Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Trip to MQX









This past week I traveled to Manchester, NH and met my sister Ann at the MQX show. It is the Machine Quilters Expo held each year in April. We had a wonderful time taking classes, meeting other quilters from all over the US and viewing all the breath taking quilts. Just to be at a show with National teachers like Karen Mc Tavish, last years MQX Teacher of the year and she presented the 2008 Teacher of the year award to Dawn Cavanaugh at the Friday night banquet. Ann and I took classes from Pam Clark ( what a doll), Linda Taylor (so sweet and personable), Sue Patten (one of the wild women of quilting) and Sally Terry ( so talented and a great teacher). We learned so much from each one, their styles although all different, seemed to compliment each other as we moved from class to class and tryed to absorb all the information they had for us. I think for me the most exciting class was the one from Linda Taylor. She was demonstrating how she made this beautiful bird. She made it look so easy and was having so much fun doing it. I can't wait to give it a try myself. I am going to try to post a picture here of the bird she was working on and the one she already had finished.
The Friday night banquet's guest speaker was Mark Lipinski, he entertained us for well over two hours with his hilarious stories, antics and wonderful quilts. There were so many wonderful vendors that it was hard to decide what to buy and try to fit into my luggage to fly home. I took a large suitcase with me and it weighed in at 36 pounds when I left Charleston. On the return trip it weighed about 53 lbs., which is over the limit, so I had to take some items out and put them in a carry on bag. That is right over 17 lbs of merchandise. The thread at the Superior booth was to die for and all tax free!! Those spools can really get heavy!! Books, video's, 108 inch zippers for the long arm, pattern grid, rulers, prewound bobbins, patterns ..... It was kind of like trick or treating as a kid. We had to keep going and unloading our bags and going back for more!!! They give you a big zippered canvas tote, but it fills up so fast and gets really heavy!!
I guess you can tell I had a wonderful time and learned so much. Now I need to get busy practicing before I lose my momentum and excitement.

2 comments:

Judy Heyward said...

I'm glad you had such a great time, Jeanne. I'm looking forward to seeing YOUR fancy bird!

KK said...

Wow, Jeanne, I'm jealous. I hope to get there someday soon - maybe next year.

You are really doing well with your longarm - keep it up!