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Sunday, April 20, 2014

Sewdown Nashville - Retreats end up being all about the people

Nashville - Lower Broadway

Last Friday morning I was walking along Lower Broadway in Nashville with Rene and Victoria. Despite it being just around lunch time, this part of Nashville was humming - people were everywhere and there was music pouring out of the clubs as we walked.

Nashville - Painter's Alley

Printer's Alley has undergone several changes from its roots as the printing district. Now its full of clubs.

Victoria and I - Nashville

A couple of photos seemed in order, Victoria and I.

Victoria and Rene - Nashville

Victoria and Rene.

Boots in Nashville

An other thing we saw on this walk was cowboy boots, store after store of them, mostly all offering you free pairs too. Now, being from Alberta, I live in the wild west but I have to say that there are a lot more colourful boots to buy in Nashville, should you be looking for a pair.

Anna Maria Horner's kitchen

On Friday at 4 p.m. sharp, all the quilters boarded large buses and headed off to Anna Maria Horner's house. Truly, the Horner's are fantastic, they had lovely food and beautiful music and they let the quilters wander all over their beautiful home.

Anna Maria Horner's studio

That is part of Anna Maria's studio. I so want a wall of embroidery thread like that one. I was too busy visiting to take many other photos, and everyone had a fantastic time. On the way home, we stopped at The Fabric Studio and then it was time for open sew until midnight.

Soak nail polish

I spent some time that evening with the lovely Jacqueline from Soak chatting and getting my nails painted Lizzy House pearl bracelet style. Soak teamed up with fabric designers who curated the cutest nail polish sets and of course I had to buy two of them.

Carolyn Friedlander - in class, Sewdown Nashville

Saturday morning my first class was with Carolyn Friedlander. We learned to make her Ariel quilt - look at those fantastic samples on the table. I adore Carolyn's fabrics and her patterns are great too. It was so nice to get to know her  better over the weekend.

The group was broken into 4 sections of 20 so we all rotated through the classes all weekend. These fantastic teachers taught their workshops 4 times in a row, and were fresh and inspiring each time.

Anna Maria Horner - in class Sewdown Nashville

Saturday afternoon was a workshop with Anna Maria Horner. Everyone was spreading out on the floor creating collages. I teamed up my new friend Beata, and we actually finished my pillow top which I will share later.

Anna Maria Horner and Jen Carlton-Bailly - Sewdown Nashville

Here is Jen with Anna. Jen, who blogs at Bettycrockerass, was one of the three Modern Quilt Guild organizers who hosted this weekend and I am so glad I got to know her better.

There are a lot of things I have no photos of. We had fantastic meals - all of them were included. There were three inspiring lectures too, by Elizabeth Dackson (Don't Call Me Betsy), Alexia Abbeg (Green Bee - she wrote Liberty Love), and Maddie Kertay (BadAss Quilters Society). Saturday night was another free sewing night and I lasted almost till midnight, sewing and visiting.

Angela Walters - Sewdown Nashville

Sunday morning Angela Walters shared free motion quilting tips and designs. I was especially looking forward to this class, given all the quilting I have been doing.


Angela Walters and me - in class, Sewdown Nashville

There I am on instagram with Angela. I really enjoyed this chance to learn more about fmq designs and Angela is a wonderful teacher.

Victoria Findlay Wolfe - in class, Sewdown Nashville

On Sunday afternoon, I got to Play with the fantastic Victoria Findlay Wolfe. Victoria taught us many techniques, and encouraged us to be creative with fabric and design.

Victoria and Rene - Sewdown Nashville

There is Victoria with Rene.

Carolyn Friedlander, Anna Maria Horner, Victoria Findlay Wolfe - Sewdown Nashville

Janome, together with a local Janome dealer, sponsored the weekend and provided two models of sewing machines for everyone who wanted to use one in all the classes. There were two Janome trainers present the entire weekend who were fantastic and fun too. Several folks bought a machine, and at the end of the weekend, there was a flurry of machine autographing.

Victoria Findlay Wolfe, Anna Maria Horner, Rene - Sewdown Nashville

Of course, quilters and designers had all the sharpie colours out.

Anna Maria Horner, Elizabeth Dackson - Sewdown Nashville

One of a kind sewing machines were created.

Elizabeth Dackson and Heather Grant - Sewdown Nashville

There is Elizabeth Dackson and Heather Grant. Elizabeth, Heather and Jen were the Modern Quilt Guild hosts of the weekend. I cannot say enough things about these women. They are dedicated, funny, helpful, interesting and inspiring. And they all worked hard, every minute of the retreat, so that everything went well all of the time.

Jen Carlton-Bailley - Sewdown Nashville

Jen signing Rene's machine. (And no, I did not buy one, I already have a Janome Horizon which I use every day.)

