Party like a Rock Star!

I had an amazing weekend at the IQA Chicago quilt festival. Lots of cool things happened, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I spent each day at the show until it ended, so I had little time to "live blog" the show like last year, but here are the highlights! (Pictures from the hallways leaving the show, because I hate posts without pictures.)
Thursday: I spent the day in a full day class with Maggie Wiess on Thermofax screen printing. It was great fun, and I think Thermofax screening is right up my alley. While I love my Gocco, the supplies are getting more and more expensive, and hard to find. Thermofax printing is similar enough, and there are enough services out there to provide me screens without buying the machine that I can make use of it. I can't wait to finish my project from class. After class, the show floor opened, and I walked the floor, spent money, and took a Make It University class on Little Windows resin. When Pokey Bolton called my name, she said "Oh I know her!" and even gave me a little hug. Wow!

Friday: Bright and early I got to the show and took the Embellishment Know How seminar, which was about 8-9 demos on embellishing your work. Afterwards, I had lunch with Steff and Catherine, and did some shopping with Steff. I made it through the whole vendor area, and had some time for some of the quilts. The Art Quilt reception was Friday evening, and Steff and I attended. I made a tiara last year that I didn't wear because I could not stay, but entered the "tiara parade" this time. Now, style counts, so I entered as the "queen of mean" and my skull pendant on my tiara even has a crown on it. Instead of a Miss America wave, I threw up the "heavy metal" horns and rocked down the aisle. Well, I guess this paid off, I was a runner up! Best of all, my co-runner up was none other than Melanie Testa, and we chatted for a bit and really hit it off. We also got a chance to speak with Karey Bresenhan, Bonnie McCaffrey, Laura Krasinski, Maggie Weiss, and many others! Melanie, Bonnie, Steff, Catherine and I went to dinner. Bonnie even taped us doing our "Shopping Show and Tell" for one of her video podcasts!

Saturday: Wow, how could you top yesterday? By hanging out with Melanie Testa for a portion of the day, that's how! I took her MIU class first thing, and we shopped a couple of booths and looked at some of the quilts afterwards. My friend Amanda and her friend were visiting the show from Baltimore, so I went to lunch with them, and then got to hang out with Melanie a bit more. It was really good to get her perspective on art quilting, and her story on how things in the art quilting wold are going. It gave me a lot to think about. At that point, it was time for Surviving the Runway. It's was an 80's Prom theme, and I made my Prom Queen tiara in ridiculous over to top fashion. I am sure You Tube Videos will surface. It was silly, and lots of fun. I didn't win, but had a great time with everyone. Bonnie McCaffery even gave me some sideline help. So fun!

Sunday: I got to sleep in a little bit (one extra hour). Arriving at the show at the opening, I did the last of my shopping, and got a call from Steff, who was there shopping with our friend Pika. We all took the "good girl Doll" class from Debbie Crane at MIU, did some more shopping, and took one last gander at the quilts. I spent literally my last dollar saved for the show, a grand total of almost $700 spent on the show overall. It was an amazing time. I felt like I really was part of the "it crowd", and was a bit of the MIU groupie, but had a fantastic time, and can't wait to see the shak out of the many things I discussed with everyone.

I'll post my "Show and tell" things I bought on the next post!!

A graphic update!

OOO! Pretty pictures!

On the way back from a work trip, I saw this neat pumpkin patch. Fall is finally here.

The troublesome trio were at it again when Catherine (center) was speaking at the Wheaton IL guild. Steph (left) invited me along, and we had a blast. We also decided to take a class together at the Mancuso Quilt show next month.


My guild, the Riverwalk Quilters Guild, had their annual small quilt auction so I made this altered spoon, and attached it to a quilted background. The spoon was inspired by directions in a recent Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine article written by Kelli Perkins. I wanted to try this and also wanted to figure out attaching the spoons to quilts for a project I am making for my house.


I also made this small 6 by 18 inch wall hanging, that the DH loved and didn't want me to give away. I forgot to photograph it before I gave it to the guild, so this picture is taken on the hood of my car.



