QuiltCon recap

QuiltCon recap by Charlotte of Displacement Activity

I was lucky enough to attend the inaugural QuiltCon in Austin last month, and I am still buzzing from the amazing experience. Spending time with so many people who share the same interests was just fantastic. Add to that the great location, delicious food and warm weather and you are onto a winner!

There were several aspects to QuiltCon, including a juried quilt show and contest, vendor hall, lectures, workshops and social events. The juried show was excellent, with entries from all over the world. There were lots of quilts that I had seen before on blogs, and it was like seeing old friends! I was honoured to have two of my own quilts in the show, one of which came second in its category. It was inspiring to see so many modern quilts together in one space. I think that was my favourite part of the whole experience.

There was a special exhibit of quilts by Denyse Schmidt, who was also the keynote speaker. It was just incredible to be able to see these quilts up close – there is so much tiny detail in the piecing and quilting that you just can’t appreciate in photos.

As well as the show, there was a full schedule of lectures and panel discussions on all four days, including talks by Anna Maria Horner, Heather Ross, Amy Butler, Jacquie Gering and many more. I was volunteering a lot of the time so missed some lectures that I really wanted to see, but luckily they are available for free on Craftsy.

The workshops were extremely popular and most of them filled up really quickly (including the ones I wanted to do, unfortunately) but I was unbelievably lucky and ended up volunteering in Denyse Schmidt’s improvisational piecing class. Denyse is a fantastic teacher, and I learned so much just being in the same room as her.

For me, the best part of going to QuiltCon was working as a volunteer. Because I was travelling alone I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t have anyone to talk to, but volunteering made sure that I was always busy and around other people. It was fantastic to be a part of things, however small.

QuiltCon will return in 2015 – I strongly suggest putting it in your diary now!