The Quilt Show

There was an international quilt show in my town this week. I went yesterday to view the quilts and shop, shop, shop.

The quilt show, Machine Quilter's Showcase 2009 "Fire and Ice", had a focus on long arm quilting. I have done some machine quilting on my home machine, but it appears so much easier with the long arm. The quilt is wound around two rolls and the long arm machine is manipulated on the stretched "window" of the quilt. These machines are massive and you need a whole room for them. Think about it. The working area is the entire width of the quilt.

Massive machine, massive price. I think you can get one of the smaller machines for maybe $4000-$5000.

They even have computer guided quilting machines for the home. Program or upload the quilt pattern you want, load the quilt, and let it go. It's beautifully precise. I wonder where the fun is in that, though.

I did not take any classes at the convention, but I went today to see the exhibits and shop vendors mall. I spent 4 hours there and had buckets of fun. I should have invited a friend along...didn't think of calling anyone til last minute. I ran into almost my entire quilt guild there, anyway.

The level of craftmanship on these quilts is way above my skill. Just stunning. It was hard to pick a favorite (for viewers choice) and I wasn't even going to vote; yet, there was one that took my breath away. It was called "Lollapalooza" and it was a whole-cloth art quilt embellished with ink dyed patterns. I simply had to vote for it.

I wonder if it won? Probably not. I have nonconforming tastes.

Then I shopped. The treasure of the day: I actually found a Fasturn system! (Thanks to Gadgets Galore...free plug!!) It's a tool for turning narrow fabric tubes. Extremely well designed and works like a charm. I love sewing notions, anyway, and since I'd borrowed this tool for my work on the scrub caps, I knew I 'needed' one. So excited to find one, snapped it right up! They're not easy to track down.

I also bought many fat quarters, a new project for embellished tea towels (from Vogies Quilts and Treasures, another plug) that was just too cute to resist, a set of tiny boxes for beads, and some Bobbin Buddies to clamp on unused bobbins and keep the stray threads in check.

*Sigh.* I love this hobby.