quiltcon in austin

several weeks ago i had the pleasure to attend the first quiltcon in austin, texas. i was so happy when i heard about it, because i am usually one to find out about things too late and miss out. and it sounded right up my alley and was also in a city that i have really wanted to visit. austin did not disappoint! i talked dave into going, but only if we could get other friends to go so we did!

austin if packed with food trucks and i think we eat at them most of the time. it's great to be able to get really good food, for really cheap from a truck!

 the cowboy boot selection did not disappoint and i wish i would have bought a pair, but they were $$$.

on friday i took a improvisational piecing class with denyse schmidt and it was awesome! she is the person who got me interested in quilting. i saw her quilts on a blog years ago and thought, i want to do that! in the class you have to blindly pull fabric out of bags and sew it together. it's actually thrilling not knowing what fabric you will be forced to use and made for some very cool color combinations that i would have never dreamed up on  my own.

this was my little work station. i made that sewing kit right  before i left and intended to blog about, but never did. story of my life :-)

for the last portion of the class we had to incorporate some of our own fabric into the random fabric that we pulled out of bags. this is how my quilt blocks came out. i want to make something with them soon!

and i totally lucked out after being a dummy and leaving my blocks in the class. i remember gathering  all my blocks, but somehow forgot them. i realized it when i met my friends at a bar later and went to pull them out to show them and they were not in my bag! luckily they were in the lost n found the next morning. THANK YOU to whoever found them and turned them in!

they had a quilt show as well. there were so many amazing quilts. i wish i had all the info on these, but here are some of my faves. 

i really need to hand quilt something one of these days. i just don't have the patience for it. 

i also took a class with lotta jansdotter on printing. we made some print blocks and printed on paper and fabric. 

 

we walked and walked into many bars to find this particular food truck. i forget what it was though, dave was in charge of the food search. the food truck scene is so awesome there. most of the bars have one and you can order food from them. i also noticed that most bars also have a "yard," which rules. 

my travel mates in quite possibly the best picture ever. 

as soon as we left we knew we will definitely be going back to austin again sometime. and next time we will wait in that stupid long line at franklins to get some of their great bbq.