MQX East

I was able to attend the Machine Quilter's Expo (MQX) on Saturday at the Rhode Island Convention Center (RICC).  The show has been around for a while but it used to be held up in New Hampshire in one of the hotels.  This was its 2nd year at the RICC, a much better location in my opinion.  

The talent in this show is unbelievable.  Of course some of the quilting makes me want to throw my machine out the window and wonder why I ever thought I could do this as I will NEVER get to that level but I do enjoy marveling at the quilts and their quilted designs.  

Quilted designs are my weakest point.  There are some quilts that I know exactly what I want but most of the time I scratch my head and wonder what it calls for.  There are some of my tops that just ache for custom quilting but I have no idea what to do and I don't always have the budget to pay someone else to do it for me.  I always hope that studying designs on other quilts will give me ideas but the ones that come to mind usually involve the one about throwing my machine out the window.  

I took lots of pictures and I remembered to charge my battery this time and I even brought an extra memory card.  The bad thing?  Both of my memory cards hardly have any memory!  I deleted a bunch of photos I didn't need any more but that night I went to Big Lots and bought another memory card with tons of memory!

I love stars and mariner compass styled quilts

Close up of the quilting.  I would never look at this quilt and think this is what it needs but it's perfect!

See what I mean about wanting to throw my machine out the window???

Look at the quilting in the basket even!  How wonderful is that?

It's a little blurry but the alphabet is quilted into the border

LOVE this quilt.  I wish I could have gotten a better picture but the area was crowded so it was impossible to move around without getting in someone's way and vice versa.

Outer border of the sheep quilt.  I love how the alphabet was carried into the border with beads and buttons.

This is a panel that was quilted by a 12 yo.  She did a better job than I could ever think about doing.
Hmmm, where's that machine?

We came upon this quilt and I had to take a double look.  This is the quilt that I'm currently working on from last year's BOM at one of my local quilt stores (see March's entries).  My friend, who also participated in the BOM with me thought I was crazy.  It took a while for me to convince her that this is indeed the same quilt.  Gee, I think I'll quilt mine exactly the same way.

This wouldn't take long - I should have it done by Sunday night, right?

The quilts that really intimidated me were the ones that were quilted on a tabletop machine and not a longarm. Yes, I know it takes practice and years of it but even with years of practice I doubt very much I could ever get to this level.  Honestly, I looked like a Martian as I left the show because I was green with envy!

Stay tuned for more pictures!