quiltcon 2025

d5 and i went to quiltcon in phoenix for a day. short trip, in and out, so much packed in! the quilts were, of course, mindblowing and so inspirational. i did a photo dump of them on IG if you need to see more photos of quiltcon quilts. what made this day so special for us was the people! we had some really fantastic interactions with quilters and designers there that were almost overwhelming. we left so happy.

my first priority was to meet up with my long-time online quilt buddy from the early heyday of blogging circa 2013, michelle bartholomew. (this post! this is from when we first met online. i'm in the comments. so are sarah schraw and nicole/snips! oh, i miss the old blog days.) michelle is so talented. i've loved her quilts and her quilt photography for over a decade. we were actually going to room together at quiltcon 2017 in savannah, but my husband had a little accident and that went out the window. this year we were both at quiltcon and finally got to meet in person! turns out we're kind of hair twins, with similar (all-natural) coloring and highlights. 

michelle was busy in the morning helping a friend do book promotion, so we met midday for lunch. the easiest place to find each other - at her award winning quilt! i told you she was talented. we went to the convention center food court for lunch because it was convenient and i didn't remember the food from the last quiltcon, which seemed to mean it was at least okay. michelle and i picked a stirfry shop and got in line. as we approached the counter, i notice AMH was a few people behind us. wow. not a place to fangirl, so we didn't say hello.

we ate our lunch, which was not good at all, and talked, which was great. d5 was patient with me while we chatted, but eventually we all needed to move on. there were a bazillion more things i could have talked to michelle about. next time! and next time we will eat at a real restaurant.

while d5 and i were perusing quilts before lunch, i happened apon this cutie. i've followed amy smart "diary of a quilter" for a long time but somehow i did not expect her to be so darling. she was just the nicest, so friendly and engaging. we talked like we were old friends and she talked to d5, too. i was completely smitten with what a lovely person she is. i had no reason to expect otherwise, but it made me so happy to hit it off with her this way. i think i should have given her my bag - it matches her cute pants.

after lunch with michelle, we did the vendor booth side.

d5 tried out a longarm machine. no room for that around here, but it was a fun experience for her.

i met meghan of "then came june." her booth had so many adorable bundles and it was really fun to see so many of her quilts in person. d5 wasn't around so i didn't get a photo.

i also loved the "low and behold stitchery" booth. the eye candy!! i decided it was time to make a few purchases. i got an adorable retro fabric backing and yellow bundle. d5 picked some quilt stickers for herself. when we got to the register, my credit card didn't work. i had misplaced my backup card (in a clothing pocket) earlier in the week and only had the one card on me. i had to make a phone call and it turned out there was a security freeze on the card. good thing we got in the show and paid for our lunches before that started! i got them to unfreeze the card while i made my one purchase and then put it back on hold. darn. that was the end of my shopping for the day. i can get everything else i wanted online anyway, but it would have been nice to take it home right away and not pay shipping.

i did not pay any attention to who was going to be at quiltcon beyond michelle. so i was really surprised and delighted when i happened apon several designers i admire. first up was heather bailey.

this picture cracks me up - my face! hahaha. d5 took several photos for us, but this is, unfortunately, the best one. i think i was trying to get daughter to stop taking photos with a look, but instead i look like a maniac. in reality, it does kind of show how ecstatic i was to meet and talk to heather in person. she is my favorite designer! i'm so happy she is designing again. we got to talking and we have a couple of mutual connections. like, my seester went to art school with her and is good friends with her sister. i think this means heather and i should be good friends, too.

d5 fell head-over-heels for linsey's "pen and paper patterns" quilt designs in another booth. maybe when her skills get a little better she'll be ready to tackle something that complex.

we walked around another corner, i saw denyse schmidt in her booth, and my jaw dropped. we perused the booth a little and d5 told me i had to talk to denyse. i wasn't buying anything (stupid security block on my card), so i didn't want to take her time. but the daughter made me.

the colors in this "snake trails" sample quilt were so good! i may need to make one. or at least borrow the fabric palette.

we waited in line a minute and got to talk to denyse. (only one photo and she has her eyes closed - sorry denyse!) she was very gracious and nice to converse with; such a gentle, beautiful soul so full of creativity. i'm glad i listened to d5 and talked to her.

at this point, we were near the end of the vendor booths. our feet were tired. we were a little overwhelmed with all the sensory overload of quilts and fabric. i was giddy with the people we'd met. one more row to go and we would be done.

on the very far side, last row (or very beginning, depending on where you start from), i saw heather ross. it felt like too much for one day! i was so happy with my encounters with heather bailey and denyse schmidt. heather ross on top of that felt like a little too much. but again, d5 insisted we speak to her.

this turned out to be probably the best part of the whole day.

d5 recognized some of the fabric designs in the booth and was excited herself to talk to heather. she approached the first lady in the booth and started gushing about how much she loved her work. it was heather's assistant, haha. but she was really kind and talked to us for a bit until heather was available.

then we had the pleasantest experience of the day. despite there being a line of people behind us, heather gave us all the time in the world. and we weren't even buying anything. d5 is about the same age as heather's daughter, bea, and heather took a real shine to her. heather mentioned how bea and her friends will hang out in her studio sometimes and create things there. i said to d5, "can you imagine having a mother like this?" you know, an uber talented artist with tons of fabric lines under her belt and an amazing art/quilt sudio. d5 responds, "i do have a mother like that!" she melted all our hearts.

heather then asked us if we could take a picture together. i wasn't going to ask because of the line, but it was her idea. she suggested we do it in front of the strawberry print wall. great choice.

then she asked d5 if she could give her some fabric. uh, yes please!!

they spent a few minutes combing over the bundle options heather was offering d5.

and they kept conversing. 

you want to win a mother's heart, do something for her child. this was no sales gimmick, but i am for sure a hard and fast heather ross fabric fan now.

it's a good thing this was the end of the vendor booths because there's nothing that would top this meeting of heather ross! we walked out of the convention center stunned by heather's generosity, not just of the fabric, but of her time and attention she lavished on us. we were on cloud nine.

last encounter later on was at the phoenix airport. i found kate "quarter mile quilts" on display in terminal 4. somehow i had missed her posts that her quilted family portraits would be there, but i immediately recognized them. nice work, kate!

