The Sewing Summit

Wow, what a weekend! What can I say about the Sewing Summit? I'm having a hard time breaking it all down in my head! But let me start with this: Everyone reading this should totally go next year. Yes, seriously! If you are active in the online sewing community in any way, this is the conference for you.

Everywhere I turned, I was able to meet and chat with people I've gotten to know through their blogs and Flickr. It was so fun and weird and amazing all at the same time to be meeting for the first time people that I already feel like I "know." But there's just no replacement for being able to put a real living face to the avatar. And no replacement for real-life bonding over a shared love of fabric and the beautiful things we create with it. I think I am completely in awe of every single person I met! There's no question that all of you guys are super inspiring online, but you are even more so in person. I came home last night full of ideas, determined to learn some new skills, and so energized to tackle it all.

Here are just a few of my favorite moments:

We were greeted with all of these gorgeous handmade lanyards at registration. Karen of Venezie Designs made all of these using fabulous designer fabrics! My Heirloom lanyard matched my voile scarf. : )

Friday night, I went to dinner with the ladies of the {Sew} Beautiful bee. Our bee had such an amazing turnout at the Summit! Only two members were missing (we missed you, ladies). So fun to actually sit down with all of these ladies at the same table!

The classes were wonderful. Here's Allison of Cluck Cluck Sew teaching the Free-Motion Quilting class, showing us how she rolls a quilt. I was blown away seeing her quilts in person. Let's just say that Allison is definitely the right person to teach this class. : )

Jeni from In Color Order taught a fabulous class on fabric selection. We took a closer look at the color wheel and how it can drive fabric selections and color combinations for quilting. Jeni's class also included a total Oprah moment when she handed out Kona color cards to everybody in attendance. "And you get a Kona color card, and you get a Kona color card ..."

(By the way, the swag in general was just plain uh-MAZ-ing. And don't you worry, as soon as I sort through it, I'll be giving some of it away to you all!)

Another one of my favorite classes: A class on mini-quilts by Amanda of hey porkchop fame. She is hilarious and so darn inspiring. She definitely made me think of mini-quilts in a whole new light. The Aspiring Authors Panel on Sunday was great too—very informative about the business side of publishing craft books.

Kate of Swim, Bike, Quilt, Faith of Fresh Lemons, and me—the hosts of the Summer Sampler Series all together at last!

On Saturday I was lucky enough to go to a group dinner organized by Elena of Breakfast For Dinner and Jennifer of Ellison Lane Quilts. These two ladies are just as kind and lovely in person as they are on their blogs.

I got to both start and end my trip with Amanda of Saskiriana Handmade. She was on my flight from Denver to Salt Lake (as well as my flight from Milwaukee, although I didn't know it at the time!) She is ridiculously sweet and made waiting for connections a lot more entertaining.

But by far one of the biggest highlights for me was hanging with my two roomies, Elizabeth of Don't Call Me Betsy and AnneMarie of Gen X Quilters. These are the two ladies I have bonded with the most in my blogging career, and to get to hang out with them for a whole weekend was such a treat! I heart you guys! : )

There are so many people I wish I could have hung out with more! (Kristie and Cara—I'm looking at you.) In fact, I think that's my only complaint about the weekend—I wish it would have been longer so I could have spent a bit more time getting to know people. What an inspiring group of people and what a wonderful, giving community. I am beyond happy to be a part of it and to get the chance to hang out for a weekend! It is so nice to be able to say that so many of you are now my "real" friends instead of just my "blog friends."

A huge thank you to Amy of Amy's Creative Side and Erin of Two More Seconds for organizing the whole thing. I am blown away by the amount of work it must have been. If you would like to see more pictures from the Summit, head over to my Flickr photostream. And stay tuned for posts about my Summit-related swaps, not to mention the one where I pass on some of my swag to you!