MQX is a national quilt show, the Machine Quilters Expo.  I haven’t been in years, so this is very exciting.  Many years ago I drove up to Nashua, NH and spent a wonderful day up there gawking at internationally prize-winning quilts and shopping at the vendor mall.  I stayed with my friend Sharon, who lives up north, and convinced her to go with me.

The Year of the Endless Finger Surgeries left me bandaged and grumpy pretty much all the time, so it was a surprise when Banjo Man offered to drive me up to New Hampshire for a day of quilts and fabric shopping.

Best.  Medicine. Ever.

Another year MQX moved the show to Providence, which meant I could take classes.  I drove up there three days in a row and had the thrill of taking a four hour machine quilting class with one of the masters, Sharon McTavish.  I was one of a handful of students who kept stitching until the end of the class.  I just couldn’t resist making more feathers and swirls and loops–all very, very tiny.  My eyes were so shot I had trouble driving out of the parking garage.

Here’s a link to some of her work on Pinterest:

Not only was she a great and inspiring teacher, but she has tattoos of her quilted feathers on her arms.

Impressive.

So this morning, my friend Ruth and I are heading to New Hampshire.  I’m taking a four hour hands-on machine class using rulers with my “domestic sit down sewing machine” (vs. longarm machine) this afternoon from 1-5.

We’re spending the night, so we get to shop and stroll this evening.

Tomorrow we’ll take more classes (Ruth is taking one of those four hour, hands-on classes herself), then we’ll drive home tomorrow night.

Here’s another photo of one of my very first machine-quilted projects, a “Chinese Boxes” lap quilt.  I finished it up and gave it to Nancy for her birthday last week.  She loves purple.

Here’s the back.  The tops of the boxes were made from one piece of fabric, cut in four identical layers and pieced together in a kaleidoscope way.

See you Friday!