Come Stitch With Me

I was at QuiltCon 2023 earlier today. Several folks from my Friday sewing group wanted to go on a field trip to QuiltCon. Some of us went today and a larger group is going tomorrow.

I spent about a 1/2 day looking at quilts and walking the vendor floors. Yes, floors as in more than one. This was the biggest vendor hall I think I’ve ever seen during my 3 trips to QuiltCon. I counted just under 100 vendors on the vendor listing.

The quilts and special displays were interesting. Some of the quilts were out there – as they usually are at QuiltCon. I liked the Best in Show quilt. It’s quite striking from a distance. There were so many people in front of it that I couldn’t get a good picture. Be sure to check out the quilts from the Brown Sugar Stitchers Quilt Guild, too, if you go.

Fabric, thread, notions, sewing machines, long-arm machines, books, guilds, furniture, sewing machine repair/restoration – it was all represented. There were plenty of in-booth make & take opportunities. I thoroughly enjoyed embroidering my own nametag at the Spoonflower booth and adding a few stitches to various projects set up around the vendor hall. Ruby Star Society was jam packed with people (not surprising as Melody Miller is ATL based), as were several of the booths of companies that cater to the MQG crowd. I had nice conversations with Cindy Cloward of Riley Blake Designs, Christa Watson and Andi Barney of Sewing Doc Academy. I shared a picture of the Metamorphosis memory quilt I made from Hawaiian shirts with the designer at Lo & Behold Stitchery. Of course, I had to find the booth for my ladies at the SQTM (pictured above). I also ran across the booth of The Cotton Farm (Sadie’s former quilty home) and Charlene stated they were selling out of everything – as in not finding a new retail location. 😦

I indulged in a little retail therapy – a sample pack of SewTites Lite (designed for people like me who have a hard time prying the darn things apart) and a Quilters Rule sticker for my Elnita EC30. Now, all three of my travel/teaching machines have the same sticker on them (and it matters to the kids for some crazy reason!). Vendors were happy to load me up with freebie stickers for my sewing kiddos.

Happy I came today for a quick visit, but also glad I listened to my gut and declined to volunteer or sign-up for classes. (As expected, a big family event did get scheduled for this weekend!) Yes, crime is still bad city-wide, but I felt very safe in the parking garage and all along the route to the AmericasMart where the event’s being held. Police presence was visible. There were volunteers and security guards stationed everywhere at the show. Would I do an evening event? No way as a commuter, but yes if I was staying at the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel.

Here’s looking ahead to QuiltCon 2024 in Raleigh, NC!

I’ll replace buttons, fix seams and hem my own pants.

I also repair holes in my favorite knit tops.

It seems as if knit fabric keeps getting thinner and thinner. It doesn’t matter how much I pay for a knit garment – my favorite tops always get holes where the top meets the zipper area of my waistband. That’s why I keep a small quantify of Easy Knit (Pellon EK130) interfacing in black and white with my sewing supplies.

This fusible interfacing will stretch with your knit garment. Simply cut a small strip or square and fuse to the wrong side of your t-shirt following the manufacturer’s instructions. Simply squishing the hole back together before you fuse the interfacing down might be enough to repair the hole. If not, you can darn the hole using your sewing machine or hand stitch it. I prefer to hand stitch small areas. It took about 15 minutes to mend 3 knit tops this morning.

From a distance, the repair is practically invisible.

Do you mend or are you part of the “I don’t do mending” quilter camp?

The tune is one of those ditties we learned in nursery school (The Farmer in the Dell).

I did it. I signed up for the July retreat. I’m going to sew and spa for three days. Aahhh…

Seriously, though, it’s been a challenge to find a retreat that offers: 1) private accommodation options, 2) project(s) that appeal to me or the option to BYO projects and (3) reasonable costs.

You have to really dig, but such options do exist:

1. Lutherridge offers a Quilt Camp in April near Asheville, NC. It’s a BYO projects retreat, offers private rooms and has reasonable costs. The catch? There are only four private rooms available. Of course, they were the first ones to go!
   
2. Camellia Palms Retreat Center in south Alabama offers instructor led retreats in a restored old home on a lake. Private rooms available, reasonable costs, but the project offered for the weekend I could go was not something that appealed to me.
   
3. The Alabama Folk School at Camp McDowell offers a quilt camp with the Gees Bend ladies. It checks all the criteria, but is not during a week I can go.

Really need to get away from it all for 2-3 days? Pick a spot spot within a 2 hour drive, reserve a hotel room and create a DIY quilt retreat.