenced by trends and formulas. Her theme was ‘admire don’t acquire’.

There was a discussion of pre-washing with a mini poll during the lecture. Pre-washers like me are definitely in the minority. Mary led this short segment and said she now pre-washes everything. She reminded us that there are good reasons for pre-washing and also for not pre-washing. We were also reminded that pre-washing=pre-shrinking and if you wash some fabrics for a quilt you should wash them all so they don’t shrink differently.

Christa pre-washes, though she doesn’t pre-wash her pre-cuts. She loves to iron yardage and enjoys touching her fabric.

The panel also discussed caring for your fabric:

• keep fabric out of the sun. Sun is the enemy
• wood ‘leaks’ oils and will discolor/damage your fabric
• use acid free paper to protect fabric from sun and wood

There was also a discussing of building a stash. Judy reminded people to buy colors that make you feel good and makes you happy. Be selfish and buy fabric that speaks to you physically. Also, buy the best fabric you can afford. One great tip was to figure out what YOUR basics are and keep those in stock. As part of this discussion there was a thread about using fabric.

• Take a photo in black and white to check contrast
• Offset prints with solids (or tone-on-tones)
• Contrast is relative: white makes buttercream yellow look dark.
• Contrast can be a problem even when colors and patterns are great.

The panel left us with the admonition to USE OUR FABRIC!!

See part 2 of my report on the lectures.

I can’t really say that this post is about Day 4 of QuiltCon, because we spent day 4 driving home. We spent little pockets of time having some fun in the vendor hall and the various rooms full of quilts, however. Some of the fun was discussed in a previous post.

I won a fat quarter pack from Timeless Treasures. The ladies at the booth were very sweet and I was sad not to be able to spend time making a donation block with them. I may see if I can make one and send it along now that I am home.

We got soft tacos at the convention center for lunch one day. They were very good. While waiting in line, I saw this hilarious sign. Do you think it means you will start weird projects if you drink and sew? Or that injuries might be involved?

I mentioned that we saw the BAM donation quilt. Michelle, the BAM organizer, wanted to see how it looked with some of the other donation quilts.

Do you know that song about how nobody walks in LA? Julie pointed out a number of these young men walking exercise bikes down the street.

I was finally able to meet up with the fabulous and unbelievably kind Annie Smith (Frances’ best friend).

I am still on the fence about some of the quilts on exhibit, but I have to say that looking at them made me look at things a little differently. I am looking at scenes and shapes and scenery with an eye towards incorporating some of the lines into future quilts. With my newfound bias binding skills, lines are easier to contemplate.

I really liked the big star quilt at the Northcott booth. One of the things I like about it is that it is a big block on a field of negative space,b ut the negative space is softened a bit by the smaller stars sprinkled around the negative space. Those smaller stars are concentrated more heavily around the large block. This whole layout is much more interesting than it would be with just that big block.

Food was a little bit of an issue for me during the conference. One of the last days, I demanded Mexican food and there was a mexican place across the street from the convention center that appeared on my GF app. We were able to spend some time with Susan, the History Quilter, and Zina, @zanymouse, who were stuffed and only wanted a drink (not food). Regardless, we were able to catch up and I was able to get to know Zina better.

I also was a little bit ridiculous at the Northcott booth.

I was sad that my dress didn’t cause a sensation in the Free Spirit booth. I think the print was a few years old and the girls at the booth were glued to their phones. Oh well, it caused a sensation everywhere else. 😉