Sewing Summit - Day 1

So Day 1 was here. I had already met loads of people on the Shop Hop so as we all met up excitedly outside the conference rooms of the Little America, the chatter got louder and louder. My first class was Fabric Design with Pat Bravo. At our seats were little gifts...

 

 

 

Pat Bravo is such an amazing, beautiful person....I have always loved her fabrics and to hear how her collections came about was fascinating. She talked about how she got into fabric design and then where her inspiration comes from. I totally want to go home and make a mood board now!! She encouraged us to see the world in a whole new way...a doorway is not just a doorway...it is colour and texture and patterns and shapes. Colour is also pivotal and will set the mood for the collection, so she spends a lot of time getting the colours just right. And who knew there were 2100 colours...Pantone do as they have this many colours in their library!!

 

Pat Bravo and me

 

My next class was a Creative Journey with Leanne Barlow who blogs at Elle Apparel. Leanne started her journey after seeing a skirt at Anthropologie that was way out of her price range. She then drafted up her own version, posted it on her blog and now makes and sells all her own clothing. Her journey was fascinating as she shared the highs and lows. She previewed her upcoming skirt - the Bow Skirt - as well.

 

 

Just sitting casually in Leanne's class was Heather Bailey, so I took the opportunity to have a chat with her. She was the keynote speaker at the closing dinner, but was just casually hanging out with everyone. I will talk more about Heather tomorrow but for now let's just say she is a beautiful person inside and out and her new fabric collection Lottie da is gorgeous. I grabbed some at the Shop Hop.

 

 

We then broke for lunch which was a smorgasbord. And at our tables was some cotton from Coats and Clark...more to add to my swag pile

 

 

 

My next class was a Curves Mini Quilt with Angela Pingel who blogs at Cut to Pieces. I hadn't tried curved piecing before so was keen to give it a go. We used a Sizzix machine to cut the drunkards path block...man this made it so easy!! I love these babies. Angela uses a pin at the middle only, sews to the middle, then turns it around and sews back to the middle. This gives more precise edges. It was kind of tricky to start with, but I got my groove on after a few and they became much easier. I haven't finished it yet...it will have to wait until I am back in NZ.

 

 

 

My final class for the day was a Half Square Triangle quilt with Amy Smart who blogs at Diary of a Quilter. Amy is the sweetest person and so funny. I have followed her blog for ages, so it was nice to meet her. For this class I used a layer cake of Simply Style by V and Co and a nice grey solid I picked up at the Shop Hop. Again, no pics of my work, but Amy's quilt was at the front of the class for inspiration!

 

 

 

I had left Tony in charge of finding somewhere for dinner...after all he had all day to find somewhere!! He was very good at amusing himself...he caught trains to the outer suburbs, he went shopping, he found the History channel (yawn) on the TV, he napped.....

 

So we went to Sapa, a Japanese sushi bar. It was very yummy. We stuffed ourselves silly with the 4 dishes below and waddled back to the hotel for Open Sew

 

Bernina had provided the Sewing Summit with new machines in 2 rooms and these rooms were open until 1am each day. We used the machines for our classes, the it was a free for all until the eyelids could stay open no more or until 1am came...whatever came first.

 

I think I dragged myself to bed about midnight, exhausted, still trying to adjust to USA time, but feeling like I was among people who all shared the same passion, and who were all keen to learn and share experiences. I felt motivated and excited about what I had learnt, but my head hit the pillow and I slept well until the alarm went off at 7.30 for Day 2.....

 

 

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