Category — Life

What a mess. Not surprising, December is (as usual) not a good month for getting things done. Most of my free time is spent doing holiday related things and on the weekends, I just like to hang with my family instead of by myself in the sewing room. Oh, and my two year old thinks he’s done napping.

So, that not only means that projects don’t get done very quickly, but also that the sewing room doesn’t get straightened up.

But I did make some progress today. The Echo quilt top you see on the floor in the above photo is now finished *and* I managed to squeeze in the back too. Next up, basting! I also finished that Jane Market Bag you see half done (gift for my daughter’s preschool teacher). I totally want to keep it for myself.

I finished all the rows in my A Stitch in Color mini square quilt top. Now just to sew the rows together. I hope everyone else is having an equally productive Monday!

I’m back from the Sewing Summit! Honestly, I have a million thoughts racing around my head from the weekend. I’m not really sure where to start. First off, I want to say it was absolutely, unbelievably amazing. Erin and Amy (the event creators/organizers) did such an awesome job, I really think they are my new heros. I think about how much time and work and risk really went into planning such a large event that was the first of it’s kind. And these are ladies like you and me, with families and other responsibilities. Totally blows my mind.

Ok, let’s start at the beginning. Friday morning I woke up bright and early at 4am to get ready and get to the airport. That was fun. I flew in with a brief stop in Denver (That’s Denver above, I didn’t even get off the airplane!) My sister came with me, but we both had free airfare on different airlines (and different Chicago airports!) so once she landed we headed to the hotel, The Little America. Holy nice hotel batman! Check out our rooms.

We were on the top floor (17th) and had an amazing view of the mountains.

We decided to walk around town and we found a little mexican restaurant for a cheap lunch. Then we walked a couple more blocks to Temple Square. Even if you are not Mormon (which we aren’t), this is a must see. Beautiful buildings and grounds. Also, people in Salt Lake City were very friendly. People helped us with directions, made conversations. It was great.

After that we went back to the hotel and hung out in the hotel lobby with other people that were there knitting and cross stitching and hexie making and hand quilting.

There was always a group like this during free time, so fun! Lots of other hotel guests would walk by and wanted to see what we were working. They were seriously excited about it too. This is a town that appreciates craftiness!

We registered and got our swag bags. SUCH generous sponsors!

Friday night was the Welcome reception.

Food, drinks, lots of excitement as we all met the people we had been reading and swapping with for so long. I had a great time meeting and hanging out with so many Flickr friends and bloggers. I know I’m going to leave someone out, but just a few of them…Jessica, Amanda, Angela, Katie, Natalie, another Amanda , Lee, Dana, Kate, Jeanette, Meg, Elena, Darci, Jeni, Rachel, Jennifer, Liz…and a ton of others! It was fun to hear everyone saying “You look like your picture! You don’t look like your picture! You’re so tall! (not to me – ha!) You’re so short!”

For dinner my sister and I went to a wood oven pizza restaurant called Settebello but honestly by that point I was turning into a zombie because of the 4am wake up call and I crashed hard at the hotel as soon as we were done. Lots of people stayed up and sewed though.

Saturday was our first day of classes. I took Improv Piecing with Jess,

Garment Sewing 101 with Jana,

Creative Fabric Selection with Jeni (yep, we all got Kona Color Cards!),

and Marvelous Mini Quilts with Amanda.

What awesome classes. All the teachers were excited about their subjects, friendly, excited to help us. I was joking that Amanda should be a motivational quilting speaker, she was THAT excited about mini quilts and what we can make. Here she is, adorable, right?

Saturday night I went to a dinner at Red Rock Brewery, organized by Jennifer and Elena. We had a lot of people!

Sunday I took Free Motion Quilting with Allison (very fun, we got to try different techniques on premade quilt sandwiches)

and then a discussion panel about Home Decor Sewing hosted by Erin.

Oh yeah! Some of us also made a surprise quilt each for Erin and Amy as a thank you for ALL their hard work. This secret quilting bee was organized by Ali and the quilts were then quilted by Chris (who also offers long arm services). They each received one of these…this is the front

and back.

Ok, has anyone made it this far? LOL I hope that wasn’t the most boring post! I could really go on forever about it, it was such a wonderful weekend.

