Chicago quilt festival Day 1

Hey All,

Sorry it's been so long since the last post. I'm still on my quest to clean closets and making good progress. I also finished my taxes! Hooray! Since I just finished 2008's in October, getting 2009's in without filing an extension feels really great.

I've been attending the International Quilt Festival in Chicago the last three days. I had some fabulous classes, bought too much fabric, and chatted with many wonderful people. The sad part is that the Festival won't be back next year. After 8 years in Chicago, they're moving to Cincinnati. :( Have to save up to go to Long Beach instead. :)

This year the show felt a lot like their heart just wasn't in it. There were half the quilt show entries there were last year, and about a quarter of the display was antique quilts from their collections which I do love looking at. None of the new quilts really grabbed me. So no pictures there. The vendor area seemed about the same size, but everyone was more spread out. That meant there were fewer vendors, but it was easier to browse.

My first class was Wednesday and it was Glorified Nine Patch taught by John Flynn. This is a 9 patch with curved piecing.

One of the best things about John's classes is that the kits are pre-cut by laser. They are accurate to 1/100th of an inch. Therefore if the pieces don't match up it's your own dang fault. The picture is the sample he brought. My kit is batiks with a light background. There were also kits with a black background.

It was a surprisingly easy block to do, but I'm not overly intimidated by curves. My first block was kind of a mess so I'll take it apart. All the rest I finished laid perfectly flat. /smug

Here's a photo of John ironing. He says he doesn't do shirts, only flat things.

John and his daughter Kate also provide a laser cutting service. You send them your fabric and a pattern and they'll cut it for you. I've had two cut and it's so nice. It's also very reasonable. Cutting isn't my favorite part and quite frankly, I'm not very good at it. It's so nice to open a box and just start sewing. My two kits were $50-60 each. They have a month lead time, so plan ahead. They also cut all the kits for Charlotte Angotti's classes. I took that on Saturday, so you'll have to wait to hear about that. Go check out their website at www.flynnquilt.com. They also have pre-made kits for many of their patterns.

Stay tuned for day 2.