QuiltCon Atlanta 2023

It’s been almost a month since QuiltCon Atlanta 2023–what a rush! For the first time I had a booth and it was a ton of fun. Here are some highlights from the show.

Booth Building

There’s always a lot of excitement as you get onto the show floor for the first time and find your space. Then it quickly gets messy as you unload all of the stuff, start assembling furniture and then try to get everything sorted.

It’s nice that QuiltCon setup is just one day. We got to work quickly and used every minute we had available to us. It’s always such a rush that I forget to take pictures, so I’m glad I have these two showing you a little bit of how it came together.

The Booth

I’ve taught at nearly every QuiltCon since 2015, and so having a booth this time was a big change of pace. I loved being able to connect with more folks and chat with them about what they’ve made.

We used every last minute getting the booth in order before the show opened. Here’s a look from just before the show opened.

One of my favorite parts of the booth was incorporating bits and pieces from past Quilt Market booths. This “Make Your Mark” piece was a personal favorite and made for a good backdrop behind my Hearts quilt pattern and kits plus acrylic template board.

I put together quite a few kits for projects like Hearts, Bow, Wildabon and Slash. I have a very few left that I am able to put in my online shop. If you are interested and act fast–you can find them here.

We did some mini Hearts quilt kits that were so much fun. They were a big seller and I hope to put more together soon to add to the shop.

Each day we changed the quilts out that were on the wall. It kept things interesting for anyone stopping by. Pictured here are Olive, Wildabon, Long Leaf, Arlo, Hunt and Eads.

(Russell, Slash, Bow, Long Leaf and Spools)

We also made good use of this column that bordered our booth. It was a great space to hang up some minis! Seen here are Davie, Mini Eads, Pine, Outhouse and Grove (mini blocks).

I released 5 new scents with Sew Fine Thread Gloss at the show! The Sew Fine Thread Gloss went really fast, and there are just some left. Hopefully I can get a restock before too long!

The newest scents are Honeysuckle Pear, Rooibos Saffron, Lemon Basil, Sea Salt and Rosemary Mint. This was such a lovely batch of new scents.

The Show

QuiltCon is usually a jam-packed experience, and I’ve always managed to cruise through the quilt show at some point–until this year. Wow, the booth was so busy that I barely got away, which was good, except for the part where I didn’t really get to see the quilt show. Big Bummer! I did rush up one morning to check out my Frond quilt that was hanging. Yay!

Other Highlights

We did daily raffles in the booth, which was a lot of fun, and I appreciate Soak and Aurifil for donating prizes. I love their products and have enjoyed good collaborations with both over the years.

I currently have a thread set with Aurifil, and all of the Pineapple Grove scented items from Soak have my artwork on the bottles.

While I went looking for my quilt, I came across my Creative Habits co-teacher Heidi Parkes’s quilt, Magical Thinking Attempt no. 8. I didn’t see the show, but I’m so glad I stumbled upon her work.

I also managed to get a picture with Youngmin Lee who I had the pleasure of teaching with at the Slow Stitching Retreat in Maine last summer.

This also happened. My name appeared on some special MQG socks commemorating all of their Keynote speakers throughout the years. What company to be included in!

More to check out

Nothing short of a miracle, we went live on instagram everyday of the show. Here’s a look at Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4.

Check out QuiltCons past on the blog.

Next Year?

Next year the show will be in Raleigh, North Carolina. Will you be there? I’m still sorting through that myself, but since I had such a great show this year, I’m pretty sure I’ll give it another go next year as well.

That’s a wrap!