The Doodle-head:

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Monday, August 25, 2008

AQS Quilt Expo, Nashville

Last week was the last time the AQS Quilt Expo will be held here in Nashville (for at least the next three years because they are moving it to Knoxville), so I definitely wanted to attend it at least a day or two. I also volunteered through my quilt guild to work on Thursday afternoon, and my "payment" was that day's entrance into the show for free.

Thursday morning when the show opened, I decided to look at the exhibits first before visiting any vendor booths. The Nashville show, in my opinion, tends to have more art quilts than traditional, so the exhibits are not quite as appealing to me as the ones in Paducah, but I wanted to be able to view them without as much of the crowds that are there later in the day. I took a few photographs, and then I set off perusing the vendors. I bought a few quilting stencils, but not much else as I made my way through the show. I did decide to return to one booth at the end of the day and make a rather large "investment" purchase - a new Martelli mat / ruler / cutter set. They also let me trade in / upgrade my old Martelli cutter (the Ergo 2000 I love so much and that they have redesigned a bit) for only $5.

After lunch I still had about 90 minutes before reporting for volunteer duty. Just for the heck of it, I checked out the schedule of lectures and workshops (I've never attended one at a show before, and in fact, had never considered it before because of time constraints). There was an hour lecture that fit in the time frame perfectly, and it also fit with my earlier purchase - "Got Stencils? Use them!" - so I paid my $10 and found the lecture room. Before the lecture began, they were playing the usual games of who came the farthest, who has the most children, who has the most children who also quilt, and I actually tied with one other woman for who came the shortest distance. My prize? A year's membership in AQS!!! That more than paid for attending the lecture! The lecture was also very good for someone like me who is not all that stencil-savvy. DeLoa Jones talked about how to look at the designs that you can create from within the stencils (by just using parts of the design), how to combine different stencils, and how to look for things like that when you purchase new stencils.

I also went ahead and signed up for an all-day workshop on Friday (Machine Quilting: What a Difference Thread Makes with Sue Nickels), and looking back, that was probably the best part of this show for me. Machines were provided, and they turned out to be almost identical to my own, which was a real boon for me. The kit included 10 spools of thread in different contents and weights. I used "invisible" nylon thread for the first time, silk, as well as a variety of cottons and polyesters (yes, 100% polyester). I am still working on my thread sampler, because I didn't have time to finish each area as we went through them, and it will just be a reference for me, as my machine quilting still needs a lot of practice. But I learned SO much!

As soon as we returned from our annual weekend in Bristol (racing, of course!) I started playing with one of the new threads I purchased. I decided I'm going to use a spool from the Rainbows line of Superior Threads in Delaney's Snow Puzzle quilt, because I knew it would be perfect (and it IS!).

I've been making a pillow to go with the quilts I make for the nieces / nephews now that I'm making them bigger quilts, so I got to work piecing the pillow top. It is quilted different than the quilt will be, which allows me to experiment some. I decided to freehand a cabbage rose in the center, then did some meandering in the other background spaces. I LOVE the look. I don't know if you can see it as well in these photos, but the sparkle of the thread matches perfectly the sparkle of the fabrics. The variegated color goes along really well with the colors in the quilt, also.


I've also decided on using the invisible nylon (YLI Wonder) thread on Hollywood's T-Shirt quilt. I'll probably begin working on it as soon as I finish quilting Delaney's Snow Puzzle. Okay, I'm back off to the sewing room to piece the backing and get to it!

Labels: Snow Puzzle quilt