Chicago Quilt Festival 2016 and a Hometown Visit

Teaching at the Chicago International Quilt Festival was a first-time-through for me. I was excited to be able to teach and to be able to visit with friends and relatives after the show closed.

It’s always a challenge just to get there with all my stuff intact. I shipped two huge boxes ahead since I made kits for every student in all my classes. It was tricky to fit in all my quilts, items for sale and personal items in the allowed luggage limits. It was no small task to move all this around by myself!

My classes started out with a bang. Class enrollment had hung out at 12 students for a week or so before early enrollment ended. I brought along 4 extra kits for this class, just in case I got students that signed up at Festival. I got twelve new students after I got there-I was shocked! That created quite the problem as the extra kits I brought were not nearly enough. I had to “steal” kits for future days to provide for each student.

This was a bigger problem than you might expect. I did not have extra fabric or batting, I did not have a rotary cutter, mat and ruler and I was teaching all day!

Lucky for me, Chris, the Baby Lock rep in my class, found fabric and batting and gave it to me! And the IQF people rounded up a mat, ruler and rotary for me to use, so a night and an early morning were spent creating extra kits. Oh I was so thankful for that blessing of fabric and batting!

I was pleased with all my classes. I assumed I was not particularly well known in the Chicago area, yet 2 of my classes were full, one almost full and one was respectable. That is not bad for my first time at the Chicago show!

I didn’t think to take photos from my other classes but I am thinking that to you, my reader, all classes photos pretty much look alike anyways. I found my Chicago students to be pleasant and relaxed-it was a delight to teach there. I think my intro class was the best intro class I have ever had-there was so much energy and students absolutely embraced free motion quilting without fear-wahoo!

I woke Thursday morning to a light dusting of snow. Funny thing though, I was pretty much inside most of the time I was there. I did get my exercise-even though the entire show experience was inside, it was 1,000 steps from the hotel to the classrooms! I put in over 20,000 steps every day of Festival. I felt no need to visit the Fitness Center.

I was born and raised in north central Illinois, but I forgot a lot about living there-like that April can be “the cruelest month”. You look outside and the sun is shining. Then you step out and realize it’s blowing a gale and it’s in the 40’s-brrrr! And my lips got insanely chapped and I had to bathe them in lip balm. This is a must if you visit the Midwest in the winter!

And oh by the way, the men here open doors for you! All. The. Time. Nice.

I was invited to be a part of Catherine Redford‘s team for Friday Night’s Iron Quilters Challenge. The Festival staff chose 3 team leaders from the Faculty to form a team with 4 other quilters. Fabric manufacturers donated fabric and each team got to choose the fabrics they wanted to use. The fabric was revealed at noon and each leader then began to design her quilt.

It was a raucous event with spectators roaming freely from team to team to playfully harass or encourage, while fun door prizes and freebies were distributed. Bernina even gave away a machine! Kathy Lincoln and Cyndi Souder each led a team. We all had 2 hours to complete our top and we went full speed the entire time. Catherine was very organized and we each had our task. Given that I am not much of a piecer, Catherine wisely put me on the ironing board.

And we won!! The audience chose the winner and Catherine was given the highly coveted and extremely valuable Golden Iron. The whole event was just a hoot!

Um, look closely at the photo of the quilt-notice anything amiss about the placement of the strata in that lower right hand corner? Ooops!

I was able to meet my son and his fiance for breakfast Saturday morning-what a treat! They are getting married on Oct 1st in Chicago so I will be back again soon. I am so excited!

I had precious few moments to see the actual show on Saturday morning. When you have limited time at a show you almost need to choose between visiting with people and viewing the quilts. Given that I’d seen many of the quilts before at Houston, I opted to visit with friends.

I got the briefest of moments with one of my favorite vendors  and people, Iris of Mistyfuse. Note to self-there is a reason why everyone takes selfies from above, not below!

I was able to visit a bit with Marianne Williamson who had a significant exhibit of her amazing “Textiles in Motion” quilts. What a treat to visit both her and her quilts! I barely saw any other quilts.

Once the show closed on Saturday I was able to enjoy a fabulous dinner in the company of Cheryl Sleboda, Ebony Love, Melody Crust and Nancy Prince. This is one of the perks of traveling and teaching-the opportunity to get to know other teachers. What a delightful evening that was!

On Sunday morning I embarked on a whirlwind tour of meeting with family and friends. I enjoyed reacquainting myself with the landscape:

I love these rows of trees used for windbreaks. This is a common scene.

Saturday was jam-packed. My son drove us to my hometown and I got to visit my closest friend from high school for breakfast at her home. We had not seen each other in maybe 20 years! It was like we never parted-old friendships are like that.

We drove 2 hours south to Tuscola to visit my Aunt, my Mother’s sister. Oh what a treat to see her! When we arrived at her home I was shocked to see all 4 of my cousins and more. My heart was filled as we talked and visited and reminisced.

I had to visit my old high school-funny how buildings don’t change even though I graduated nearly 44 years ago!

I met another friend from high school with a business in town-our children were born within a few weeks of each other.

Of course I HAD to have a familiar Midwestern staple-a fried pork tenderloin sandwich with mustard, for breakfast of course!

I drove by my old childhood home and was shocked at its condition. I was speechless actually. Some things are not as you remember.

I’m not sure what grass this was-I see this in a future quilt.

My son drove me back to O’Hare for the trip home and I reveled in the final scenes of the Plains. Others may not find this scene beautiful but it is an iconic scene which I enjoy. Perhaps you have to be raised in the Midwest to appreciate its beauty and presence. It filled my Mommy Heart to spend that much time alone with my son. My heart was filled from this brief visit back home.