We’re fresh off our visit to Nashville aka Music City aka home of QuiltCon 2019. WOW! What a journey. From the torrential rains to the music piping from every doorway on the main strip to the artfully arranged halls of Music City Center, this year’s host of the Modern Quilt Guild’s Main Event… it was a whirlwind and we loved every minute.
Consumer shows are always a little different for us. As you know, we don’t sell direct to consumer, opting instead to do our best to support our treasured shops and distributors. Our booth is typically all about brand promotion… staffed with thread enthusiasts ready and willing to share every bit of knowledge possible along with a revolving door of Aurifil Designers and Artisans, popping by for hellos and quick chats with attendees. This time around, we showcased quilts, played games, and directed shoppers to a myriad of partner booths stocking Aurifil threads in a variety of weights.
Did we mention we also sponsored a coffee cart just outside the main hall? (because… coffee! <3 )
QuiltCon was truly an absolute blast and we did our best to pepper in some fun giveaways, a few quilt show tours, and a fun series that kept us smiling called the Aurifil Fun Five.
GREETINGS FROM NASHVILLE
We partnered with Michael Miller Fabrics & Heidi Pridemore to create a custom ‘Greetings from Nashville, Tennessee‘ tribute quilt. The quilt design was drawn from the classic postcard from The Tichnor Brothers Collection, which is currently held by the Boston Public Library. We love this style of postcard and the design felt wildly appropriate for our first visit to Nashville. The quilt was made using Cotton Couture solids from Michael Miller Fabrics + coordinating colors of Aurifil 50wt thread.
It was a total hit with attendees and people were stopping by left and right to grab selfies, sometimes without even realizing that there was a giveaway attached! We ran two giveaways — one featuring selfies with the quilt at QuiltCon and one for those following along at home, tracking the quilt as it traveled from location to location throughout Nashville.
We pulled 8 total winners to each receive a bundle of Cotton Couture solids from Michael Miller Fabrics + one of our new Aurifil Home Collections. Thanks so much to all who played along with us! We even had a bit of fun with the quilt on our own!
JENGA
We played a bit of Jenga at the booth, startling passersby when the blocks fell, fostering some pretty remarkable competitive spirit, and giving away piles of our 40wt thread.
THE QUILTS OF QUILTCON
For this year’s show, we were a proud sponsor of the Piecing category. The entire exhibit was a remarkable display of artistry and we would like to offer a heartfelt congratulations, not just to the winners, but also to all those with quilts on display. Click here for a full list of winners.
We took to the halls of QuiltCon, sharing live tours with followers on both Facebook & Instagram. We love getting to do this for two major reasons: it gives us the chance to walk through the entire quilt show, something we don’t always have the chance to do while working at the booth AND it gives those following along from home a chance to see everything on display. We hope that it’s a nice snapshot of what we saw — the amazing works of art showcased… the statements, the beauty, the expertise.
This year’s special exhibit featured artist and quilter Sherri Lynn Wood. We were truly wowed by her work and while we didn’t get to do a video tour, we did get to grab a few photos.
The 100 Day Project was also featured in the special exhibits area and we have to give a shout out to Aurifil Artisan and Photographer Kitty Wilkin of Night Quilter. We followed along with her tiny piecing over the full 100 days and are still trying to figure out how all of those tiny little blocks fit so effortlessly together. We saw a lot of tiny piecing at QuiltCon and have to wonder if it’s a new movement on the rise!
Check back on the blog tomorrow for a bit more on Kitty’s tiny piecing!
AURIFIL FUN FIVE
We wanted to have a little fun this year and knew we’d be seeing a slew of Aurifil Designers and Artisans, so we grabbed as many as we could for the Aurifil Fun Five — 5 identical rapid fire questions. 🙂 We had so much fun and it seems the interviewees did as well.
That’s all from Aurifil for this year! We can’t wait to see everyone again next year in Austin and in Atlanta in 2021!