 

creating some order

in january i happened across karen brown of "just get it done quilts" 's declutter challenge and started watching her prep videos, which cover a lot of different ideas about quilt room organization and decluttering. although i am not currently able to follow her month-long decluttering schedule, i picked up a lot of ideas from her!

i have been exploring scrap storage options ever since i read jolene klassen's new book "scrap quilt diary." jolene said she uses lori holt of "bee in my bonnet" 's scrap storage system, so i went to lori's blog to learn about that. basically, these smart ladies cut all their scrap pieces into strips and squares of specific sizes they frequently use and store the scraps by size, further sorting by color or value is optional. so smart! having ready-cut strips and squares in standard sizes is like making your own precuts. most of the ladies i learned from have set patterns they know they can make quilts from using the standard sizes. this means the scraps are more likely to get used.

i have already been cutting scraps from my dump-them-all-in scrap basket for this fun "bonnie lass" project, so it makes sense to me to have scraps precut in standard squares and strips for other projects. once i have my scraps organized, i will share the results.

i read more about scrap storage from amy smart of  "diary of a quilter,"  she's also doing a purge and sewing room declutter for january. additionally, amy had an organization guest post from andy of "a bright corner," which i think is how i ended up with karen brown. maybe.

anyway, all these ladies had great ideas for decluttering/organizing the sewing room and for sorting/storing/using scraps. it was inspiring!

my space has needed a major overhaul for a while now. i took the ideas i gleaned and decided on a few to implement in small doses when i have time.

i tried a few containers from target for scrap storage, which i'll get to in a moment. what i'm going to start talking about is my new project boxes and tower, because this is what's working best and is most exciting for now.

i ordered two iris brand six-box storage towers (which come with optional wheels) and have stacked them together. there is one more tower i'll be putting under my sewing table for scrap storage

the boxes in the tower are 12" x 12", 3" deep boxes with snap-close lids. they are fantastic for individual project boxes! i'm so happy with them. and the 12 in this tower are already full of wips. so i've ordered another two towers, which should do me. (my wip page says i have 17 works-in-progress that are in the piecing stage. there are actually a few more than that, but 24 boxes will be adequate.) projects to the flimsy stage or further along are stored elsewhere in my room.

the box above contains all the finished blocks for my "sunny crossroads" quilt. there is a pile of fabrics still to be used somewhere in the room, which i can add to the box.

this box has some finished blocks and a lot of the as-yet, uncut fabrics for my "cute betsy hearts" quilt.

many of the boxes have all the fabric, including the backing, in the box. this is so convenient!

i really like that these boxes are clear for visibility. i feel like visibility means i'm more likely to work on the projects and not forget them. the aesthetic in me wishes these weren't plastic and looked prettier, but they look good enough and are quite practical. the tower included all the boxes, which was great. no guess work about fit!

these deeper, narrower sterilite rectangular boxes are what i used to store projects in; a few of the projects, at least because i only have about 8 of these. the rest of my wips were stacked and scattered around the room.

i like the shallower square boxes because they accomodate larger finished quilt blocks. these boxes now hold fabric pulls for future quilts that i haven't cut into yet. these live at the back of my pressing table. i can reach them pretty easily, but they aren't in a prime spot. they are further down the to-do list, so this is fine.

i ordered a set of iris's slimmest boxes, which i'm sure are absolutelly perfect for scrapbooking. however, they were a little too thin for quilt projects. if i had all the blocks done or maybe cut, they would store those fine. but they aren't deep enough to store additional fabric with blocks. so i'll be using those elsewhere in the house. to be determined.

before i ordered the iris boxes, i made a stop at target to see what they had to offer. i was really hoping for something pretty that would add to the look of my room and be practical. my sewing room has this set of square cubby shelves where i store a lot of my books, notions, and fabric pulls. but i feel like it's underutilized with far too much empty space. 

target no longer carries the milk crate boxes i originally got with these shelves, but i found these skinny woven baskets i was hoping i could stack in the cubbies. but they don't work at all. they stick out more than an inch and i can't fit two side-by-side in the cubby.

but that's okay because they weren't ideal for my scrap storage anyway. i put my 2" strips in this basket to test it out. now that i've tried the iris boxes, i think they will be perfect for scrap storage by cut size. iris also makes the tower with drawers instead of the boxes, which is what i plan to put my scraps in. i think drawers will be more accessible and appropriate for scrap storage than boxes. individual boxes with lids are good for items that need to be contained and moved around a lot. i envision opening and closing a drawer that stays in place rather than taking out a box and opening a lid for scraps. since it doesn't need to be portable, open top is better.

i got these white plastic baskets from target, as well. they were inexpensive and not too offensive looking. my issue with these is they don't stack and they don't fit my cubbies, either. 

somebody should have measured before she went shopping.

they did fit my scrap strips okay, but i think the 12" x 12" drawers are going to be better.

so, my room is getting some much-needed organization! hopefully, this helps with making more quilts more easily.

i have another system i bought to maybe put my fabric in. when i get to try it out, i'll report back on that next.