HMQS wrap up

Hi,

I know that HMQS (Home Machine Quilting Show) was over a week ago. Life is busy life!

Again, I took my best friend Maggie with me. It's so wonderful to spend time with her. The only things that she knows about quilting, is what I share with her during our trip to the show, or when we spend time together. But she's never impatient as I go off on exclamations of ecstasy at different quilts or patterns or techniques that we see.

Maggie and I have another friend, Katie, who we knew at the same time. All three of us were neighbors in the same apartment building and church congregation during our college years. We've known each other at least 14 years! And we each got married to our husbands during the same summer!

Katie ended up attending the quilt show the same day that we did, and we found her! It was a lot of fun to spend time with my girlfriends, who share the love of hobbies, faith, and family (and similar tastes in art.) 

Katie only has her domestic machine to piece and quilt with, like me. While we browsed the quilts and vendors, I shared my thoughts on machines that I've test-driven, and which ones that I'd like to use/purchase, if I could. One of the fun things this year, that I hope they continue, is the Quilter's Playland or Playground. Several new Bernina long arms, new Bernina sit-downs, and several other brands on different long-arm table sets, were all set up in one area. They had sample quilt sandwiches ready for use. Katie and I got excited and had to sit down and play at various machines. We even convinced Maggie to try a Bernina sit-down. We had a hard-time leaving! Now I know what my children feel like, when I tell them it's time to go home from the playground. ;-)

This is one of my favorites from the Patriotic Challenge/Quilts of Valor section.

This is a gorgeous hand-embroidered peacock quilt. Then the maker heavily quilted the backgrounds to echo and enhance the peacocks and peacock theme.

They had a Judy Niemeyer section, and these are two of my favorites. I'm such a huge fan of paper-piecing, stars, and flowers, and Judy's designs are spectacular. I've definitely got to try one someday.  I love the purple Hosta!

This one, I'm not sure who designed it, but I fell in love. Log cabins, with circles of flying geese, inserted New York Beauty-style inside the log cabins set in Diamond patterns. Just amazing. And the variety of fabrics that are in the quilt are amazing.

This year also had a special exhibit and guest: Jenny Doan from Missouri Star Quilt Company. We loved her booth, but missed her there and at the Corton Shop's booth. But just as we were heading toward Jenny's exhibit's aisle, she and her hubby suddenly appeared! I cried out, and asked if we could meet her and get a picture. She was so kind to oblige, and give us big hugs, and her hubby was kind to snap pictures of us and crack jokes.

And we were both star struck! I introduced Katie, but forgot to introduce myself. This year, I was prepared to grab a celebrity and get a picture! Apparently, we weren't the only ones that Jenny was kind to, because when I got home and posted pictures to Facebook, several other quilty ladies posted their pictures with Jenny, too, from HMQS.

And yes, it was super-fun to see on display:  the quilts that Jenny made during her video tutorials.

 Maggie even won a FQ bundle of silly girlfriend-prints from H&W Fabrics, which she passed on to me, to make something fun. Maybe I will make us matching FQ tote bags. :-)

Katie and I both bought Labyrinth patterns by Debby Maddie at H&W Fabrics, and I bought a Stonehenge eagle panel and a couple of teal-aqua half-yards. Hey, it was the day before Mother's Day!

Maggie and I got caught in a torrential Spring hail-and-rain thunderstorm on the freeway on the way home. Wow, was that a lot of wind and water!

It was a great day with my best friends and my favorite hobby. My goal is to one day submit a quilt to the show myself, and not just be an attendee.

HMQS

Had a great day at HMQS--Home machine Quilting Show.

This seems to be a cross between a dahlia and a Dresden.

I love the deep purple background on the HST diamonds quilt!

HMQS--Home Machine Quilting Show 2014

Hi!

I had a great day at HMQS in Sandy, UT, USA today. It's great that I have a big show just about an hour away from me. I think it's starting to get quite a bit of national attention!

My best friend and I had a great time chatting and hanging out as we soaked in all the gorgeous quilts. I mentioned all sorts of things about styles and techniques as we wandered around.

Baby was a sweetheart and a trooper, and I had one of the "To The Rescue" quilts tucked around him in the stroller. He got quite a bit of attention, paired with the quilt ! (He's smart--he grabs fabric in his little fists and stuffs them in his mouth already!)

Some of the surprised and awed comments came while I was standing and shopping at the Superior Threads booth. 

"he's so cute!" 

"Dressed like a firefighter" (Daddy is a firefighter.) 

"are those fire trucks? How did you do that?" (They're paper pieced and it's a Quiltmaker Magazine pattern)

 "Did you quilt it yourself? (yup, using Superior threads here!) 

"Do you have a long arm?" (Nope--I do everything from piecing to quilting on my little Bernina domestic!) "Wow!"

Sometimes I felt a bit overwhelmed. Sometimes, I looked at a quilt and thought "I can do that" or "I want to do that". Sometimes I was caught between feeling envious of their time and experience and fabric and $ for other materials, and wondering if I could ever get time and skills and a bigger machine to do all the intricate quilting.

I visited the APQS machine booth to practice. I sat down to "play with George", their 20" sit-down model, as I put it to Marilyn, the rep and teacher. I had really hoped to chat with Dawn Cavanaugh, like I had last year, but Marilyn said she'd already left for home. I love Dawn's teaching and her articles. Last year, I wanted to test drive a bunch if different machines, and sat with Dawn as I tried George. She was so kind and personable, and willing to answer my questions and help me improve my techniques. I was so thrilled that when we were done, she said that after she'd seen what I'd done, she thought I was well on my way and past being a "beginner" FMQ. Wow!

Now I gotta share some of my favorites.

Talk about taking the quilting beyond the block...this time the quilting made wedding rings around the pieced flowers and tied everything together. That's why it won a ribbon!

I love this Triple Irish Chain. I'd like to do a double chain in the family colors--dark green and gold--and quilt more Celtic motifs inside the open spaces.

This pine burr was stunning in Christmas red and green with touches of metallic gold. We saw the same quilt but in purple and green in a vendor's booth. She said it could be done in jelly roll strips. Cool!

Oh I love the barn-raising layout of this log cabin...a whole log cabin quilt is on my bucket list.

 And just "wow" at this Viking quilt.

and two-color quilts are stunners! This quilt had lots of different tiny blender patterns in the same tones of green with the cream. Wow! More inspiration for an Irish Chain. Look at layer upon layer of quilting!

This Celtic spiral is amazing! Blue and brown quilts catch my eye. The info paper says those half Mariners Compasses in the corners are not paper-pieced! The compass arms are probably  at least 12" long; talk about long, tricky bias edges without the paper to stabilize!

and I just love the cream, aqua and purple color scheme together!

Here are my goodies: monofilament polyester thread, and color cards for King Tut cotton and So Fine! 50 threads from Superior. No shops in my county carry Superior threads, and only a few in Utah, so I'd need to order online. (Which is weird, because Superior's headquarters are in my state of Utah.) I want to match thread before I order. Thread is an expensive but necessary notion. These cards are wrapped with real threads in all the colors manufactured. Perfect! He tossed in the Thread Therapy DVD for free!

And I couldn't help but grab the stackers and Rolie Polie of Pieces of Hope..they were a great price and they almost can't be found now.

Whee! What a fun day.