thoughts on quiltcon 2020

so i went to quiltcon.
no, this wasn't my first convention going "rodeo" so to speak, but it was the first one that was hobby based versus work based (aka when i went to wppi in vegas in 2011 & 2012)
so what did i think?
i had a BLAST.
i failed at a few things, but lucked in to a lot at the same time.
my first fail came to hotels.
i totally bombed at booking a room earlier, but as luck would have it, our guild president kathy's husband ended up not coming, so she had a pull out couch bed available.  shoot, i would have slept on the floor even.  but still, i was able to get a room at a (generally) affordable rate... i mean, we're talking downtown austin, so thats relative anyways... BUT the hotel was literally a block away from the convention center.  out the door, cross the crosswalk in two directions and BOOM.  i was there there.  which comes in GREAT when i like to hit my snooze button.  730am texas time = 530 california time... which was not a fun compromise.
one of our vp of events (hey, rhonda!) was on the same flight as me wednesday morning, and also conveniently at the same hotel site, so we flew together (generally speaking... my 2nd fail was checking in to my flight asap.  loading group C.  yuck) lyfted together and then once we were settled in, walked to lunch with her friend mickey and her guild vp jeff.
wednesday night after checking in and getting my badge (2nd fail = not quick enough when i registered to get the swag bag) i went to the awards ceremony and then an instagram meet up.  i met a gal from hull, Massachusetts who was also in my age bracket (yay 30s!) and was happy to see i was at the quiet end of the tables and had a seat available.  we chatted a bit, and i learned she had a quilt that was accepted in to the show.
allison @thetiniestsquid my next fail was not photographing the tags to all the quilts in the show.  with the charity quilts, i was able to get a general sense by checking the hashtags on instagram to figure out which guild made which quilt, but i am hoping that there will be a way to check in to the other quilts.  our guild member abby (the same one who designed our charity quilt) also had a quilt in the show herself.
with that said, here is a chunk of some of my favorite charity quilts, starting with ours :)
the charity quilts always have a theme and specific color scheme parameters which make it extra interesting to see how each guild interprets it.  the theme this year was text with a specific color scheme of blacks, grays and whites.  it was interesting to see what direction people went, whether inspirational quote, location specific (such as hello world, by the silicon valley mqg) or some other surprise direction.  i seem to only have a video of it, but here's the emoji quilt by the tulsa mqg, as translated by mary fons.

slide by riane.elise because, well... parks and rec. speaking of mary fons, the lectures were awesome.
since it was my first quiltcon, i decided to just do the lecture pass instead of sorting through to figure out which lectures i wanted to attend.  this way, i also felt like i could skip out on something and go walk around the showroom floor and not feel like i wasn't getting my moneys worth.  the lectures i did go to (which was most of them, to be honest) were fantastic.  i also got to know some "big names" in the modern quilting industry that i didn't know of before and now that i have been home for two weeks have still continued to dive in and watch more of their web based posts.  two of the main ones are mary fons and victoria findlay wolfe.   both were very fabulous presenters on their topics, very engaging and lively about their topics.  victoria findlay wolfe was also the featured artist this year, and her quilts were insane to look at.  and i loved hearing about how she quilted with her grandma.
like... what? yeah, that is really quilted on there. we had a sacmqg "meeting" friday night where a few members showed what they did in their classes they signed up for.  i might consider talking a class next time... especially if i can get in to a long arm class.  crossing fingers and toes starting now.
so basically, i had a great time.
well, that's a super vague way to say i left pumped and energized and ready to get back to creating.  when leaving wppi, i had that same pumped and energized feeling, but there were a lot more steps to implement than just create and make work happen.  with this, quiltcon wasn't as much of a hyped event on steriods and we were all there to come together, network and learn instead of  finding the newest and latest xyz to make the best of the best.  granted, there was some of that on the show room floor... but it was nowhere near as gigantic as the vegas tradeshow.
two weeks later, and i'm still feeling that hype, and it is a hype that is attainable.  like, i feel like i could totally create something worth entering in a show (and i already have ideas... so stay tuned as i check entry dates for the california state fair this year) and i have a support system far and wide that are all in this same boat with me.  (yay sacmqg and lisa, who i may have convinced to come in 2022)
and yes, i tried to fight it as much as i could, but i gave in and totally impulse bought some fabric.  more on that later, because i feel like it deserves a post of its own it is so adorable.
and now with this rambled recap, i'll leave you with the remainder of photos :)

side note: the 2nd from the left is abby's quilt from our guild, and the 3rd one is titled "bob" and won people's choice

crazy right? that's a MASSIVE quilt by shrutinow

that one on the right was from the youth category.  THE YOUTH.  like 18 and under...  why wasn't i that creative as a kid??? and also, the chiropractor said i brought down the demographic at quiltcon "by a lot"... can you hand me my eyes please? i think i rolled them a little too hard.
i *might* already be planning for quiltcon 2021 in savannah, georgia, especially if i can be more on top of booking hotels and such this time around.  granted, that means more plane time and longer travel days... but at least i know better now of what to expect each day as far as when things are really happening.