We arrived at our wonderful COE campground on Wednesday. Gorgeous place! The sites are big with solid gravel parking for the motorhome and a large spot for parking a car and just hanging out. There is a lot of shade in one corner of our space for sitting, but most of the site is sunny (better place for our satellite antenna). Since we have electricity and water at the campsite we don’t need shade to keep cool, so Kevin decided to leave the shady sites for renters who rally need them. Hardly anybody here when we arrived. but that definitely changed on Friday! There are a few spots left, but not very many. We are lucky enough to have a resident mockingbird that likes to hang around, plus doves, purple martins, some type of woodpecker (heard but not seen), and an assortment of other common birds. The mockingbird is incredible though! Click the link to listen to just a short sample of the songs.
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Thursday I went to the KCRQF. It was about an hour away, but the drive was easy. I wandered through the vendor mall, looking at the goodies. I ended up with only a few things – a lightweight thread stand for traveling, a stencil for marking 1” squares on my quilt tops, and a lovely piece of pre-fused appliqué of birch trees plus a piece of fabric (dark blue with stars) to use as a background. All I will need to do is heat press the appliqué to the fabric, then do some thread paining on the birches. It will make a lovely wall hanging.
I took an intermediate free motion quilting class Thursday afternoon. There wasn’t a lot of instruction, but she had lovely samples to inspire us plus stencils, books, and rulers to experiment with. I didn’t play with the rulers because I do that at home, but I did try a number of stencils, concentrating on getting an even stitch. It was even harder to do because were using Babylock sewing machines provided by the festival.
I also experimented some with feathers, a very traditional quilting pattern I have never been able to master. I won’t say I have it mastered now, but they are much, much improved! Diane Kimber, a friend and quilter in Salt Lake City, had given me some pointers. I hadn’t tried her technique, but I had thought about it, and it worked pretty well for me.
Friday I took a class in machine appliqué, but I accidentally left all my samples in class! It was a wonderful class though. She had a kit prepared with samples to use for practicing multiple techniques. We tried using fusible interfacing sewn to the fabric then turned to provide a smooth edge for the appliqué, using water soluble stabilizer with rubber cement to provide a turned edge, and two types of fusible raw edge appliqué. We also experimented with stitch types which was very informative. I am definitely going to try some of the techniques. My favorite stitch combo was a pretty short and narrow blanket stitch. It would be almost invisible in the color of the appliqué, especially with a 50 or 60 weight thread. This class used Viking machines, again provided by the festival.
While the classes were very good, I was not a fan of the show administration. Turns out they would have given my class spot away if I hadn’t checked in at a specific desk, but no one told me that ahead of time. Strike 1. Then when I did check in at 1:15 before going to the vendor mall, they didn’t have the class lists for my 3:00 class! I had to come back at 2:30. Strike 2. Then they changed the time of my Friday class without telling anyone in the class, including the teacher! Strike 3. Some of the desk staff couldn’t believe we were notified, but I showed them on their own website the time and also the confirmation email I was sent. Even though the class was only slipped by 30 minutes, it put the class finishing at the same time as the last shuttle to the parking lot. In addition there was some evening entertainment that conflicted. Probably half the class had to leave at 6:00. I won’t be back. I have a real issue with poor organization, and this was dreadful in a large professional show like this. Yes, they had big names -Ricky Tims, Leah Day, Angela Waters, many others – but the frustrations weren’t worth it. I will go back to the big AQS shows that are run smoothly.
Since it would be so late when I got out, Kevin picked up ribs, beans, and apple crisp at Joe’s Kansas City BBQ. After all, you have to eat BBQ in KC! The ribs were absolutely fantastic.
Note my empty plate!