MQX the fun continues...!

Friday I took a classes all day! What a day! I tell you I was exhausted by the end of my third class.

The first class was with Linda V. Taylor and Cheri Meineke-Johnson. They brought with them the quilt "don't worry, be happy" . What a magnificent quilt!

The class was called From Start to Finish. What a hoot Cheri is. She is hilarious!

She demonstrated her hand applique techniques. She has quite a repertoire of tools that she uses to assist her in her creative process and not all come from the quilting world.

She likes shopping at a hardware store for quilting gadgets and enjoys rummaging through her DH's tool box.

Did you know that she loves monkeys? She actually has a pet monkey!

Afterwards, Linda took over the lecture and demonstrated on the longarm her creative process for machine quilting. They used a smaller wall size version of the "Don't worry, be Happy" quilt. Linda makes it look so easy!

After the class they raffled the sampler. It's up to the winner to finish it off!

I was not the lucky recipient of the unfinished quilt but I did win this book by both Cheri and Linda. Works for me!

They were both quite generous with their prizes. There were a few Crystal sets and lots of other goodies. It made it exciting, waiting to see if your ticket won!

My next class was Is there Life after Stippling?, which I took with my friend Jennifer. We had a blast.

Linda worked on a project that was designed for a class on the website The Quilting School. She demonstrate how she goes about deciding what to machine quilt. I tell you she makes it look so easy.

Again, the sample was raffled and won by a lucky student. Jennifer won the DVD of the Artistic Freedom class. Lucky for me she has offered to let me borrow it.

My last class with Linda was called In the beginning. It was a basic class on longarm, how to set up a quilt etc.... It was quite informative. When I was trained at the Gammil dealer (Cowles) the individual had told me that I had to measure from center onward and both sided had to be even. You can just imagine how much time that can take to get it perfect. Add the $15.00 an hour to that and you're stressing to get it just right. Well, Linda doesn't do that. You square up your backing and batting, baste and add your top working in the "off" areas to make it square. I just learned so much!

I won this template/ruler in this lecture. I tell you the generosity was unbelievable. The repertoire of prizes/gifts were phenomenal.

I had an amazing time on Friday. Of course by the end of the day I was in a vegetative state! lol

Thank you so much for stopping by. Your comments mean a lot to me.

Have a great day everyone!

MQX ... what fun!

I decided pretty much at the last minute to head off to Machine Quilters eXposition in Manchester, New Hampshire. What started as a 1 (one) day trip ended up being a 3 (three day) affair. What a great show it was! I am definitely going back next year!

I drove to Manchester Thursday morning and quickly registered in. They give you a bag full of goodies and a name tag. Gotta love those name tags! You never have to worry about forgetting names, including your own! lol

I spent some time test driving various longarm. MQX is the place to be to learn about the available longarms/midarms on the market. I was quite impressed with A-1 longarm. It's a smooth running machine. Didn't seem fussy at all with threads. They had one model running on metallic thread. You should have seen that baby go! It preformed much better than my embroidery machine! lol

I met up with Vicki from Field Trips in Fiber . What a wonderful soul Vicki is. She graciously sent me pictures to share with you as I had forgotten my camera. Isn't she just the sweetest? I had such a great time.

We had lunch and pretty much shopped till we dropped. I tell you, that girl can shop! lol She reminds me of Sharon. lol But, I definitely spent more money than she did. ;o) But, I'm jumping ahead of myself...!

I met lots of wonderful people. I tell you Vicki is a social butterfly and a great person to shop with. She has so much knowledge and freely shares it!

She brought me a hand made gift, almond mango and a shea butter soap as well as lotion. Isn't it pretty! I just love the packaging. The items are sitting on top of a pile of thread. So original! Geezzzz, now I know what to do with my embroidery thread cut offs! lol

She makes her own soap and lotion. I tell you, that girl has more hobbies than anyone I know! So creative!

Thank you again Vicki for meeting with me and sharing your day! You are a sweetheart!

I'm wondering if I should share all of my purchase with you or just drag this topic till the end. Hum....... I've had so little to blog about as of late. LOL

I am so excited I can hardly stand it!

I'm alive .... I think... !

I just came back from a 3 (three) day trip to MQX! I have so much to tell you but I am too tired to write about my wonderful time at the moment, so it will have to wait. I did want to check in and let you know that I'm still here.

I will leave you with a tease. I spent a lot of money! I think my husband had a heart attack!ROFLOL

Keep well everyone!

Afternoon tea!

Miss Marge has finally arrived to the afternoon tea. I say..... she was fashionably late! ;o)

I truly enjoyed working on these ladies. They brought a smile to my face.

On the life front, it has been crazy busy as of late. Many distractions, keeping me away from quilting and hand embroidery.

Today, I barely made it to my Friday quilting bee. DD is having a slumber party tonight and there was so much to do.

Clean, clean clean, it's mud season you know! lol

On another note, I thought I would introduce you to a recent addition, George II also know as Beamer.

Isn't he such a pretty boy?

He's one of my quilt inspectors. He loves quilting so much that he makes his home in my sewing studio.

I recently lost George I a few weeks ago. He had been with me for more then 3 (three) years. He loved music and the humming of my sewing machines. I'm hoping that Beamer will also. He has certainly adapted very well to his new home.

Thank you for stopping by! I'm off to do a bit of blog catching up. It's amazing how quickly I fall behind. Have a great weekend everyone!

Mud Season.......!

Here in my neck of the woods, we have 5 (five) seasons. The extra one is called Mud Season and it comes before spring.

Dh just gave me a scientific explanation for this occurrence. Of course, he suggested that I blog about it. But, I'll spare you the elaborate explanation! ;o) Besides, if I write about it he'll lovingly remind me that I'm off topic! ;o) lol Basically, it has to do with the type of soil we have, very clay like, and the freezing of the ground. There you have it, mud! Great for making pies, wanna play?

So, you can just imagine how difficult it is to keep a house clean. I mean, not only do I have dh running through the house with muddy boots, but our child, and every body else's children! sigh!

Yea, and as you can probably guess, I love to clean. Yes sir, it's my favourite hobby! NOT!

Just when I thought the snow would melt, we had a snow storm yesterday.

You know what that means? Yep, more mud!

Oh well, such is life in Upstate NY.

Miss Libby has finally made it to the tea party! I just love stitching these girls! They are so much fun!

I'm thinking that I'll forgo Leanna's quilter's journey for a bit and stitch out my Polka Dot Girls! Sort of go with the Darlene and Wendy flow! ;o) Besides, it's always more fun when you do a project as a group.

Aside from mud, not much is going on. I'm just busy keeping up with the house cleaning.

Speaking of house cleaning, I spent 3 (three) days cleaning out my sewing room. I had a need to de-clutter and clean the sawdust. That stuff is horrible! Let me tell you, never, never, ever have your dh's wood shop next to your sewing studio? The dust and noise is enough to drive you nuts! .... but I digress...... Anywhoooo, I recycled a pile of quilting magazines and threw useless stuff away.

I'm really pleased with the way my sewing room looks. It's quite inspirational to go into my clean studio! The only problem is that I don't want to mess it up again! lol Well, I think I'll get over that real soon! ;o)

Hope you all have a great weekend. Thank you so much for stopping by and commenting!

Happy Mud Season!