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

Tasties in the Post

By way of a Handi Quilter Yahoo group that I belong to, I caught wind that we might be receiving chocolates in the mail. Allegedly they were supposed to go out before the holidays, but seriously, this is more fun now. In the middle of December I had more cookies and candies than I knew what to do with. On about Dec 28, I sent all remaining sugary goodness to work with my husband so I wouldn't eat it. Just yesterday, I was cursing how gosh awful trying to take off 5 pounds is because I LOVE chocolate. About 15 minutes ago, this arrived via UPS. It's a rather unassuming box, not rattling like chocolate truffles might. So I decided I needed a pre-dinner peek (aka "taste").
Upon opening, I find a 5"x9" slab of brown goodness. OMG, this is delightful. My kids were begging for a bite. But how could I bite into this?? OK, the only thing keeping me from sinking my teeth into this is the fact that it is frozen! Is that not just fantastic??

...and yes, Miss B, that is your quilt beneath it, and I was most careful to keep it spotless. In the next day or two, I will do a reveal on this Fig Tree sampler quiltmade by one of Maine's more prolific quilters. It is very pretty.

Remember this post??...where I showed ideas for some alleged quilt. I have decided I probably have enough sandy-toned batiks. I embarked on the first 9 blocks this week. The jury is still out on how much I like them!

Tuesdays are Just For Me

Well it is official. The MQX (AKA Machine Quilater's Exposition) registration for classes opened yesterday, and I have already shelled out nearly $1000. Merry Christmas to Me... The plethora of options over 6 days is mind boggling. There are hundreds of possible classes from which to choose. I went into the process planning on a maximum of 3 days there...April 13-15, and a plan to select classes by some good and well known instructors. Because of scheduling, I was not able to get all of my choices, but it is always a compromise when there are this many possibilities. I have 2 full days of classes, and one half day -- so that I have half a day to see the quilts and do some shopping too.

Here's what I registered for:
1. Renae Haddadin's Throw them a Curve...or Play it Straight class on fillers
2. Linda McCuen's (who is a judge) Bit of Bella Whole cloth class
3. Dawn Cavanaugh's Background gridwork Fillers
4. Gina Perkes's Fantabulous Feathers and Fills
5. Linda Thiefoldt's Terrific Trapunto.

It is a nice blend of things I want to improve upon and things that I just want to expand my horizons towards. I live about 3 hours from Providence, RI, and hope to be staying closeby with family. But if you are anywhere near there, check out www.mqxshow.com and go register for some of the absolute best quilting classes ever. They cater to both the longarm quilter as well as those who use a domestic.

Here's my bit of horror for this week. I got word that Handi Quilter has made banners of some of in their advertising campaign to hang at Houston's Quilt Market/Festival. I really should not be so bugged, I guess. This is a huge honor. It's jsut that when I saw this, I really wished I'd done something more with my hair and had that nose job! I'm sure these banners will be at other large quilt shows. Who knows, maybe I'll see myself at MQX! That's be neat. The quilt in the banner has been photoshopped so it's a modified color (like why couldn't he trim my long pointy nose and growing cabbose while he was at it??!), but it is this one. Remember?

My Aunt's Star Sampler Quilt and Fun with TSA

In early August, my aunt from CT brought me a bag of 5 of her quilts for finishing. She's a semi-prolific quilter, who I suspect has a fabric stash orders of magnitude greater than my own. I have a few of her sampler quilts as well as others. This one I chose to do more custom quilting on the star points and the border. The 12 sampler blocks are all done with a uniform filler pattern.
I had to be especially careful on the green border because my thread was not quite as dark as the fabric. Unfortunately, every now and then, I find that I just don't have quite enough thread colors (yes that does happen when you only own 100 cones!).

I love the look of feathers as well as stitching feathers, so it's no surprise that I really love this quilt finished. I hope she does too.

I think with a nice burgundy binding, it will be just fab.

So, are you wondering what Fun with TSA really is all about?...or were you smart enough to read between the lines??

