Before I regale in the events of Friday, I thought I should show you my accommodations.
When I registered for QuiltCon last July, all the nearby hotels were sold out at the event rate, so I booked a hotel out at the airport and planned to drive in each day. A couple of weeks ago, I started to look at parking rates and realized that added cost plus traffic in and out of the state capital would dampen the experience. My ever generous hubby offered up a mere 175,000 points and got me a spacious one bedroom corner suite at the Marriott Residence Inn.
And here’s the view of the Austin Convention Center from my window.
The suite is SWEET. I admit I did have to tidy it up a bit for the photo shoot since I had fabric everywhere trying to decide what to bring for class these first two days.
Today’s class was Paperless Paper Piecing with Christy Fincher. What a fabulous class and I cannot wait to show our JMQG foundation paper piecing disciples (yes, you, Candi and Jen) this amazing process. We might want to consider inviting Christy to JAX for an event.
Here is Christy doing a little show and tell with her quilts; all of them pieced using the process she created with her mother, multi award winning superstar quilter, Sharon Schamber.
You also see in the photo above we each got another Baby Lock machine to play on…
The “Jane” is an industrial grade mechanical machine with bottom loading metal bobbin and it was fun showing folks how to thread it and use the needle threader. All that training at the Viking Sewing Gallery allows me to quickly master using these Baby Lock machines. Still not giving up my Ruby or Opal 690Q.
Here’s a photo of me with Christy at the end of class
I had a chance to walk through the Quilt Show again and here is a photo of the Best in Show: i Quilt by Kathy York of Austin MQG. Kathy, a volunteer at QuiltCon gives the quilt she pieced and quilted the white glove treatment.
and the back
Here are some of my favorites from the show
who doesn’t love a little Baby Got Back?
The quilt above was quite dizzying when you see it from the side…but front on is a stunner
This next quilt won best hand quilting
Then I scooted and skipped back over to the vendor hall for a wee bit of shopping and who did I bump into…
I never knew Jenny was so tall. Her husband took a number of photos of us….me on tiptoes, Jenny shrinking down and the two of us breaking up laughing.
After five attempts, I finally got into Ballroom and Lecture Hall B to see our Silly Goose…
As I was taking pictures of the other quilts in the room, I noticed two women oohing and aahing and taking pictures of Silly Goose…so I had to run back over and talk about it.
Following are photos of all the QuiltCon Charity Challenge Quilts
The day ended with a fun time at the MQG Leadership Meet and Greet where I hung out with Lora Douglas and Vanessa Vargas Wilson of the Gainesville MQG. We all know Vanessa as “Crafty Gemini,” and I urge everyone to check out her YouTube videos, website, FB group page, etc.
Just prior to leaving for a late dinner with Lora and Vanessa, we took a quick photo with the Chairman herself..
More fun coming with QuiltCon – Day 3, so stay tuned.
Great post Yvonne! I enjoyed spending time with you. I didn’t run into you on Saturday to give you your Sizzix die. FB message me with your address and I will mail it to you.