Speaking of Kelli Perkins, she recently did a giveaway on her blog of supplies from her studio, and I tossed my hat in the ring. I got this package today.



Here is what was in it! My cat, Lillith, is modeling some of the lovely bits of ephemera and yarns and buttons and other amazing stuff Kelli sent me. Thanks Kelli!

Lastly, I went back to this for the first time in over a year today. I'm back on the wagon!

"New Work" pages updated on my website and some non quilt art

The new work pages of my website are updated with weekly and monthly quilts. What's nice is to be able to see the themed works grouped together.

I do occasionally do non quilty art, and here is one of those things I did. Kelli Perkins had a tutorial on altering silver spoons in a recent back issue of Cloth Paper Scissors. I traded these online with friends. I plan to alter a few more and attach them to a quilted background. It would make a nice Christmas kitchen gift.

Eat a Pear

This was an unusual start to this project. I bought a real pear and took several photos. Here's a sample.

Then I painted a watercolor of the photo, of which I am still not very good at. But Kelli Perkins had an article in Cloth Paper Scissors a while back on sewn watercolors, which made me want to give that a try. So here is my version of that.

International Quilt Festival Chicago -Day 2

Driving in to the show this morning was tough, because last night seemed so very very late.

My first class of the day was about making Quilting a business, which I took as an exploration, possibly to sell my quilts eventually, but aslo to explore some ideas on reaching quilters on the internet, and some web tools our industry is missing that I know of from the comic book industry (like show floor blogging and interviews... maybe next year). Morna Golletz was our teacher in this class and I learned a great deal.

Next, the show floor... again a glutton for punishment. However, the vendors area was PACKED. On Friday. And just at about noon! So about 10 steps into the show I meet up with new friends from my Riverwalk Guild. We decide to eat lunch. Yum!

Fueled for the afternoon, I spend a good bit of time in the vendors area again as best as I can manage, often getting bumped and pushed and elbowed. While I love the vendors area, I also hate it. Tomorrow will be a good example of why, and I will take photos.

I stopped at the Quilting Arts booth area to see the artists in "residence" doing on floor demos of various techniques. I spoke again with Judy Coates Perez, whos is so very nice, and chatted a bit about her painted works. I also spoke with Kelli Perkins, who was so kind to explain her work and was so inspiring also. I also chatted with Pokey Bolton again about the embellishing machine she was demo-ing. And I saw a paint on fabric technique by Julaine Lofquist-Birch which used dried on shaving cream.

I shopped the next couple of hours and No, I still haven't walked the whole vendor area yet. I started at lane 900, and ended at lane 1400. Tomorrow and Sunday I will do the rest. Tomorrow will be mostly quilts, after my show. At this point, I am being bumped so often, I cannot stand it any more. I buy those thirsty towels on an impulse. I walk past Alex Anderson, whose line has died down. I briefly consider going back to tell her how much I love her podcasts.

Now, I scheduled classes back in January as soon as the classes opened. I did not know that the Friday night class I took would interfere with the Tiara Parade and QuiltArt Reception. Oh noes! Class starts at 6pm, reception at 5pm.

So I decide to go to the reception for an hour. I even made a tiara. In the food line, I finally MEET Bonnie McCaffery, tell her how I missed her yesterday, and she is a lovely person. I also meet Virginia Spiegel! She is also lovely. I met lots of QuiltArt list "readers" and "contributors" and I am so sorry if I can't remember all of your names right now. But the one I enjoy immensely is speaking with Karey Bresenhan. I told her how much fun I was having at the show and thanked her so very much for holding the reception. I saw so many other quilters I would have loved to say hello to. Sadly, before the tiara parade, I had to leave for my class, as I did not want to upset my teacher by barging in late. So I left, but before I did, I had one quick photo taken of me as proof.

My class was by Tricia Spitzmueller on Tyvek manipulation. This was a fun class, and it was again very good to sit down. Here are my class projects!

Thus the long rainy drive back home and looking forward to another class and more show on Day 3!!