Sewing Summit 2013

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Salt Lake City, UT by Jeni Baker
Photo by Deedee.
Happy Wednesday! Hope you're all having a good week! Fall has official struck here in Wisconsin, the leaves are turning, the air is crisp and I've already started sleeping under my heavy flannel quilt!  I am super happy about it.  Fall is my favorite season, and I'm going to soak up every minute.

Today I am finally going to chat about this year's Sewing Summit conference! I've been trying to get this post up for a good week and a half, but it's a little daunting! So many things I could talk about, it's hard to condense it all into a blog post. This is the third year that Sewing Summit has taken place, and the third time I've taught and attended.  It was a lot of fun, and I'm glad that I went again!

Sewing Summit Closing Dinner by Jeni Baker
Photo by Erin.
If you haven't heard of Sewing Summit, it's a modern sewing and blogging conference.  There were classes ranging from quilting to garment sewing to technical blogging to fabric printing! A little something for everyone I think!

Blazing Needles
Blazing Needles, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.
The conference didn't officially start until Thursday night, but I flew in Wednesday afternoon to have some fun around Salt Lake City and get adjusted to the climate difference.  The elevation is about 4,200 ft in Salt Lake City compared to only around 800 in Madison.  Between that and the difference in humidity, it takes getting used to!

Yarns from Blazing Needles by Jeni Baker
Yarns from Blazing Needles, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.
On Thursday, the always sweet Amy Smart took a few of us around town on our own little shop hop, including an amazing yarn store, Blazing Needles!  It was super fun, and we all managed to find a few goodies!

Bruges Waffles
Bruges Waffles, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.
Those goodies included some crazy good waffles! We only managed to get there twice, but oh my goodness.  The waffles.  If you're ever in Salt Lake City you must stop at Bruges Waffles & Frites.  They're so delicious and they have awesome frites too!

Deedee, Pat, and I by Jeni Baker
Photo by Pat.
Wednesday night adventures at Bruges Waffles, and taking the light rail in the dark! Deedee, Pat, and I!

Menchies with Deedee by Jeni Baker
Menchies with Deedee, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.
I spent most of the weekend with my buddy Deedee! We got into all kinds of trouble. And by trouble I mean eating way too much sugar, shopping at Anthropologie and buying all the yarn! Also, she had never been to Menchies! So of course we had to go!

Amy, Colleen, Holly, Deedee, Myself and Amy by Jeni Baker
Photo by Amy.
The Thursday gang at Menchies! Amy, Colleen, Holly, Deedee, Me, and Amy!

Sewing Summit Classes by Jeni Baker
Sewing Summit Classes, a photo by Jeni Baker on Flickr.
My favorite thing about Sewing Summit is getting to see old friends and make new ones, the people are the reason I keep going back.  That makes the actual classes, pure bonus! I took lots of fun classes this year, including Fabric Design with Pat Bravo, Paper-piecing with Christina Lane, Mini Dresdens with Jessie Lathroum, and Hand Printing Fabric with Miriam Tribe!

HTML Basics Class by Jeni Baker
Photo by Melissa.
This year I taught two completely different classes.  Different from each other and from what I've taught in years past.  The first was HTML Basics for Bloggers on Friday.  I think it went pretty well! I was nervous the whole time that it would be boring, since it is a pretty dry subject! Hopefully my rambling wasn't too bad! I could see "Aha!" moments happening at different points during the class, so I'm confident that at the very least everyone took away one thing they could implement on their blogs.

Equilateral Triangle Class by Jeni Baker
Photo by Kaye.
On Saturday I completely switched gears and taught an Equilateral Triangle Piecing class.  I showed how to cut triangles without a special ruler and lots of people worked towards a throw sized quilt! It was a lot of fun, I'm excited to see the quilts pop up on Instagram and Flickr!

Angela, Lindsey, Deedee, Myself, Kaye, Elena, Amy, and Kata by Jeni Baker
Photo by Amy.
There is something so awesome about going out for dinner with people you don't get to see much in person, but see all the time on the Internet! We had a great relaxing dinner on Friday night at an Italian restaurant. It was so nice to get to know these ladies better and just enjoy their company.  From left to right: Angela, Lindsey, Deedee, Me, Kaye, Elena, Amy, and Kata.

Kaye and I by Jeni Baker
Photo by Christina.
Sweet Kaye! Really enjoyed hanging out with Kaye, we didn't get to see enough of each other last time! We managed to take almost all the same classes on Saturday, we must have read each other's minds!

Christina and I by Jeni Baker
Photo by Christina.
This is one of the best memories from this year's Sewing Summit.  I got to room with one of my very first sewing friends, Christina! She actually got me started quilting and even quilted my first quilt.  We've met a few times now, but never had a chance to spend much time together.  Thank goodness that changed this time around! This goofy photo was taken in the dark, at 1 or 2 in the morning.  We were laughing so hard at the bright flash. There's nothing like laughing until your sides hurt, tears streaming down your face with an old friend.  That's what Sewing Summit is all about for me.

A big thank you to the Sewing Summit staff for putting together this event and for having me back! It was a great time! 

5 comments :

  1. Beautiful summary. Look like it was a whole lotta fun! Love all the photos. They make me smile.

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  2. It just kills me that I didn't get to go this year. I'm definitely not missing all that fun next year. And I wish that I looked that good at 2 in the morning!

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  3. I laugh so much when I see that photo! That night was so funny. I am so glad we got to spend more time together finally. Gabbing late into the night was the best! I miss Kaye already, too. I am going to have to find a way to plan that Toronto trip soon.

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  4. I am from Portugal and I am sad because here we don't have something like Sewing Summit, I'd love participate in one, but who knows i will win lotery and then I will go and probably meet you :)

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  5. I felt like my brain was spinning for about a week after the Summit there was So much involved. I loved your HTML class and am looking forwards to the PDF or digital version. In person, parts of the class were crazy good and too much for my tired self. I learned so much! It was so fun chatting with you a few times and getting to know so many new people. I'm still working on my Summit posts :)

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