MQX - Installment #2

I'm sure there is some other snazzy subtitle that this post ought to have, like "Making Money at Margaret's Expense" or "You, too, can have your face on a truck...Here's how!" or "Larger than Life", but somehow my cleverness in creating an appropriate title is lost. But seriously, being selected by Handi Quilter to be a part of their 2011 advertising has been a fabulous treat. If I said that I'm ashamed or embarased by having my face behind their machine, I'd be lying. This is a great thing. If you own a HQ machine, you can send in your quilting story for a chance to do this too. Anyhow, Handi Quilter is a big sponsor at MQX, as well as other quilt shows, meaning that their CEO Mark is in attendance. It was nice to see him again and get a few moments to talk. He's a very busy man. He was just about to take off for the Australasian Quilt show when I saw him Thursday (which was over by the end of this weekend!). HQ had a vendor's booth (of course) with a number of their machines always in use by prospective new owners. And a couple of us were lucky enough as to have our banners gracing the booth. I had to have walked by this four times before one of the HQ educators showed me that it was there! Of course, after returning home, my mom informed me that the MQX live cam which was on during show hours, showed the banner of me! I missed seeing the SLC HQ educators, but got to meet a nice group of others from around this area. My first class on Wednesday morning was in one of Handi Quilter's furnished rooms - a dozen Avante's! The HQ educator helping in the class was Mary Beth, who almost immediately recognized me. I'm not really sure if she recognized me or if she knew to expect me. I mean, would you recognize someone from a picture on a banner (or a truck??!). She turned out to be one of last year's My Story winners (see the link above), and a great asset in a class. About a half hour later, Mark dropped in as well, recognizing me too. In another class, I offered to help out Judy Woodworth with class handouts and $$ collection, as a teacher's angel was not in her class. I got to Kristin B., and immediately knew I knew her from somewhere. We tossed out a couple possibilities and soon realized it was the Handi Quilter connection. She was another of last year's faces. Really cool to make these acquaintences.

So, on Thursday morning, after mistakenly arriving to the convention center an hour early, I ventured out behind the parking garage in search of a "Truck". Not just any truck...I wanted to find the Handi Quilter truck. Now this is downtown Providence at morning rush hour. There's plenty of people driving around as well as walking. And here I am - stomping through a chain-link fenced parking lot (which is massively muddy thanks to receiving over 3" of rain the day before). But, as you can see, I did find the truck, parked deeply in this parking lot. It actually had another truck conveniently beside it with people still in it, so I asked them to kindly humor me and back up for 12 seconds, and to specifically not ask why I was photographing a Truck. They were puzzled, but did oblige.If you ever wondered what I looked like in abut 30"x30" closeup, here it is. And the quilt looks pretty nice too (thanks to the gals of the Row Robin Swap from a couple years ago that helped with a couple of the blocks you see).

...to read MQX - Installment #1, click here