From my perspective there are many overwhelmingly positive things about QuiltCon Together. As I mentioned last week, I was thrilled to get to teach workshops in a format where students got to immediately learn more about their machines, and I’ve been blown away by the beautiful work that they have been creating.
Improv Through Many Eyes Panel, photo courtesy of @stephskardal
One big highlight for me was spending an hour in the Improv Through Many Eyes Panel, a live lecture that was recorded on Saturday. It was delightful to get to spend an hour with such thoughtful and inspiring people: Chawne Kimber, Melanie Tuazon, Anne Sullivan, and MQG staff member / moderator Brenna Riley Gates.
Downstream – 1st Place in Negative Space
A huge honor was that my quilt, Downstream, won first place in the Negative Space category.
I was able to spend a little over an hour walking the quilt show with my mother, and another hour with my friend Cheryl Brickey from Meadow Mist Designs. Each time, we connected through mobile devices via FaceTime and then looked at several quilt categories together. We took in the audio recordings that some makers left, read descriptions, and were impressed by the visual impact of the show. I definitely hope that the audio component is something that can be translated to the next in person QuiltCon; that was a very delightful feature of the show.
Preparing for Final Live Q&A
Attendees who registered for workshops had the opportunity to register for standard workshop access, which gave them ability to watch all the workshop video content “on demand” as their schedules allowed through February 24th, or for enhanced workshop access, which in addition to the on demand videos gave them an hour (or two one-hour segments for ‘mega workshops’) of live Q&A time with the workshop instructor. I enjoyed talking with workshop attendees who signed up for the enhanced versions of the workshops I taught in the live Q&A sessions, and you can see what my setup for the lecture and Q&A sessions looked like behind the scenes in the photo above.
The first day of the event, there were a few learning curve hiccups that cropped up that the MQG staff worked to resolve. The live Q&A session links did not work as originally conceived, so some of the early in the day Q&A sessions struggled to connect attendees to instructors. Thankfully, my first Q&A session was later in the day, but I had to quickly learn a new interface; eek! I tried to share what I learned with a few other instructors who had yet to see the new interface.
Once the initial kinks were ironed out, the entire experience ran smoothly, from my perspective. I mean, I do have my list of wish list items for any future online events, but by and large, I’m so impressed with all the hard work and planning that went into the event.
What I missed most of all, which can never truly be recreated, is being able to be in person with friends and community. I found myself feeling very sad on Monday leading up to the closing ceremony. But today I am feeling hopeful. Hopeful for the covid-19 vaccinations. And hopeful that I might be able to attend QuiltCon 2022 in Phoenix.
Did you attend QuiltCon Together? What was your experience like?
Congratulations on your win, Yvonne! Love this quilt!
As you know, I did attend QCTogether. I think they did a fabulous job but do wish things were open a little longer. I didn’t sign up for lectures and in hindsight it was a good thing with my personal schedule ( a move the following week) but I think I would have liked some more time to explore. Like attending, it was really hard to get to everything I wanted and therefore, I missed some things I would have liked to have spent some more time with it. I find that much computer time harder than that much in-person time.
Love the quilt, love the fact that you won, DO NOT LOVE price of pattern. Pattern pricing has gone out of sight overall
. YES, you deserve to be paid for your work but please consider reducing pricing on patterns.
I offer sales regularly on my site. You are free to purchase them at those times.
Best,
Yvonne
Congratulations on the 1st prize finish – I’ve always loved that quilt. And what a treat to be on that panel.
Congrats on your 1st place finish! I signed up for 4 workshops in QuiltCon Together. Certainly I miss the energy of a traditional QuiltCon, but I’m glad they did something, and I do look forward to Phoenix next year. The money saved on traveling this year can certainly help stretch that budget a bit more next year on fabrics, too!
Yvonne. Instead of a rock star, you are a rocket star! Congrats on your first place finish. I took a class with you in Vermont at the Vermont Quilt Festival and you are a wonderful teacher! Best wishes.
Congatulations on your win, Yvonne! I didn’t even know this was happening, which is my own fault – otherwise I’d have tried to join in.
I really enjoyed the Improv panel and hearing all of your different experiences with improv quilting. I found myself pondering if I “should” be doing more “meaningful” quilts and then decided that though I don’t have a lot of improv currently incorporated into my quilts, they are certainly meaningful in their own way. I loved how you walked through the quilt show with your mother and also with Cheryl.
Congrats on your win! And thanks for the inside look at your virtual setup. I really enjoyed the show and thought the MQG did a great job, but yes, there’s unfortunately no substitute for being able to gather in person. I’m so hopeful for 2022!
Congrats on the first place! It’s a very cool quilt. I can’t imagine the work that went into hosting this event on line. It will be interesting to see how the necessary on line efforts translate into new virtual options for next year.