Quilt Con 2019 Reflection - Part 2

(Click here for the One Monthly Goal March link-up)

Last week, I shared about my experience having my quilt in the show at Quiltcon - you can read more about that here.  Today I wanted to share more about my overall experience at conference.

Nashville was the second Quilt Con I attended - the other was Savanah in 2017.  Comparing the two venues, I like the one in Savanah a bit better.  This convention center was huge and I logged a lot of miles just walking the floor and around the building.

I suspect you've already seen many photos of quilts in your Instagram stream both during and after QuiltCon.  I walked through the quilts several times and I still see photos of quilts from the show without any memory of seeing them before!  It is a very difficult task choosing favorites so I am not even going to try!

After seeing the show and photos of quilts that didn't make it into the show, I am convinced that being part of the jury or judge for Quilt Con has to be an incredibility difficult job.  There were so many quilts - each as wonderful and amazing as the one before.

I really enjoyed walking the floor with my friend Paige.  Her quilts earned a first place and a second place ribbon - I learned so much talking about design choices as we walked the floor.

Photo credit to the Modern Quilt Guild

I was very proud when I heard that my local Modern Quilt Guild - Triangle MQG - had the second highest number of quilts accepted into the show.  There were 14 of them plus a quilt by Michelle Wilke in the 100 Day exhibit as well as our group charity quilt. 

Even more exciting, Separated by Val Luberecki won the People's Choice award.  Her quilt has almost 3,000 little gold squares each representing a child who was separated at the border from their family.

Row 1: Val Luberecki, Michelle Wilke, Michelle Wilke, Ginny Robinson
Row 2: Patty Dudek, Nicole Neblett, Brittany Lloyd, Evie Jespersen
Row 3: Nicole Neblett, Brittany Lloyd, Beky Branagan, Our Group quilt
Row 4: Michelle Wilke, Frances Dowell, Brittany Lloyd

The Swag

I collected a whole lot of swag - charm packs, mini-charm packs, FQs as well as bags.  My friend gifted me a cute zip bag and another friend a nice pin cushion.

The Class

I took Intermediate Lino Printing with Karen Lewis, a 3 hour class on Saturday morning.  Since I had never taken the basic class, I stuck to carving simple shapes and single color stamping.   Other class members took on much more complicated designs as you can see in our class photo!!

The Volunteering

One of my favorite things to do is to volunteer and I did so three times.  I worked registration on Wednesday night - which was crazy, crazy busy.  I also assisted in a workshop and again worked registration at a less busy time.   You collected a dot for each hour you spent volunteering plus got a nice tee shirt and a canvas bag (in the picture above).


The People

Meeting up with people was the best part, by far.  I met some famous quilters - Tara Faughnan, Marianne Fons to name just two - plus finally met in person a number of people who I follow on Instagram or their blogs.  I also met friends of friends - so nice to finally have met someone I have heard so much about!

QuiltCon 2020 will be in Austin followed by Atlanta in 2021.  I had so much fun at this event - I know I'm going to Atlanta and am also seriously considering Austin!

Thanks MQG for a fantastic show!

Did you go to the show?  What was your favorite part?

Have a wonderful day! Patty