Good Weird

(no, the best weird!)

Hello, Melody here.

I’m writing from my sofa where I’m sitting next to The Very Best Baby™, who is nearly 5 months old already. She is currently chatting with a stuffed cupcake, chewing on a blanket, and squealing at me every time I look at her. Ugh, she’s so cute. She’s starting to look sleepy, and I am right there with her! I can not seem to get enough rest since we got home from Quilt Con.

That show is the highlight of our year, and it is a wild ride. After months of lead up and multiple days of travel and set up, we spend four days not only running our booth, but taking everything in: the energy, the inspiration, the crowds and conversations, the quilts themselves, and the thousands of little moments that make up a show.

We appreciate you!

My biggest takeaway from the show is this: you all are incredible. Absolutely amazing. Just perfect specimens of creativity, imagination, and joy. I am awestruck every year by what I see at the show: the outfits! the bags! the costumes! obviously, the quilts! the goose on a stick in the style of a hobby horse! What even is happening? It’s weird and wonderful and just so incredible to witness.

Thank you for how you show up, and for all the joy and enthusiasm you share with us. Thank you for bringing your mothers and your children and your friends (and your partners and pets and anyone else who came along with you!). Thank you for standing in our long line and shopping with us. Thank you for showing us your projects and giving us your stickers and buttons and gifts. And even if you could not make it to Quilt Con, we still feel your enthusiasm and support. You all are generous and wonderful, and we are so grateful for you.

I’ll tell you one of my greatest fears around the show every year: I worry about people feeling disappointed when they meet me. I know I cannot control how every single person feels, and yet I really want to show gratitude and appreciation to everyone who shows up for us at these events. I also know there must be people who encountered me during a stressful moment, or while I was running to the bathroom, or when I really needed a snack, or when I was preoccupied or just overwhelmed, and their single impression of me was less than they hoped. I had some experiences like this myself when I was coming into the industry way back in the day, and a couple of people lost a little of their luster, even though they didn’t do anything wrong. They just had a face or a tone, and I walked away feeling disappointed. If this was you, and it was me with the face or the tone, I’m sorryyyyy!

My biggest fear: this is you after meeting me, haha!

Recently, I’ve been putting the phrase “good weird” on different objects, and it makes me happy every time I do it. I think it’s the highest praise. It means being out with your creativity. It means not worrying about what people think of your work. It means knowing something is a little weird and doing it anyway. It means putting curiosity and wonder before perfection. It means letting your brain follow a path and just seeing where things go. So many things that surprise and delight me are good weird. So much of what you bring to us, in this strange world where a “Quilt Con” even exists and we each get to play a part in it, is the best weird.

For everyone who couldn’t make it to the show, I’ll be working on an online pop up this spring. I’m not quite sure yet when it will happen but you’ll be the first to know here! In addition to some of the things I sold at the show, I hope to have a Riso print or two in there and a couple of new items that weren’t at Quilt Con. I always like to throw little surprises into each package, so I’ll be working on those too.

I hope you are hanging in there. Enjoy the extra sunlight this evening, and take good care.