Road trip to Portland!

Tomorrow morning, I'm meeting up with Amy, Sonja, and Constance, and road tripping down to Portland, Oregon for the second annual Pacific Northwest Modern Quilt Guild Meetup! Four days of sewing, socializing, classes, fabric shopping, and more (and did I mention, this is all child-free?!). I can't wait!

It's been almost exactly six months since the awesomeness that was QuiltCon and I'm looking forward to re-connecting with friends I met there! I also can't wait to meet new soon-to-be friends. I always have something to talk about with fellow modern quilters, so my usual introverted self isn't too worried about the large group! Plus, I met a bunch of these folks in Seattle last year at the first meetup between the Vancouver, Seattle and Portland MQGs. I had so much fun at that event (just check my flickr set!) and I can't wait to attend my second meetup!

If you don't know me yet and you've just found my blog, here's a picture of me with the tote I'm working on for the tote bag swap:

And here are a few facts about me:

1) I'm a SAHM to two delightful girls (ages 6.5 and 2.5)

2) I married my high school sweetheart, who I met in math class because we were both math geeks

3) Hip hop is one of my favourite musical genres (especially stuff that's easy to sing along with like "Inner Ninja" by Classified who I just learned is from Nova Scotia!)

4) I'm from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, a gorgeous island off the West Coast of BC. Therefore, I take the ferry a lot to visit family who still live on the island. I moved to the lower mainland (that's what we call the southwest corner of BC that includes Vancouver and surrounding cities) in 1995 to go to university.

5) I'm a biology geek with a BSc in Ecology. I'm also a substitute teacher so I get thrown into random classrooms to teach subjects as diverse as organic chemistry, tap dance, and Punjabi!

6) I'm the founder and president of the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild. I love my guild!

Fun times in Seattle

Come with me on a pictorial tour of my weekend in Seattle! The Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland Modern Quilt Guilds got together for a meet up and I had the best time! I met new friends, connected with online friends in person, did some sewing, and shopped for fabric.

In Bellingham, we stopped by Fourth Corner Quilts.

 I was excited to see some samples of Shea Henderson's patterns hanging there.

On Saturday morning, I hopped in the van with Sonja, Karen, Krista, Felicity & Berene

and we headed to Island Quilter on Vashon Island. 

Island Quilter was having a quilt show with a mix of Portland MQG and Seattle MQG members' quilts.

The fabric selection was stunning and resembled a labyrinth. Throughout the day, people would take a break from sewing and go shopping. I've never had a fabric "tab" before, it was fun!

Chandra and Susan got to work at the cutting table prepping fabric for modern crosses quilts from Susan's book.

Katie got us started for the day and explained the game plan. 

She explained how we would be making some quilts using the stitch and flip triangles technique from her book.

The room was full of animated conversations between new friends. Season is from Seattle and Matthew is from Portland.

I loved this "Fresh Cut" quilt by Katie. Check out how the binding matches the block colours!

We were treated to a yummy lunch. The fruit salad and ice cold drinks were especially appreciated on such a hot day!

Generous sponsors provided some great giveaways. I was lucky enough to win a gift certificate to Island Quilter!

The was the baby quilt I sewed most of my blocks for. 

There was a constant flow between shopping, cutting, ironing, sewing, and instagramming during the day.

Here's the lovely Susan with one of four completed Modern Crosses baby quilts. I love that the cover quilt from her book was hanging in the show so I could get this picture of her in front of it!

Here I am with two of the baby quilts. Proof that I was present!

After the sewing day, we stopped by the West Seattle Fabric Company, an adorable shop full of great fabrics.

It was fun to see the cover quilt from Scrap Republic on display, especially since I had been cutting blocks and chatting with the author, Emily, earlier in the day!

More fabric shopping ensued.

I was greeted at the hotel room by a happy dimorphodon who had gone to the Pacific Science Centre while I was at the sewing day.

The next morning, while checking out from the hotel, I was greeted with a much less welcome sight: a flat tire. Sadly, I missed saying goodbye to lots of people while they packed into Drygoods Design. Happily, the tire shop was within walking distance of The Quilting Loft and I did get there before the shop hop was completely over.

I got to say goodbye to my friends Petra and Susan at The Quilting Loft.

And I was excited to see Cynthia's Kona Modern Quilts fabric on display for the first time!

Even Eleanor got into the fabric shopping.

I made it over to Drygoods Design around 2:45pm on Sunday.

I had the store to myself! It's a delightful little shop.

Me and Keli, the owner. She was lovely to meet and has added so many touches to make this space look beautiful. The fabric balloons made me smile as soon as I walked in the door.

We had a new tire by 5:00pm and got home to Vancouver by 10:00pm. It was an intense, wonderful, exhausting weekend and I look forward to doing it again! Thanks so much to the rest of the organizing crew (Susan, Heather, Petra, Season and Katie) and to the shops and sponsors for making this a great meet-up!