Sewing Summit 2012

Ready or not, I’m going to post about my Sewing Summit experience! You’ve probably read a few recaps over the last several days. I think I was hesitant to write anything because I guess that would be accepting that it’s over. I just had so much fun. Last year when I went I was a bit nervous. I was meeting everyone in person for the first time. I wasn’t sure what to expect. This year wasn’t just about meeting more new people, but solidifying those friendships that had grown over the last year.

My awesome roommates Katie and Mary

I arrived late Wednesday night and was lucky enough to stay with Katie and Lee at the home of Katie’s sister-in-law Mary, who I had met a bit last year. Mary is just the nicest, funniest, most genuine person and was one of my roomies for the weekend. Katie isn’t half bad either. Ha, hi Katie – love ya!! Seriously though, I count myself very lucky to have become great friends with both Katie and Lee over the last year and a half.

Lee, Brooke, Terri, Amy, Kelly and Elena

Thursday a few of us went on an informal shop hop to Pine Needles and Material Girls. Both were great shops! And the bonus was the waffles before the shopping and the ice cream at the end of the shopping.

Photo by Amy (Sukie)

Basically, we ate, bought fabric, ate.

Thursday evening was the Welcome Reception and then we went to the new City Creek mall in downtown SLC – I’m not a huge mall person but it was really amazing. Plus I had some really great Mexican food at Red Iguana – I can never say no to Mexican food!

Friday I taught my first class with Kati.

Nerdy photo of me by Amy (Sukie)

We had a lot of information to get through in an hour and 15 minutes, but we just made it!

Kati and I
Everyone in the class was super nice and I heard a lot of people have those “aha” moments, or say “this isn’t as hard as I thought!” I think that is the sign of a successful class.

Me, Lee, Stephanie, Angela, Megan, Amber, Deedee, Jeni, Katie, Mary

Friday night a little group of us went to Caffe Molise, a local Italian restaurant. If you live in SLC, you must go there! Great service, awesome food, live music. I think everyone loved what they ordered.

After dinner we ran through the rain to a party organized by Amy (Sukie!) and the Salt Lake City Modern Quilt Guild. Check out all that bunting! That’s what happens when quilters invade a bar.

Saturday I had ANOTHER waffle from Bruges and then taught again first thing in the morning. Lunch time had a special speaker – Joel Dewberry! Wow, what a humble, nice guy. Makes me want to go buy all his fabric. He had samples of his upcoming line Notting Hill. I’ve already picked out the fabric I want to use on my Weekender!

We also had a banquet dinner with speaker Nancy Soriano, former Editor-in-Chief of Country Living Magazine. She spoke on her Creative Journey, it was really interesting and also inspiring to hear the story of a successful career woman and mom.

Sunday was the day everyone started leaving. I will be honest, when I woke up I was so sad! Of course I missed my family but I didn’t want to say goodbye to everyone. I was lucky enough to find some people in the lobby and have a nice group breakfast.

Photo by Amber

Then I decided to play tourist for awhile and walk around the city.

I visited the Temple and the State Capital building. (My legs were still sore 2 days later from walking up that hill!) Then I headed to the airport for my trip home.

I said this last year and I’ll say it again. I really recommend trying to go the Sewing Summit at least once. Hopefully it’s an annual thing! It’s allowed me to make friends that enjoy doing what I do, friends that now I get to meet up with during the rest of the year (here and here). The classes are great, but really the social experience is why I go. When else will I stay up until 1am sewing and laughing with friends?

Thank you SO much to the amazing Erin and the rest of the Sewing Summit staff for all their hard work. Also huge thanks to Ali who coordinated everything with the teaching staff. They were all wonderful – keep in mind this is no ones full time job. Really amazing.

So I guess that’s it! I have lots more photos on my Flickr photostream that you can check out. It was a great long weekend!

Tagged as:  Sewing Summit