Shelby, Carolyn, Rene, Victoria, me, Beata - Sewdown Nashville

This is the group I spent the most time with. Shelby, Carolyn (Carolyn was my sewing partner, I would love to sew next to her anytime), Rene, Victoria, me, and Beata. I really had the best time getting to know these lovely women.

So, yes, I had a wonderful time. It was a lot for one weekend, and like most folks coming home from a retreat, I felt overwhelmed for a few days. I would totally go again - the smaller but not tiny retreats work really nicely for me, with lots to learn and many but not too many people to meet and get to know.

Thank you to Jen, Heather and Elizabeth and the Modern Quilt Guild. Thank you to Janome and Soak and the sponsors who filled the goody bags.

And thank you to Nashville, everyone was so friendly.

I hope you are having a lovely Easter weekend, I am sewing and tidying and today I have to work a bit, because tomorrow I am off to Vancouver. When I am not working in my real job, I get to hang with my friend Krista (Poppyprint) again who is taking me to two different quilt guild meetings with her. I am so looking forward to that, I have not seen her since the Fat Quarterly Retreat in London last summer.

Best,

Leanne

35 comments:

  1. looks like a wonderful time - small crowd, easier to really get to know folks. Hey - are you coming to VMQG with Krista? I'll see you there!

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  2. wow! what an action packed weekend! Looks wonderful :-D

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  3. You must be coming to VMQG meeting? See you soon.

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  4. What an amazing trip! I would have bought two pairs of boots so I could have six!

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  5. Looks like an amazingly memorable time - so great.

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  6. This just looks like Heaven for quilters! What a fab retreat - looks amazing x

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  7. Looks like you were with all the celebs, you lucky girl!!!! What fun - so envious!

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  8. Looks like a fabulous weekend! Enjoy your guild meetings :o)

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  9. Wow! I would loveto attend that retreat!!!so pleased you had a great time.

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  10. Thanks so much for sharing your experience, Leanne. Glad to hear you had such a wonderful time and looks like a fun bunch to learn from.

    Safe travels this week! I'm sure it will be nice to have another break from our moody Alberta Spring. Have fun!

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  11. Sewglad you had such a great time. Happy Easter!

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  12. WOW! What an amazing trip and retreat! One day, I will go on a retreat! Any retreat, I'm not fussy! One day......

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  13. Oh my...what a fantastic time! So glad that you had such a great time.

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  14. Oh how I wish I had gone. Thanks for the tip on the new store in Nashville. Now I have a place to shop when I visit home.

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  15. What a great weekend - thanks for sharing about it!

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  16. what an amazing time you all must have had. We are about to link up with the MQG as we have started a group in Leeds UK

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  17. Thanks for sharing - It sounds wonderful!!!

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  18. Nice post! Thanks for sharing with us.

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  19. What a wonderful array of classes! Lucky you

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  20. Sounds like an amazing weekend. So lovely to see pictures of some of those people who I feel I "know" but have never met.

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  21. It looks as if you and everyone else had a wonderful time. What inspiring quilters to spend time with. I went to Sew South last month and didn't take any photos I was so busy visiting and laughing and having a good time!

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  22. What a lot of fun you had down south!! And you got to meet Anna Maria Horner? lucky you!!!!!
    If you get to the Island, our next Victoria Modern guild meeting is May 15. I would love to meet you :)

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  23. Looks like a fabulous weekend. Enjoy your time with Krista

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  24. Wow, what an experience you had.

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  25. Oh my goodness!! Perfection!! So glad you went, and so glad you shared :)

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  26. Love your photos of Nashville! I am from Atlanta and I have family there. Now I live close to Vancouver, I'd love to hear about the quilting scene! Love your blog.

    Emily at backtothecraft.blogspot.ca

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  27. Leanne, this a great recap of Sew Down!!! Thanks for sharing your pictures and experiences. I so enjoyed meeting you (again...ha) and spending time getting to know you! Now I am even more excited about QuiltCon 2015 where I get to see you and other quilty friends I have met along the way. I didn't see the picture of you and Angela on IG. So cool. Enjoy your time with Krista and the other Vancouver gals.

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  28. It looks like an utterly amazing retreat, and such an inspiring group of teachers.

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  29. Such fabulous eye candy - especially that couch! Thanks for sharing!!

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  30. It looks like a wonderful time was had by all!

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  31. What a wonderful time it must have been. I'd really love to have this kind of experience sometime. Hopefully at QuiltCon next year.

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  32. So nice to spend time with you Leanne in Nashville! We had a few good laughs! "showgirls" hehe! See you at Quiltcon! Enjoy London! Maybe my Niece will be there, "Alice" I think she is going...
    ;-) Have fun!!!

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  33. Oh I so so so wanted to go to this retreat! I even went so far as to beg my mother to fund it...these are pretty much all of my favorite people... Leanne, thank you so much for writing such a great down to earth post about the retreat. I definitely need to get down to Nashville one of these days!

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  34. I have heard so many good things about this retreat. Sounds like fun

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