So, in the afternoon before I left Handi Quilter, I opted to pack up all my immense goodies to carry back on the plane. I was too anxious to leave them and wait for UPS to come next week; I wanted to use them this weekend! The box was heavy and I fully expected to send it through with my suitcase as checked luggage. I arrived at SLC airport 2-1/2 hours early. I was already a bit irritated to be there so far ahead, but another gal going to the airport with me has 2 replacement knees, and she needed extra time to go through security and to get to the gate. Me, I arrogantly assumed I'd cruise through security. When I checked in, the agent told me that the box was small enough to fit on the plane, so I opted not to pay another $25 to check it. I got my boarding passes and proceeded to security. As I approached, I realized that I may have packed a pair of batting scissors in the box. I waffled as I was in line as to if I ought to just fess up my mistake or just turn around and caugh up the $25 and go check the box. I clearly made the other choice! The TSA person at the line before the xray told me that the scissors were probably OK. Many pair are allowed now, if they are 4" or under. So I went on. As I put my shoes and box on the xray conveyor, I was (of course!) singled out by the xray person for a random personal xray check. As she is pulling me aside to run the wand over, I can hear the xray people saying "oh, what are these?...they look long. Are they scissors?..." Oh, I thought, this is not going to end well. After hearing horror stories from my roomate on this retreat about security stealing from her, I was hyper vigilant about my purse and box. Soon, me and my belongings were all in a not-so-private part of TSA security, only separated from the gauking public by a couple of glass walls. One rather butchy female (or so I thought)TSA agent was wanding me, and patting areas I reserve for only special persons, while the other two TSA men were going through my alleged contraband box of quilting supplies acquired on this retreat. They found the quilting shears (ONLY AFTER UNPACKING THE ENTIRE DAMN BOX), and then intelligently comment to me "you must be a quilter". Gosh Golly, whatever gave them that impression?? Was it the 5 yards of fabric in that box? Or the $200 in quilting templates? Or the 7 latest editions of all quilting magazines I was given?? They are sharp, aren't they?! Anyhow, butchy woman had to give me a way too personal pat down. She whispers in one of my ears "Is that an underwire bra?". If I was not shocked to be standing with both arms out to my side for this unnatural interrogation, I might have been more amused. She probably just wondered why someone that clearly shops in the juniors department for bras really needed an underwire! I hope she got some gratification from confirming that it was not a u-shaped weapon, because I sure did not! Anyhow...long story short, we retaped up my box. TSA walked me to the giftshop opposite security and let me buy an envelope and stamps to send myself the scissors. They have not yet arrived, but a girl with 25+ yards of batting downstairs can dream. And then he whispers in my ear "I really should have taken your toothpaste, but I let that go"! Like I didn't have enough humiliation that night! And I have Carrolyn to thank for making me be to the airport so early so that this bump in my plans did not make me miss my flight! Oh, the absolute joys of flying!!

Have a fun week sewing whatever you have!

Handi Quilter Retreat, Installment #3

I should have entitled this post "Pure Greed". Or "Gluttony". Whatever you call it, it was so completely over the top and unexpected. I was suggested that we bring an extra bag for "goodies" but I thought we'd mostly be purchasing these. I only spent about $20 the entire weekend. My kids are happily devouring the bag of SLC salt water taffy!
The pin cushion was a gift from one of the gals that couldn't make the trip. A few of the items above were purchases, but mostly all of them were given to us. That is 3 spools of Rowan thread. Now, if most of my Kaffe Fasset fabric was not purple!?@

On Tuesday's ruler's lessons, these templates were tossed at us like candy. It is almost unbelievable that I nearly bought some swag rulers recently and just figured I could keep making due using the circle templates that I have! And then to get more circles too! I have a few circles which I like because they are like a doughnut, rather than solid as these are. I do prefer to follow the inside of the template rather than going around the outside of a large circle. These circles, do however, have lines for making similar size arcs which is great. I now have templates in 4 sizes for making clamshells. And another handy small ruler for a number of things (aptly called the Versa tool). Awesome, I tell you, just awesome. And rather a pricey gift :-))

We got HQ's collection of DVD's on all kinds of topics from groovy boards (which I have yet to buy) to other techniques. I need to set aside an entire weekend to view them! This is a $99 gift! Catch my drift??...they must really love us!

