Sewing Summit 2013

 

I got to go to Sewing Summit!  I still can’t quite believe it.  It was an awesome experience!  I got to meet so many of my Instagram friends, favorite bloggers and fabric designers in person.  I also took a bunch of really fun classes and learned so much.

Here are some of the highlights from my weekend.

Preparation:

 

I made up some  business cards to share with new friends. 

Then I prepared all of my fabrics for my classes.  It was so much fun picking just the right fabrics and looking forward to the things that I would be making.

 

Next I set out to make some bags for travel handmade. 

I love how my Super Tote came out.  The pattern for the Super Tote is from Noodlehead and can be found here.  There were a lot of these floating around Sewing Summit!  It was so cool to see everyone’s different versions of the same bag.

In addition to the Super Tote, I also brought my 241 Tote.  This pattern is also  by Noodlehead and can be found here.

The wallet and the planner were made by Terri Harlan of Sew Fantastic.  The wallet is a Michelle Pattern and can be found here.

After a crazy day of flying, I finally got to check into my room at The Little America Hotel which was huge!  I recommend staying in the tower so that you don’t miss out on any of the fun.

I had just enough time to shower and head down stairs for the opening reception.  I hardly ever post pictures of myself here or on Instagram so I’m trying to be better about that.  I took this quick selfie before heading downstairs.

Erin Singleton of Two More Seconds did such a wonderful job of putting Sewing Summit together.  We appreciate you so much and thank you for all of your hard work!

Classes:

My first two classes were lectures.

Susan Peterson of Freshly Picked spoke about starting and successfully running her business.

Ellen Baker, editor-in-chief of Sew News, Creative Machine Embroidery and Sew It All magazines spoke to us about how to submit our ideas to magazines.  Such an interesting class.

How cute is her tribal print dress?! It had sewing machines on it.

 

Time for some hand sewing. Kaye Prince from Miss Print, taught us how to do English Paper Piecing.  This is something that I have been wanting to learn to do and now that I know how, I love it!  Kaye was so fun and laid back and really made this class so much fun.  I loved all of my classes but this was a favorite for sure!

Next up, time to sew on these bad boys!  I was a little intimidated at first but then I got the hang of it.

It was awesome to have a whole room full of women sewing along with you.

Amy Smart from Diary of a Quilter, taught the Half Square Triangle Quilt Top Class.  She is just the sweetest person ever and very patient with us “Newbies”.  It was so nice meeting her.  This was the class I was most looking forward to and it did not disappoint.

It was so fun to see all of the different variations!

I wasn’t sure about the layout that I wanted so I took to Instagram for public opinion.  Everyone was in favor of the diamond layout so that is what I went with.

I was determined to get my quilt top done by the end of the weekend.  It took staying up until 1:00 am both nights of open sew but I did it!

Day two started with a fun Mug Rug class taught by Andrea Taddicken of Knitty Bitties.  I loved having a mini project that could be completed in class.  Andrea also taught us a clever trick for making “cheater binding” from your baking material!  Brilliant! 

Here is my finished Mug Rug.  I bit wonky but still cute.  Of course I just had to make something out of Nicey Jane since Heather Bailey was going to be the Keynote speaker. (More on that later.)

My next class was The Mini Dresdens class taught by Jessie Lathroum of Inside the Paper Box.  This class should be renamed the Really, Really Mini Dresdens class.  Jessie had some beautiful dresden projects to show us and did a great job teaching such a precise and tiny project to such a large group.  I have to admit that I didn’t get very far and I don’t know if many of these are in my future.

 

Another fun class was the Embroidered Pocket Hoop with Amanda Woodruff of A Crafty Fox.  Super fun and simple.  I just have a bit to finish up.  When it’s done it will go in an embroidery hoop and have two pockets to hold sewing tools.

 

My last class was, Hand Printing Fabric with Miriam Tribe from Mad Mim.  Super fun and informative.  Miriam gave us all kinds of tips on what dyes, inks, and bleaches to use.  Then we got to cut our own stamp blocks and test them out.  One fun little tidbit was that she often uses dollar store erasers to make her stamps!  Who knew?!

The two days of classes were capped off with a closing dinner and keynote speech by none other than fabric designer, Heather Bailey!  Her fabric line, Nicey Jane, is my very favorite of all time so she was already one of my favorite designers.  After getting to meet her I just love her that much more.  She was so sweet and kind.  Heather attended several classes and visited both nights of open sew just to chat and see what everyone was making.

I showed her some pictures of my two sets of twins including pictures of my girls wearing dresses made out of Nicey Jane fabric from the last two Easters.  She was sweet enough to take the time to look at them and tell me what a nice family I have.  She even tried to take a picture of one of my pictures.  It was funny too because she said that she was going to vote on my quilt layouts from the HST Quilt Top class but she was going to pick the pinwheel layout that no one else picked.

In her talk, she shared about her personal journey, talked about how she feels that the industry has changed for the better in the last 10 years and was super inspirational about our own journeys.  I felt like she was talking right to me when she said, “I don’t like when I hear people say that they are not creative.  Stop saying that.  Yes you are!”

Friends:

It’s amazing to me how many wonderful women came together for this event!

Everyone was so friendly and I made lots of new friends.

I was especially thankful to meet Kenna and Jodi (and of course baby Vinny) . Kenna, thank you for being so much fun, answering my 500 quilting questions, driving my butt around town, and teaching me the finer points of ordering from Café Rio!  Jodi, thank you for being such a sweetheart, keeping me calm at the airport, and letting me hold your adorable baby!  I know that we will remain friends.

I also attended the Salt Lake Modern Quilt Guild Mixer with Kim and have no idea why I didn’t get a single pictures! Boo!  I had fun with you Kim.

One of my favorite moments was Vinny crawling for the first time.  He worked his way over to grab a piece of the quilt that I was laying out.  See the little square out of place?  So cute!

It was also fun to meet one of my favorite fabric designers Shari Butler and Instagram friend Toni Selman.

Food:

No trip would be complete without trying some new foods!

On Thursday night we tried some yummy Mexican at Café Rio.  The New England area is highly lacking in the Mexican food department so it was nice to have a yummy burrito.

On Friday night, we tried some waffles from Bruges Waffles.  Stick with what they are good at and order the waffles and fries.  I can not recommend the burgers.   I had the cinnamon waffle with strawberries and vanilla ice cream and it was super yummy!

Shopping:

I didn’t get in until Thursday afternoon so I wasn’t able to attend the shop hop bus tour.  (If I ever get to go again, I am definitely coming in earlier so I can do this.)  Fortunately, I didn’t go home empty handed because Amanda Woodruff brought her Etsy shop, Westwood Acres, to open sew. 

I bought a fat quarter bundle of Heather Bailey’s new line Lottie Da and I fat eighths bundle of Heather Ross’ super cute Briar Rose line.  I love the Heathers!

Apparently there was a problem with donations coming in on time to make up Swag Bags this year.  At first I was a bit bummed by this as so many people talk about this being a highlight. However, by the time the weekend was over, I actually ended up with quite a few goodies.  So thanks to all of the companies who donated and for the Salt Lake Modern Quilt Guild who put together lovely swag packages for visiting Sewing Summiters.

On Sunday, I didn’t fly out until the afternoon so I got to do a bit of site seeing and that was nice.  Salt Lake City has a great public transit system called Trax and it is free within the city limits. 

Sewing Summit was one of the best experiences that I have had.  I loved getting to meet all of you and hope that I will be able to go back next year!