It’s been a crazy and fun week. I took vacation from work on Monday & Tuesday to attend a meet & greet breakfast event on Tuesday morning in Port Lavaca with #JennyDoan from Missouri Star Quilt Company ( @MissouriQuiltCo ). She is an amazing woman with such a positive and simple message for all quilters: “Finished is better than perfect.” AMEN SISTER! During the two-hour presentation of demoing what can be done with pre-cuts and her husband Ron dutifully playing the role of human quilt-hanger for 20 or so quilts (he’s such a good sport!), she regaled stories of how the company began with her children giving her a long arm machine just to keep her busy, to where it is now (employing over 200 people and creating a world-wide Quilting Destination), and what’s in the works (Man Cave anyone?). Missouri Star Quilt Co. is the largest distributor of pre-cut fabrics in the world…and I think most of them are in my stash! Needless to say, I’m a MSQC groupie and thoroughly enjoyed her visit. That boat quilt is in my queue.
I drug myself to work on Weds and Thursday and then boarded a bus bound for Houston on Friday. A torrential downpour and nearby tornadoes couldn’t stop the 50 obsessed quilters that made their way eastbound on IH-10. We got there just as the doors opened and loaded back up at 4:00pm. I’m glad I got to visit with Jenny on Tuesday because I never even saw the MSQC booth in the show. Holy moly that place was packed. Biggest hen-fest ever! I really wanted to get a photo from above to put in this post, but I never got it. The convention center is under construction and it just wasn’t feasible.
Check out this multi-quilt panorama. Wow. Simply wow.
I also ran into Angela Wolf, my favorite Craftsy instructor. She’s an amazing talent with a down-to-earth style I can completely relate to. I’m enrolled in 5 of her classes: Creative Serging-Beyond the Basics, Sewing Designer Jeans, Sew with Your Serger, Tailoring Ready to Wear, and Tailoring-Beyond the Basics. Those last two are the inspiration for my dabbling in my own alterations business. This photo is from last year’s fest. Dang, I’ve put on a few pounds. Maybe it was the camera lens. Yeah, that’s it.
And #2 – A new dress form! Getting a good fit in my garments has been a huge issue for me and for years I’ve wanted a quality dress form with collapsible shoulders but the good ones are very cost prohibitive. This was actually the first vendor I happened upon at the show and definitely wanted to come back to. Enter the French European Dress Form. This retails for $799 on the website but the show price was just $399. SCORE! While that sounds like a lot, the crappy ones from Dritz in local retail stores are $100. My measurements were taken to order the right form for me and it should be here in 2-3 weeks. The vendor Joe worked on Project Runway and NBC’s Fashion Week and he was an absolute hoot. I can’t wait for my new dress form to arrive! Of course, after it gets here, I’ll have find another excuse for crappy fit issues.