Here's a new collection of current magazines. All are new to me but one. JOY!!

And a nice sampling of batting. I'm not sure what to do with the packages of 6 sheets of 18"x18" batting except piece them together and use for runners or smaller things. I got some new batting scissors, but there whereabouts will be covered in another day or two (in my Fun with TSA post...I'm sure you can read between these lines!!). That sack of threads is a mixed bag of nice spools compliments of Superior and YLI - I think there is a nylon, a candlelight yarn, King Tuts and a couple others. Everyone's bag was a little different.

On Monday afternoon, we took a shopping spree trip. HQ gave us a $50 gift certificate, to which the quilt shop took 20% off of the total bill too! I grabbed a number of small cuts to maybe make some runners with, and 2 yard cut of a pink flowered print to do a dress for Sophie. The precuts (jelly roll, layer cake and charm squares) were given to us by Moda and came in one of the bags that HQ had prepared for us. Again, each of us had different precuts. My jelly roll is Christmassy, but it is not looking likely that I will get anything made for this Christmas! I did select some cuts too at our shopping spree to do myself a holiday table piece, but again, the same thoughts apply. Life and quilting are pretty busy at the moment.

So what could possibly be left to say about my weekend...Sometime near the end of this month, our pictures and videos will be finished with editing. They took head shots and quilting shots of us with one of our quilts to create our Handi Quilter advertisement for the magazines. HQ advertises in 96 magazines annually, so we can expect to be in about 6-7 ads next year. On top of that, there will be a taped "story" going on their website and on YouTube. Our mugs will also be going on the side of the HQ truck, which travels from quilt show to quilt show throughout the year. Are we now famous???... hardly. Happy for sure though!

I got word yesterday that my quilt Primavera is receiving a special recognition award at the Georgia Quilt Show. I'm pretty pleased at that!

Have a good weekend. Now that most of my retreat posts are done (All but Fun with TSA), I guess I have to get sewing!

Handi Quilter Retreat, Installment #2

I should entitle this post "Quilts Everywhere". But seriously, should I have expected anything less?? Of course not. It was fun to see all of the quilts that I recognize from HQ magazine ads all over their walls, and then some. The one below is from Brenda's office, and a book of her's too (I think). Though you cannot see the quilting, it is truly gorgeous. I love combining the very traditional patterns into a more artistic quilt.

The 2-story ground floor/entryway has many great quilts hanging. Here's just a few. I could use my entire blogger memory if I posted all of them.

And did you really think that I'd go to the bathroom and not bring my camera?...ha ha. Both bathrooms are decorated with no less than 5 quilts each. Seriously, you gotta love this place. It is a mecca of inspiration at every turn.
Both days of the retreat were filled with creative quilting lessons. On Monday morning, we took T-N-T...thread, needles and tension. The lecture was started with a larger-than-life model of a quilting needle (which I should have taken a picture of). It was about 18" long and 1.5" in diameter! The thread discussion was good, since I have become mostly fixated on using Superior's So Fine thread because if its ease of use and the fact that it rarely breaks. I rarely take the time to retension for other threads. After the lecture, we were given a bag of 8 very different threads, and had to tension our machine for each, and in a specific order. They were not in an easy order either! We did a metallic, poly-nylon, silk, King Tut, a couple of YLI threads and a So Fine. It was a great exercise. These threads we did not get to bring home, but we did get a nice bag of Superior and YLI threads as a gift. It also covered some basics on continuous-line quilting in the afternoon. My continuous-line snowmen and other things were not the most sightly stitching I have ever done! After dinner Monday evening, Suzanne Hyland (CEO Mark Hyland's wife) did a session on quilt design. Most people really loved how she held up several quilts and showed why or why not custom quilting is not a good decision. Learning to read a quilt is an acquired skill for most people, and for some I have learned, it just never happens. I feel fortunate to be able to see quilt potential and possibilities for quilting designs quite readily. I like to see how other good quilters choose to quilt pieces. More often, my problem comes with the battle between quilting what the quilt needs and what the client's budget is! I have done Carla Barrett's Quilt Whisperer class, and so love the approach she takes with students, and where to look for inspiration. Anything I learn above that is just gravy from here on out. Tuesday's lesson was on ruler work. When I first started quilting, I HATED ruler work. Slowly it has grown on me. This particular lesson was really good too. Of course it didn't hurt that these 4 fantastic educators (below) gave us the motherload of rulers and templates! More on that in another Installment of this retreat. These ladies are each very talented, and do a really good job of conveying knowledge to people of all abilities. Kudos to them!

