I can hardly believe it's been a month since
Sewing Summit. And I haven't even written a proper recap!
Vanessa's recap yesterday reminded me I hadn't done one yet. (What a sweetheart, by the way!) As soon as I came home from Sewing Summit last month it was straight into full on prep-mode for Quilt Market. I never really got a chance to digest everything that happened. It was another amazing experience, for many of the same reasons as last year, but many new reasons too.
I really don't like flying, but lucky me I didn't have to fly alone!
Megan and
Anna came down the night before and we had a little pre-Summit slumber party (with almost no sleeping, haha)! We flew right out of Madison, which was easy peasy. It's only got 9 gates! Our flights were pretty uneventful, and we got a really clear view coming into Salt Lake City. It looks like MARS, I swear!
We met up with
Ali at baggage claim and
Erin came to pick us up! We were super hungry, so we got to experience In and Out! It was fun! And they have milkshakes, so that was a pretty good way to start the weekend. We headed to
Erin's to finish picking up a few things and then headed over to the hotel, the lovely Little America. Now this is where things reached a whole new level of crazy!
The swag arrived. And it all needed to fit into two rooms so that we could sort it and create the swag bags that each attendee would receive the next morning. I took no photos, but you can see some of the crazy in
Megan's photo
here.
It was a lot of work, but it was so much fun! Thank goodness
Erika joined us soon after we started, she is basically a professional organizer, and it couldn't have been done without her expertise! (Also, she is just flat out awesome!) We enjoyed a delicious tapas dinner (thanks E!), and it was back to work!
The next day was check-in for the conference and the Shop Hop! I paired up with
Anna (woo buddy system!) for the shop hop bus, and we managed to not spend too much on fabric! I introduced
Anna and
Megan to
Menchies frozen yogurt, and no joke they acted like me for about 5 minutes! ;) That's what Menchies does to you, you can't help but exclaim that everything is cute and talk in a high voice. Impossible to resist. And so delicious!
After we got back, it wasn't long before the opening reception (I took no photos!), and we met up with old friends and made new ones!
Anna and I managed to sneak in some pool time too! We both needed to relax before our classes!
On Friday classes started, and they were awesome! I was thankful to have my class on the first day, but not the first slot, haha. I had one class to get some jitters out!
Mena's class on having a handmade wardrobe was so inspiring! Loved all the classes that I took!
My class went off without much trouble! I managed to forget to breathe a few times, but otherwise things went pretty smoothly. I think everyone enjoyed themselves! And hopefully learned something too!
Deedrie was my right-hand woman, and a fantastic class assistant! She also cooks and bakes the most amazing things I've ever eaten. Most of all she is a great friend.
I changed my mind on what to wear for my class at the last minute. Still went handmade, but didn't wear my
Washi dress. I couldn't get it to look right with a cardigan, and I get cold too easily to go without!
And that's all the photos I took at the conference! I'm terrible about that. I brought my good camera and everything, and didn't use it at all except for a few photos of the mountains. On one hand I wish I had more photos to document my trip, but I also think lack of photos just means I was having too much fun to bother! And that's a good thing! There was a fantastic dinner with friends, quiet chatting by the fires, great speakers at both lunch and dinner, and so much more.
As if there wasn't enough quilty goodness at the conference, there were some flying geese in the airport bathroom!
The weekend ended with my Iowa girls,
Deedrie and
Megan! We had our first flight together and shared lunch and a layover in Minneapolis. I took my slippers with me for the flights and the airports, I'll definitely do that again!
Overall it was a fantastic weekend! I was so happy to finally meet faraway friends that I've chatted with for years (
Christina!
Sheila!), reconnect with old friends, and meet so many other friends from the internet! For me, Sewing Summit is all about the people. The classes and learning are awesome, but it's the chatting, eating, giggling with friends that are the best. Some of my favorite moments of the conference were seemingly insignificant moments in the grand scheme of things; sitting on the floor of the office eating leftover chocolate desserts, having a quiet swim, whispering at the end of class with an old friend, talking in bed Saturday night after it was all over. I'm thankful for those moments and everything in between.
Thank you for having me back,
Sewing Summit, you guys are the best! Thank you
Erin, for giving me the opportunity to teach again, and for everything you do to make Sewing Summit what it is! I have a new appreciation for how much work it all is, I'm glad I was able to be a part of it in some small way.
