Tucson Quilt Show

A few weekends ago our family went to the quilt show.  Yes, I wrote that correctly, the whole family went.  I hoped it would be joyful, and inspiring.  Instead, I found myself dragging my feet to leave the convention center just to punish my children for their consistent and enduring whine fest.  

Yes, I am one of the best mothers in the world.  

One of stops I made in the convention center was at a long arm quilting booth.  I tried out a gammill...one that would only be $9K.  I know, I said only and $9K in one sentence, but that is cheap.  Anyway, I tried it out, and I fell in love.  Mostly, because I really think I could do a lot more with my quilting if I wasn't always dreading the quilting part.  You know the question, will this be too big to quilt with my machine?  Will my shoulders fall off if I quilt this myself?  Or, will my aunt Becky hate me if I come take over her long arm again this summer?

I quilt most of my own quilts.  I have only had my aunt quilt one of my quilts, and it was the best experience ever.  I love not having the stress of quilting my quilts.    Contrary to popular belief, my machine does not just quilt the quilt for me, it is work.  I long for the day when I can have a long arm machine.  It will still be work, but it will be different, and much less taxing on my shoulders.

Or, should I start saving for the $40K long arm that quilts for you?  Yep, you have to do some work, but it quilts from a computer design.  That sounds like heaven.  

Until then, I will go ahead working on my now ancient Bernina (it is 10 years old), and I will be happy the whole time (maybe just most of the time, until my shoulders start cramping up).

Okay, back to the quilt show, the quilts were fun and some were amazing.  It was inspiring to me, I kept hoping I could go home and get some time to work on my sewing machine.  

We saw a number of skeleton themed quilts.  They totally made me laugh, not every quilt has to be serious.

I really liked this yellow and blue quilt.  If you can't tell from the photo, this is all pieced, and then appliqued.  A lot of work went into this to make the color variation.  I love it.

Now, here is a quilt I can appreciate because it is one I would NEVER do.  Not because it is too hard, but because it would take me forever.  I don't have forever.   But, I totally appreciate the work that went into it. 

And, then I saw this quilt, which is the show winner.  I was amazed at the quilting.  Super intricate work here, everything was perfect.  So fun to see people work really hard, and accomplish their goal.  I love that the colors are bright and cheerful, and I love how the quilt is just perfect.