(and dontcha just love that quilt behind the educators?!)

Here's the posh quilting studio...To see 18 longarm machines is to make me drool uncontrollably! It's beyone my wildest dreams! And naturally, there were quilts on all walls of this space too.

Are you bored with this yet??...Hope not, I have at least 2 more days of this. Just wait until you get to hear about my "Fun with TSA" post...

Have a good Thursday! I have recovered enough from my busy trip and redeye flight to probably start a twin quilt this afternoon! Joy to all~

Handi Quilter Retreat, Installment #1

So this was my big, fun weekend away to Utah, to attend a Handi Quilter My Story Retreat. Myself and 16 others were selected from over 170 others to become the faces & stories of HQ's 2011 advertising campaign. We all wrote and submitted our quilting story that brought us to becomming an owner of a Handi Quilter machine, and then HQ did the rest. We were a tremendously diverse group, as they'd aim for in an advertising campaign - each person selected because they help to fill a demographic...we come from all corners of the USA and one gal was from Canada. We are a full range of ages. There are "chosen ones" for each of the longarm machines that HQ sells. There are quilters who are seasoned and then those that may have not really ever used a longarm before. It was really quite surprisingly a diverse, yet tight group by the end of 2 and a half days.
We all met at the hotel in the afternoon before our first scheduled dinner. It was fun getting to know what each did. Brenda Groelz, director of marketing and Mark Hyland, CEO, joined us for dinner. Mark is quite a charismatic character, sharing his almost outrageous story of how he was brought to HQ nearly 5 years ago. Brenda has been there a few years, but is the former editor of Quiltmaker magazine. She has a tremendous eye for what she does, and is so well regarded.

The following morning (after getting nearly no sleep for a 2nd night), we all got up and went by shuttle to the Handi Quilter office. It's unassuming from the outside (above), but inside is a mecca of cloth, inspiration and greatness. Here is a picture of all of us as we entered the company for the first time. Can't you just feel the excitement?!! As we went in the doors, everyone in the company (most of their 50 employees) lined the staircase, and showered down cans of silly string (not directly on us mind you!). Balloons were everywhere for a truly festive feeling. A different HQ employee presented each of us with a bag, containing the first of many fantastic gifties. This bag had a sample quilting of each of our names (part of what they do to test-run each machine before it ships), goodies from Moda including a layer cake, jelly roll and charp square pack, and a few other odds & ends. It would have been great if we only got that much stuff. As you'll see as I post about this trip this week, we were showered with wonderful goodies. They truly see us as part of their family.

In their 2-story entryway was a large banner with all of our pictures. It brought tears to my eyes to see my daughter Sophie up there larger than life. I was really starting to miss her by then. Above the banner are many great quilter's sayings. These sayings are stenciled over every window and door in the facility. It's just so fantastic and warm. My favorite was in the studio, "Blessed are the children of quilters for they shall inherit the quilts". Just awesome.

First off, we got a tour of the space where the machines are assembled. Individual parts are manufactured wherever the highest quality per cost can be obtained. It's really cool to see a flank of Avante machines all sitting there with half their guts assembled. Gotta love the engineering side of it all. We learned about how they burn in and test each machine. Below is the CEO Mark showing us the type stitching that is done to fully test the machines.

There's so much to share about this fantastic journey I have been on, but I think I will break it into installments so that I don't have to write 10 tons today. I took a redeye home last night and am kind of whipped & whooped today. Stay tuned...