AQC 2015 Recap

An AQC recap? Where does one even begin? It’s like I got glitter in my eyes, and before I could shake it out, it was time to go home! As this was only my second time representing at a craft show, I still felt a bit green. However, by the end of it all, I felt like I was part of the quilt circuit party! Holla!  The other exhibitors were friendly, the Juki behaved, I bought some fabrics, got to meet some Glitterati, had some future opportunities presented, and got to hang with some other awesome quilters and industry folk. I mean really, what more could a boy like me ask for? I’m supremely grateful for all of these opportunities; sparkly top hats off to you!

Okay, so we need to take a moment here. This gem, this diamond, well her name is Marina. She quite possibly could be Glitterati member of the year. She walked into the show, walked by me, turned, jaw dropped, and proceeded to completely lose her shit. I mean, the crowd collectively turned with a, “WTF is going on over there and how do I get some of it!?” I was actually giving a Juki demo to another Glitterati member named Erin at the time, but I just had to excuse myself to run over to Marina and congratulate her for having such wonderful taste in men! Ow! She’s not on Instagram so I just had to share this #selfiewithsparkle here on the blog! You glitter Marina – keep sparkling!

I had the chance to meet Helen Godden, who was demonstrating around the corner at the HandiQuilter booth. To be honest, I fell asleep during Quilt History class, so I wasn’t super aware of who she was, but from what I gather of other people’s reactions, she’s got some skillz! I think she had made like the first ever quilted couch in the world. That doesn’t seem exactly right, but  there was lots of brightly coloured yarn involved so I was all smiles.

This is the head executive of the Domestic Sewing Machine branch of Juki. He’s just gettin’ his free motion quilt mojo on. I told him to relax the shoulders, but he is Japanese and there is no relaxing. Ever. That was until at dinner time when we kicked back with a few Asahi beers and he told me all about his EPP hexie addiction. True story.

If you are a Sydney local, you might recognise Margaret here from the Sewing Machine Warehouse in Penrith. I wanted to rip that jacket off of her and stash it in my own wardrobe! She was my wing-woman whenever someone would approach and ask about sergers or garment sewing. I’d look up with fear in my eyes, mumble something about how important overlocking is to our society and then quickly hand them over to Margaret. Whew!

Then I met this fierce bitch! That is Ms. Cherie Bobbins and sidekick for the day Erika. Now, I thought I had a wicked mouth! I think Cherie and I could do some tongue tangoing that would make your grandmas’ beehives shudder! I’ve toned it down on my blog lately (for my potential standards at least!) but she’s left me inspired to bring some of the naughty back. Erika, Cherie, and I had coffee together and it was really intriguing to hear all of their future plans about to explode all over the crafty and mommy-blogging universe. Brace your knickers.

It was such a thrill to spend some time with Crystal of Raspberry Spool fame! We were like teenagers smoking out the back of the school shed in between classes. “You come here often?” “Actually I’m just here for the quilts.” “Yeah, me too.” “You been to Houston?” “73 times.” And I die. If you don’t get that it’s okay, but suffice to say Crystal and I may have had to hush ourselves a few times!

People kept asking me, “Why are you wearing gloves? Are you cold? Are you a magician?”    No, I’m actually a gardener. Seriously.

This wacky lady has been my first foray into art quilts! Neroli had a gorgeous quilt in the AQC as part of the True Blue exhibition, that featured friends of Jesus and some rocks that went tumbling down. (Get that one? Have I had too much to drink? Not enough?) Anyway, anyone who uses reflective thread is a bit of aight in my books, so we are conspiring to work on something a bit left of centre in the future. 

Here are a few other recounts of the AQC from friends Jo Butterfield and Kaye Sauer. Their posts actually feature things like, you know, quilts. Unfortunately, I was so busy at the stand that I hardly got a chance to get a good look at all of them. What I did notice though was that there was a whole lot of variety! Art, traditional, modern, modern traditional, fine art, collaged — seriously, I could have stitched myself into a quilt and it would have been well hung in this show. Kudos to the AQC for bringing something for everyone!  

So well, that’s it! I had an amazing time, met fantastic people, and would do it all again in a golden, glitterbeat! Thank you to Chow, Juki, Sewing Machine Warehouse family, Expertise Events team, Victoria Findlay-Wolfe, Kathy Doughty, the Glitterati, Melbourne, and the ever fabulous Mr. Sparkles!