Machine Quilters Expo 2010

The 2010 Machine Quilters Expo (MQX) was held in Providence, RI last week. It was fabulous! Great classes, spectacular quilts, old friends, new friends, and lots of cool stuff to buy :-) I had 12 hours of classes with Al Hutchins, he is a fantastic teacher. I learned a lot about Creative Studio, the software that runs my Statler Stitcher. It is an amazing system, and I am looking forward to finding some time to experiment with all the new things I learned.

Lots of beautiful thread. Buying thread is almost as addictive as buying fabric. I bought some new colors, and some different types of thread to try.

Spectacular quilts! There were many different categories of quilts, including edge to edge, custom, heirloom, wallhangings, and challenge. They were all magnificent. I really enjoy the ideas and the inspiration, both for piecing and quilting!

Longarm machines to play with. A lot of people come to the show to see the different machine manufacturers and decide which one they like the best.

Vendors to visit. There was all sorts of cool stuff to buy. New tools, thread, replacement machine parts, thread, fabric, more thread, new rulers. Did I mention thread?

Quilted wearables exhibit. Another category of the competition is the wearables. Interesting clothing items, but I'm not sure I would want to wear most of them!

Demos. Gale is hard at work. Is he demonstrating something on the Statler Stitcher in Cowle's Quilting booth, or is he spying?

Friends! Gale Tuper was demonstrating one of the Cowle's Quilting Statler Stitchers in Anne Bright's booth. Anne designs patterns for paper pantos and digital designs for computerized machines. She is really nice, and a lot of fun! Ask her about the bear shaped cloud ;-)

More friends! Darryl and his other brother Darryl ;-) We had lots of laughs! (For those of you who dare to ask... Larry, Darryl, and Darryl were from the "Newhart" sitcom).

How often do you get to have your picture taken with the two people who own MQX? Thank you Mary and Janet-Lee. Another fantastic MQX! See you next year!

AQS Lancaster Quilt Show

I went to the AQS Lancaster Quilt Show with a friend on March 25-26. We had a lot of fun, stopping at several fabric shops on the way, and more on the way home! If you are ever in the area, you must stop at Hayloft Fabrics in Morgantown, PA. They claim to have over 8000 bolts of quilting fabric. I didn't count, but they had at least that many!

The show was interesting. A lot of art quilts, but I wish there had been more traditional bed quilts on display. There were hundreds of vendors, and crowds of people! I attended three lectures, and they were all very informative. We are not allowed to post photos of the quilts, but here are a few pictures of the quilters :-)

On the way home we stopped in Lititz, PA and stocked up on Wilbur Buds at the Wilbur Chocolate factory. It is the best chocolate in the world :-)