MQX 2013- It's a Wrap!!!

To tired to post last night, I was fortunate enough to be able to take a class with Jamie Wallen yesterday. It was a stencil class which he normally teaches from his studio, so I was in the maiden voyage class (so to speak) from a quilt show perspective. The information presented, really got me thinking outside the box, as to where I could find and how I could generate my own unique stencils, so as to use them for quilting designs. Jamie also explained a lot of other quilt related things relevant to everyone in the class, no matter what brand of machine they used back home. Seriously, he is a bottomless well of knowledge, when it comes to anything and everything quilt related!!!

Today's class was the second of my two Lisa Sipes classes. She shared with us her technique of how she does her triple line quilting. (easy when you have explained how) We also got to play around on the longarms, just exploring different ideas and techniques. Apart from the fact, the machine I was using was not playing very nicely at all, (thread break..., thread break,.... thread break..... get the picture?) I did learn some new tips to try on my quilts to come. I asked Lisa for a demo on my quilt sandwich of her quilting and she happily agreed. She persevered (despite the continual thread breaks) and I got this beautiful sample to keep. And for those with enquiring minds, yes, all of the usual approaches to resolve this issue were attempted, but with no success. I won't mention the brand of machine here. Let's just say, I'm busting to get back to Oz and play on my own (dream) machine very soon.

Earlier in the week, I got to take a class with Cathy Wiggins. Because the nature of the class was a walking tour of the show floor, there was not really a photo that I could affix to a post specifically about it. The class I took with her was, 'Why Quilts Win'. It was a private tour of the show floor of the winning quilts, and Cathy explained what attributes stood out on the winning quilts that gave them something extra in the competition arena. It was really interesting to get the low down on quilts at that high level of competition.

Well, that's the MQX experience come to an end for me this year. I have to say it was amazing and I got to meet some extraordinary talented people. For those thinking about an MQX, if you get the opportunity to go,....GO!! You won't regret it.

Until I check back in with the excitement from Quilt Festival in Houston, happy quilting.-Julie.