It Really Is the People

You've probably read it on oodles of other blogs this past week as Sewing Summit attendees recap their weekend. But of course you knew it to be true even before that. With all the great classes, swag, and sewing, the heart of the experience really was the people.

Daughter dear and I had not even boarded our flight out of town before we met out first new friend. And I confess, it was my Weekender Bag that brought us together!

Katie of there & back came right up to us in the boarding line, excitedly asking if we were headed to Sewing Summit! We hooked up again at baggage claim in SLC and managed to catch a shuttle to our hotel plum full of others SS attendees! (Hi to Ellie of Craft Sew Create, Amy of form work, Amanda of Patchwork in Paradise, and Stephanie of providence handmade.)

I felt really inadequate recognizing even my bloggy friends, but thankfully, several of them came up to me to meet and greet while we waited to check in!

with Karen of capitolaQuilter

with Shawn of Creative Inspiraciones

with Darcy of Modern Cozy

Day one's shop hop was my first ever, and for that reason alone, it was exhilarating. Add to that the swag, the awesome shops, {the philly cheesesteak}, the fabric frenzy, and just traveling around in a new-to-me town . . . well it was just plain fun.

Rachel {daughter dear} of Snippets of Sweetness

with Jennifer of knotted thread

Once Sewing Summit officially started, our days were plum full {recaps here and here}. From our brisk run for coffee each morning, till we closed down the open sew each night, we were going, going. It didn't take long before we were waving at familiar faces in the halls and chatting before class. Everywhere we went there were new friends to meet, moo cards to exchange, and sharing to do about our experiences.

with Coutenay from Three Sisterz and Rachel

   

with Amy/Sukie {finally!} of Sukie Don't you know who I am 

with Allegory of {sew} Allegorical

with Bianca of sweet diesel designs

with January of Sew Sew Go, Tiffany of This Crafty Fox, and Sara of Sew Sweetness

About the time we thought our awesome weekend was all over, that Weekender Bag led us to more new friends at the airport! What fun to end our time in SLC just getting acquainted and chatting about sewing and stuff.

 

with Amber of One Shabby Chick 

Megan of lucy and norman

And there were many more meaningful connections I made, meet-ups to cherish, and friendships I'll continue to nurture. Yes, it was definitely about the people.

Metal Frame Purse Take 2

The one hands-on class I took at Sewing Summit was "Metal Frame Purse" with Kelly of kelbysews, who has oodles of cute samples on her blog. Even though I had made one metal frame purse before, it had a sew-in frame.

Basically, these little purses aren't difficult to construct, but I was a bit apprehensive about that glue-in variety!

In reality, it wasn't difficult at all! {Thanks, Kelly!}

So this is my one finish from my time at Sewing Summit. Just a little (8" wide) project, but I have a feeling it'll open a new world as far as making little purses goes.

One of my classmates shared a little trick that, in my opinion, made the final assembly so clean and easy. And that was to top-stitch the entire upper sides and top very close to the edge before sliding the purse into the glue-filled frame. Here, I made another frame purse so I could show you.

That stitching compresses the top edges of the purse just enough to easily slide into the frame, and then, of course, is hidden.

Anyway, I'm kind of fond of my new little achievement, and look forward to trying other shapes and sizes!

Linking up with Finish it Up Friday, Off Friday, {sew} Modern Monday, and Fabric Tuesday.

Day Four

So really, Sewing Summit ended Saturday night. But traveling home yesterday had some really cool moments, so I figured I'd share them with you to finish off my little narrative about my Sewing Summit adventure.

First off, all my swag fit into my bags! Was just a tad concerned there for a bit. But my suitcase weighed in at just 38# - no need to worry.

THEN, lo and behold who would daughter dear and I meet up with at the airport, but Amber of One Shabby Chick and Megan of Lucy & Norman, whoooo just happened to have Weekender Bags hanging from their shoulders! You may remember that it was Amber's that I saw that convinced me to buy the pattern and give this bad boy bag a try! So I was as pleased as could be to meet up with her and Megan. We couldn't resist getting a pic together with our bags. And to be perfectly honest, ANY Weekender sighting at Sewing Summit got a shout-out. It would have been so cool to get a photo of all of them together!

In between visiting with Amber and Megan, we stopped in at Cafe Rio, which thankfully has a location at the airport. I had heard so much about a certain dish that I convinced Rachel we just had to try it while we had the chance. I'll share more about that on Tuesday.

Anyway, I know there will be more to share once I download the rest of my pictures and unpack all the swag, but meanwhile, hope my little reports have given you a good glimpse of what Sewing Summit is all about!

