Getting Ready for QuiltCon 2024

Oh my god, you guys. I had so much fun at QuiltCon last year, I decided to go again this year, but of course, I have made it harder. Instead of just helping Deb Fisher in her booth the whole time, I’m helping her with setup and crowd control on day 1, then I’ll be working in the Gotham Quilts booth! Read on to learn how I’ve been getting ready for QuiltCon 2024.

That’s right, the Gotham Quilts team has a booth, and a portion of it will be devoted to Threadsome Patterns! It seemed like no big deal to finish off my projects and write the patterns, way back in the summer when we decided to go for it. Then the brick and mortar had to be closed, my health stuff happened, CJ moved in, and a lot of other life things, too. Excuses, excuses.

Getting ready for QuiltCon is so much work. If you have the chance to visit quilt shows, show the vendors some love, because they work their asses off planning and preparing. They also sink a lot of money into stock. They are probably tired, wired, and ready to break down, in addition to being thrilled to see you.

I’ll share more about the Gotham stuff after the show. I want to do a planning and results rundown.

For my part, I’ve been focusing a lot on Threadsome Patterns. We’ve had 6 patterns planned right from the start – a large quilt, two wall hangings, a runner and 3-d letters. Pattern #6 is still percolating, although I can tell you it will also be 3-d. We worked together way back when we started to flesh out the designs a bit, and I slowly made the samples. Actually, I made 3, then added a pillow to the large quilt. Then I lost interest/got distracted. I really don’t like writing patterns (guess what I’m supposed to be doing right now.)

Work got really serious the second week in January, and since then I’ve made letters for a QuiltCon banner, a wall hanging, a monogrammed tote bag and finished my table runner. Wow. Writing it down makes it feel like so much work! Want to see some pics?

This is Rosalind, our table runner. We used DecoStitch by Art Gallery Fabrics, then made wool shapes to mimic the shapes in the fabric. I’m not really into table runners, but I am keeping this one, and using it! It was fun to do something out of my usual comfort zone. I birthed this runner, rather than adding binding to it. I love the look, and the minimal hand quilting was fun to do.

Agnes is our alphabet pattern. Initially it was just supposed to be 3-d letters with embroidery patterns. They were so fun to make that I couldn’t stop, and decided to play with other uses for the pattern. The pattern itself will be just the 3-d letters, but there will be instructions for making them larger or smaller and doing other stuff on the Threadsome website.

I used the 2″ version to make this cute wall hanging. We decided on Sleep Stitch Repeat, rather than our original Quilt Sleep Repeat, since Threadsome encourages embroidery. This was so fun to whip up. I used a Sue Spargo 1/64th bundle of wool, a partial fat quarter from my stash, and a ball of Eleganza Perle cotton.

This is a tote bag from Harp & Ra. It’s organic cotton canvas. I thought about reusing an older bag, but decided I wanted to get fancy, with pockets and zippers that someone else figured out. It’s pricey, but I’m really happy with it. I decided it needed a little bit more wool, so there is a smushed diamond shape added. I just cut mine freehand, but I know people don’t like that kind of instruction, so there is an actual shape included in the pattern, too.

All of the instructions in Agnes are for wool appliqué, but if you aren’t into wool you can certainly use the templates for more traditional appliqué, either by hand or machine. I’m sure I’ll be using them often in the future. The shapes are just so easy to work with.

Projects that were done before, but the patterns are being finalized now are below.

Helena is a modern hexagon wall hanging. You know how much I love hexagons, so of course they are in our first collection. Simple embroidery and quilting are a great introduction to wool appliqué.

This last project just might be my favorite, which is why I named it after my grandma. Sylvia is an embroidery sampler. We used a very bland monochromatic color scheme to make a quilt that sparkles, literally. I embroidered it with Razzle rayon threads, so all of the embroidery really pops off of the matte wool. It’s a great way to show off mastery of all of the stitches in Sue Spargo’s Creative Stitching book.

Last, but not least, is Lorelei. She started as a quilt, then got a pillow that I like even more. (She really is finished, I just don’t see that photo, and I’m out of blog playtime.) If you are curious about wool, come see us. I’ll let you touch all of the samples, then lure you into purchasing a little something to get you started.

So that’s part of what I have been working on for the past few weeks. I can’t wait to see everyone at QuiltCon, and watch our merchandise fly off of the booth shelves.

If you’re in Raleigh, come say hi! On day 1 I’ll be in the Fish Museum booth, and it is a REAL circus on day 1, so come by and visit on days 2 and 3 at the Gotham Booth. (Hopefully that will be a circus, too, but nothing compares to the first day stampede for pin cushions.)