This is a well-known mural painted on the side of Roadhouse Relics - an art gallery - in Austin, Texas.

I love Austin - it's cool and funky, it's a college town and a state capital.  It's small-town-ish and a big cosmopolitan city - the 11th largest in the U.S.  Austin is the home of the University of Texas, the Longhorns and Bevo.  It's also the unofficial Live Music Capital of the World and it makes a lot of those "most liveable city" lists.  The food is great - terrific BBQ and world-class sushi - and the FBI has named Austin one of the safest cities in the country.  (Or it was before a whole bunch of rowdy quilters with rotary cutters came to town - Austin has a well-earned reputation as a great party town.)

Hello QuiltCon 2015!

Full disclosure - as you read this, I'll be doing one of the following - working in the Moda Bake Shop booth, pursuing higher-quilt-related education or tracking down some of the Moda designers scheduled to teach and demo at QuiltCon.  If you're on Instagram and Facebook, you can see what we're all up to at #modaatquiltcon.

I'm sure I've forgotten someone but the list already includes Malka Dubrawsky, Amy Ellis, Jen Kingwell, Vanessa Christenson, Lynne Hagemeir, and Julie and Eric Comstock.  Vanessa is teaching a couple of classes, several are here signing books and I'm sure one or two are here to see what all the hoopla is about.

Moda is at QuiltCon as an Exhibitor, not as a Vendor.  That means we'll be there to show some neat fabric goodies, play some games and give away some cool stuff but we won't be selling anything.

This is it - the Moda Bake Shop booth.  These pictures were taken Wednesday night, shortly before 7:00 pm... when we were told that we could finish in the morning before QuiltCon opened at 10:00.  We finished - "we" being Holly Hickman, the genius designer and builder of the booth structure and Jamie Chupik, uber-everything and yours truly.  Girls and power tools.  It was work but it was also a whole lot of fun.

The trash bags on the floor and the wood crate were removed that evening, and the pallets were adjusted and "fluffed" with the quilts.  However they might look in the picture, the finished look was very cool - everybody thought so.  And the photo booth was a hoot.

Where can you find the Moda booth?  Booth 926.  It's to the left when you come in the Main Entrance.  We're next to the Aurifil booth, not far from the Small Quilt exhibit... about 15' feet away from the Tattoo booth.

I'm guessing that's a first for a quilt show.

I don't get to many of the big quilt shows so I'm can't be entirely sure.  Are you surprised by that?  It's the truth.  I always seemed to have scheduled something else at the same time as the "big shows" so I've only been to a few.  Have you been to many big shows?  Is there anything I should make sure "not to miss"?

I know I mentioned that I'm taking some classes - 15 Minutes of Play with Victoria Findlay-Wolfe and English Paper Piecing with Katy Jones of I'm A Ginger Monkey fame.  And something else that I know I have the book for but haven't yet packed for.  I will have to come-and-go a bit during class and I feel badly about that, I seriously considered dropping out of the classes.  But I know that even if I'm not there the entire time, I will learn something that will make it all worthwhile.  That one little tip - that nugget.

I did get to see a little bit of the show today and the quilts are terrific.  The show is quite crowded, I've heard that attendance has exceeded expectations.  I was able to attend two lectures I'd signed up for on Thursday, one on Copyright and Quilting with Rossie Hutchinson and one on Teaching with Jacquie Gehring.  I have followed both of these ladies' blogs for years and they're even more impressive and brilliant in person.

I'll have more quilt pictures soon, and pictures of the various vendors and stuff.  Yes, I've done a little shopping.  But as always happens, I've gotten to meet a lot of people that I've heard or read about, and I've gotten to spend time with people I've met a few times.  Like Jen Kingwell.  I know the proper thing is to always say nice things about people no matter what, but really, Jen is the coolest, nicest, most down-to-person ever.  It's official... I'm the uber-fan.

So is this man...

It was a really nice day and I'm looking forward to the rest of the show... even dismantling the booth on Sunday evening.

So you know what's coming, don't you?  What is your expectation when you take a class?  Or even go to a demo?

Do you go to have your world rocked?  Or are you looking for just one or two little things to add to your bag of tricks?

My goal is always to not expose myself as a colossal twit.

It's happened before.  Steam-A-Seam.  Lisa Bongean.

Fortunately I can laugh about it.