Day Three

Ok, so 'out on the town with most of Sewing Summit' last night didn't happen. Daughter dear and I decided to run to Gourmandise for a quick dinner, since they touted the best pastries in Salt Lake City, and it seemed our only chance to check them out. Dinner {and dessert} was delish, and we picked up some pastries for breakfast. So far so good.

Well we headed out again into the dark and the rain, and in short, we got lost. Eventually, we just hopped Trax again and headed back to the hotel, where we knew open sew awaited. And several lovely things happened at open sew that night - 1) I finished my first Mod Pop Block; 2) I met Lee from Freshly Pieced, where I guest-hosted recently; and 3) we got some great swag (thanks, friends!). So the evening ended swimmingly.

As for Saturday: A VERY FULL DAY! In a nutshell . . .

• Coffee run to Starbucks & meet up with bloggy friends = awesome start to the day!
• #1 class - Website Design with Melissa Esplin - oh my gosh did I take notes!
• #2 class - Finishing Details with Anna Graham of Noodlehead, who had lots of ideas for garment sewing, home dec, and quilting.
• Lunch with new friends + keynote speaker, "eclectic modern" fabric designer Joel Dewberry and his new collection, Notting Hill + very cool swag, a copy of "Ruby Star Wrapping."
• #3 class - Successful Blogging with Tauni Everett of SNAP! Lots more notes and things to consider. And boy will I be exploring her website soon. 
• #4 class - Advanced Bag Construction with Sara Lawson of Sew Sweetness - great info about interfacing and purse hardware. Plus she had oodles of her awesome bags to share + sat on the floor with a few of us after class to just chat. sweet.
• Dinner with more new (and old) friends + keynote speaker Nancy Soriano, an editorial strategist who shared about her career journey. A bonus was fabric designer Carol Van Zandt, who sat at our table and shared fat quarters of her new line, licorice fizz, with us!
• Then, you know, off to open sew again . . .

Day Two

Susan replied to yesterday's post by asking, but how's the FOOD? Well our first real meal at Sewing Summit was dinner last night. We did our research and decided to make a trek to Eva, a quirky little Mediterranean restaurant featuring small plates. We shared a  butter lettuce salad with strawberry relish and goat cheese toasts (yummy) ... baked Greek mac and cheese with bacon and arugula (yummier) ... and eva's "baker's pie" that was all cheesy with a tomato and fresh mozzarella salad on top (yummiest)! mmm. Highly recommend.

Open Sew was up and running after dinner, and we spent several hours there just stitching away. Between machines and sewists, there was quite a hum in that room.

Today started with a quick coffee run and then straight to class! Mine was "Metal Frame Pouch" with Kelly of KelbySews. The pattern was quick and easy and shock of shocks, the gluing into the frame was a snap. What was I worried about?

From there it was on to "Creative Fabric Selection" with Jeni Baker of In Color Order. Her presentation was so engaging and enlightening.....very enjoyable! And what a treat to all get a Michael Miller Cotton Couture color card!

Lunch was really nice - the first hotel meal - bountiful salad and dessert bars. We met all new people at our lunch table and enjoyed getting acquainted and swapping cards. Also during lunch was a brief presentation by the team from Threadbias, which was cool as I'm a newcomer to their site.

Last class today was "Photography for Bloggers" with Vanessa Hewell of LBG Studio. If anything, this is where I need and want help and Vanessa gave us alot to think about and try with our cameras.
So now it's down time for a bit ... later on we'll head out to a mixer sponsored by the Salt Lake City Modern Quilt Guild ... out on the town with most of SS!

Day One

Wifi issues abound. But Sewing Summit is off and running with a full day of shop hopping around SLC. Meeting bloggy friends + making new acquaintances has been great fun. Swapping moo cards and admiring each other's handmade bags is a common and frequent occurrence. Swag is happening. Instagram is rampamt. Sun is shining. Starbucks is 2 blocks away. Things are good!

Travel Handmade

I love the idea of practical handmade items, and it's been great following the Sewing Summit Travel handmade series. Plus there's some pretty cool stuff gathered on the Travel Handmade: ideas board on Pinterest. I didn't get a whole lot new made for Sewing Summit, but considering I did manage a Weekender Bag, I'm pretty pleased just the same.

And I got my name tag done. I had prepped binding for it, but wasn't paying attention, and just sewed around the edges and turned. oh well! I used this tutorial as a guide for the patchwork lanyard. Honestly, I'm not that thrilled with the end result of the tag itself, but it is what it is.

You may remember the Logo Card Holder I made a few months ago . . .

Well, I made another one, this time for daughter dear.

They should come in handy for carrying our Moo cards, taking class notes, etc.

So see, I'll be traveling a teensy bit handmade!

Linking up with Fabric Tuesday.