Quilt Con love

The inevitable wrap up of my travels to Quilt Con - in short, Awesome!  

The slightly longer version includes just some of the highlights of the trip:

Breakfast of Quilters each morning at Le Cafe Crepe - delicious!  

Photos in the Moda Bakeshop Booth each day with Momm was so much fun.  It was great to meet Lissa from Moda in person as well - instead of just exchanging emails about School Block Challenge.

Fabric!  The vendors had wonderful fabrics and notions and all sorts of quilting deliciousness.  Here are just some of the goodies I brought home with me.  Not pictured is some Architextures and snippets of Pearl Bracelets.  Can't wait to play with them!

the Quilts!  Of course the quilts - so many wonderful quilts and designs and colors.  Such an inspiration to see these all together, face to thread, so to speak.  I've been quilting for about 10 years and seeing quilts that are exciting, that stand out while still being rooted in the history of quilt making was awesome!  I loved having the chance to see some wonderful quilts in person, that I've only seen online.  There are too many favorites to try and show them here so I'll just put this one in.

with Jaybirds awesome Science Fair *squee*

Thanks to all in the MQG who put on a great show!  Thanks to all the talented quilters who were represented in the show and to all those who create beautiful quilts.

My first trip to Austin was excellent:  Great food, good friends, warm weather and a grand time at the 1st ever Quilt Con!   :D

February Finish!

I am so excited to share this quilt finish on the Year of Finishes link up for February!  It's been a long time coming and setting a deadline gave me the motivation to sit down & quilt this one.  I finally got some good natural light shots of the pre-washed finished quilt even with the dreary cold here this week.  

I took it out on my lunch break at work today.   :)

please ignore the blue tape...thx!

You can see the texture of the quilting really well in these shots too which is fabulous (in my opinion!).

 My Summer Sampler Quilt - quilted, bound and labeled!
Edit: this was included on my Quarter 1 finish a long found here.

to the Con!

I'm so thrilled to being going to Quilt Con with my Momm!  It's awesome to be going to the first show and I know there will be so many gorgeous quilts to see.  I'm also hoping this incoming winter storm (which will probably bring rain/sleet here to KY) won't be an issue in the morning. 

Here's 5 fun facts about me to join in on the meet up party [even though I'm cutting it close tonight].

that's me at the top of the Arch

1  My Aunt taught me to quilt one summer and when I got home, I hooked my Momm in too.  :)  I love all parts of quilting!

2  I earned my Girl Scout Gold Award.   Scouting took me to Savannah, St, Louis and Switzerland and I am a Lifetime member.

3  Music goes with me everywhere: car, work, home, in my head, iPod, etc.  I'm really quick at learning  song lyrics and pull them out to create a soundtrack for myself.

4  I've read Harry Potter too many times to count and went to most of the movies midnight opening.  I highly recommend the audiobooks too - amazing!  :)

5  I love my job!  I work at the National Quilt Museum and am surround by quilts all day, teach quilting to kids and get to learn & try new things all the time!  Serious fun happens at my desk.


Looking forward to seeing the quilts and those of you going this weekend.  Otherwise, I'll see you back here in blogland next week!  Onto the Con.  

today is brought to you by the letter F

as in F for FINISHED!   [also Friday, Fifteen, February, Fun] 

Mostly for the Finish though! 

I put the last stitch into the binding for my Summer Sampler quilt tonight and had to share pictures right away.  It's my February finish for the Year of finishes and one of my Finish Along projects - so I'm excited to have this one checked off the list and onto the couch for snuggles!    :)


Tomorrow I'll give it a label, take some daylight photos and send it through the dryer for those loveable crinkles.  Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday as well.  

Finish it!

Some of you know I'm on a mission to finish up some WIPs/UFOs this year!  I joined up with the 1st Quarter of the Finish A Long over at she can quilt.  That definitely motivated me to work on quilting my Summer Sampler quilt!  

 It still needs some work before it's complete, so I'm linking in with the Year of Finishes over at Fiber of All Sorts and choosing this quilt as my February project!  I'm determined to finish quilting and bind this quilt so I can snuggle with it.  :)  Right now, each of the blocks are quilted so I need to tie off some threads, quilt the sashing & borders then bind & label the quilt.  Hmmm...that sounds like a lot but shouldn't be a problem- bring it on February!  I'm also linking up over at Lee's WIP Wednesday as well - since it is top of the pile for finishes!

blocks quilted - ready to tackle the sashing

a whole weekend of quilting!

Last weekend was the 4th year for Quilt Retreat with Momm!  It was lots of fun as always and we even got snow on Saturday.  The views of Lake Michigan from our sewing room are spectacular.  Good food, good friends, lots of laughs, and lots of quilting!  This year Momm & I decided to make the same pattern in different fabrics.  I ended up with 3 finished tops at the end of the weekend, even though my goal this year to to finish up some WIPs!  Hopefully these won't be waiting too long before they get finished.

I started with a baby quilt for baby BAM!  That was quick to piece together and is super cute. There's no pictures because it's a surprise for a certain Queen C.  :)   First up, Science Fair by Jaybird Quilts - what a fun pattern!  Originally I had a solid royal blue to use for the background, but once I put it up on the design wall it didn't work as all the colors got muddied.  Luckily momm  had enough of this grey print that I could use.  Thanks momm!  :D 

These are X plus blocks I got in a Flickr swap last year and are on my 1st quarter Finish a Long list.  It was fun to arrange and sew them together into a quilt top just the right size for using in the car or hanging on my entry way wall.