I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Machine Quilting Expo held annually right here in my home state of New Hampshire. We (including my saintly husband) spent the first half day viewing the amazing quilt show. I took a zillion pictures of the inspiring quilting. Unfortunately I have not developed the habit of photographing the quilt description labels so with apologies to these makers, I am sharing just a few pictures without giving you deserved credit.
The above quilt ("Controlled Chaos") was made by the New Hampshire Modern Quilt Guild (that I have recently joined!) and won first prize in the Quilts Among Friends. Fantastic!
The next day and a half was spent in three different half day quilting classes on the Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen, the quilting machine I have at home! This was the first time I've spent so many hours practicing machine quilting. Typically I do a little warm up on a practice sandwich and then jump right into the project at hand. It was interesting to get various opinions from the teachers and fellow students about thread and needle preferences, quilting design selection, favorite marking tools and gadgets and so on. And I learned so much!
I admit running out to the vendors at break to purchase some different types of quilting threads to experiment with. I can't wait to share my thread experimentation with you!
The only problem with all of this is that, believe it or not, I don't have any quilt tops in need of quilting! I am completely caught up! Yikes! It's a good thing I have this lovely pile of fabric ready to cut into for my next room in the lake house!
Stay tuned for posts on two finished quilts!
Kathy
P.S. In case you're wondering, my husband spent the day and a half I was in classes reading, watching movies and going to the gym. What a trooper.
It was a pleasure having you in my class!!! You also have a couple of quilts that I quilted in your blog post, so thank you for that too!!!! I'm so glad you liked my books!!!
ReplyDeleteVery impressive work, thank you for sharing. These machines are totally out of my budget, but it is fun to be inspired. I do, do free motion on my regular machine and enjoy the creative process.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a fantastic weekend! Thanks for sharing the quilts with us! (That dog quilt!!!) Looking forward to hearing more about your experimentation and seeing what you whip up with that gorgeous stack of fabrics :-)
ReplyDeleteGreat quilts! That second quilt is hilarious!
ReplyDeleteAren't these events so fun and inspiring!! (Myhubs would have done the very same thing...so great guys we have!)
ReplyDeleteSounds like so much fun. I would love to take classes on the sit down machine. I haven't done much just sitting down and practicing either. I would rather "practice" on something practical.
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