Erin and Amy said they plan to make this an annual thing. I really think everyone should try to go at some point. I know a lot of us/you are stay at home moms, retired, working parents, single parents…the list goes on. But I thought I’d give a few tips on how to spend a bit less on the trip.

Airfare – I used a free ticket my husband had earned. See if there are ways for you to earn miles in the next year for a free or discounted airfare. My sister had earned enough miles for half a free ticket.

Hotel – Share a room! Lots of people shared rooms – people that hadn’t even met until this weekend. They were big rooms! You could put 4 people in a room which would mean you would spend only $50 each (after tax) for your room for the entire weekend.

The price of the conference was such a deal, it covered the 6 classes, a welcome reception Friday night with lots of food, two breakfasts, one lunch and a crazy amount of free stuff in our swag bag (donated by sponsors). The food was amazing. We went out for dinners on our own, but I found Salt Lake City to be *very* affordable. The city is very walkable and there are also restaurants all around the hotel. There is even a free transit system that will take you to certain parts of the city.

So there it is! I hope if you weren’t able to go this year, you feel like you were “virtually there” at least while you read this. And for those that did attend and that I met, I loved meeting you and can’t wait to see you again, hopefully next year!

*** Edited to add ***

Claudia sent me a photo she took of my sister (left) and me (right). I’m so excited, we don’t really have any photos of just us together!

Although this is mainly a quilting blog, it is also my personal space where I try to chronicle events in my life. This is the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and I would be remiss if I didn’t spend a bit of time remembering and reflecting. Emotionally I am having a hard time watching and reading the news this week. I am happy I have this blog.

Ten years ago, I was a year into my first job out of college and living in Indianapolis. I was due to fly out to LA with some girlfriends a couple days later for a long weekend. Life was pretty carefree.

I will never forget that morning at work when my mom called me to say a plane had hit the World Trade Center in NYC. I thought it was simply an accident. I was still on the phone with her when she screamed and then said a second plane hit. At that moment our whole world changed.

I remember the entire office crowded around a tv with crappy reception. I remember seeing coworkers crying. I remember going home and watching the news with my roommate, in shock that something like this had happened during “my generation”. That all those innocent people, who had done nothing but go to work that day, had died. It was like the end of our innocence.

Ten years later I am in my 30′s. I am married. I am a mother. Knowing that I am raising my kids in a world where terrorism has been added to the list of worries for them is a tough pill to swallow. But I do have hope for them, that their generation will be honorable, strong and brave. I hope these fears won’t be a shadow over them forever. And I know we will never forget.

Thank you all for your kind words about my Summer Sampler Series quilt top. If you have followed my blog for any amount of time, you probably know that I live in the Chicago suburbs so that photo with the cows was most likely not from around my home. I am on vacation (brought the sewing machine!) up in Crystal Lake which is in northwestern Michigan. My in-laws have a home here so we visit often. Although it is a long drive with kids (at least 7 hours usually), it is a welcome change from the crowds and hustle of the Chicago area.

We try to visit different areas of northern Michigan when we come, and that usually includes the Traverse City area. This trip we decided to see all the quilt barns on Mission Peninsula.

Mission Peninsula is an area just north of Traverse City that is full of hills, barns, vineyards, wineries and beautiful views.

I’ve numbered my photos to correspond with this map that we followed.

It was like a fun treasure hunt and I discovered my husband is really good at spotting a quilt block on a barn in the rear view mirror.

We also took a drive to Sutton’s Bay and on the way home we stopped at a local quilt shop in Cedar, Michigan called Liberty Bell Quilts.

It was totally adorable, surprisingly modern, and I was able to pick up a few fat quarters.

Next door was an amazing looking yarn shop called Wool and Honey. I didn’t go in as my husband and the kids were waiting for me in the car, and now I’m kicking myself – even though I can’t knit. Their website and blog look so cool! I will definitely be back.

We are now heading up for a couple nights at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in the upper peninsula of Michigan. I have never been and am really looking forward to seeing it’s natural beauty. In the meantime, I will leave you with a photo of one of our little friends here that likes to hang of of the hole in the tree and stare at us on the deck.