By “out of order” I don’t mean broken, but rather not chronological. Although I guess you could say this blog has been kinda “broken”. Plenty has happened I could share here but for various reasons, most of which I won’t bore you with, I’ve neglected the blog. And it just snowballs from there. Once I haven’t posted in a while I actually get kinda scared. That might not be the exact word for it, but basically I feel like I’m failing and then who wants to do something they’re failing at? Not the best logic, I’m aware. Anywho, I’m putting that aside and getting back at it.
Oh, and also, I blame Instagram. It’s too dang easy with instant responses and no pressure to take perfect pictures and write witty text. So if you actually care about what’s going on currently in my life, you should follow me. Really. Because I’d like a lot more followers. @jtlevitt
So, to start off telling you what I’ve been up to in a very “out of order” way, I have to tell you about Mid-Atlantic MOD. Um, well, it rocked. Seriously.
It was indeed a ton of work for me and my co-planners, Andrew Joselyn and Katie Blakesley, but it was a huge success. I had so much fun and was exhausted after the weekend was over. This is me an Andrew in our matching hoodies (sadly, Katie couldn't come).
If you didn’t already know, Mid-Atlantic MOD was (and almost definitely will be next year) a modern quilting retreat in Lancaster, PA. We got the idea to plan a big, fun retreat in the Mid-Atlantic region so it would drivable for those of us that can’t go to Salt Lake City or Atlanta or wherever. The 3 of us each is a part of our local MQG (Central Jersey MQG, DC MQG, and Philly MQG) and we drew members from those, as well as lots others. These are most of the Central Jersey MQG that were in attendance. Check out Jess's blog for another fun recap of the retreat.
Originally we didn’t want to plan activities, but mostly just have lots of social sewing time. There was plenty of that in a huge ballroom where everyone got an entire 6ft table to themselves.
But we did add some awesome activities. We had a cocktail mixer on friday night with food and gift certificates sponsored by some awesome shops:
We had a pajama party where we sewed pillowcases for charity, with fabric provided by Windham Fabrics.
We had a tote bag swap where we each made a tote with some Essex Linen provided by Robert Kaufman. It was total pandemonium when we swapped. Like Christmas morning, in part because we were wearing PJs. There were lots of squeals.
This is the Supertote I made that Sara got in the swap.
And I got this adorable tote complete with matching zipper pouches by Natalie.
There was fabric shopping in the area. We even found some of my fabric.
And there were giveaways and swag by many amazing sponsors.
We also offered mini-workshops on various topics. Check out the list here. I taught 4 of them and had a lot of fun.
But my favorite activity of all was the progressive quilts. I'm going to dedicate an entire post to those, so look for that in a few days. I made these collapsible design walls that we used for the progressive quilts amoungst other things. I'll do a tutorial on how to make them. Theyre' made with the awesome Kaffe Fasset design wall fabric.
So there you have it: Mid-atlantic MOD. Wherever you live, if lots of sewing, making new quilty friends, collaborating and just generally having a blast sounds good to you, you should come next year! I’ll announce registration on here but keep an eye out on the blog as well. We’ll try to make a email list you can sign up to for updates.
JT
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