Portland MQX Report

I had a great time at MQX again this year. We had four people in our room and if you combine the number of hours we spent asleep during those four nights, it would probably be enough sleep for one person! But then, who needs sleep?? I met many new quilters and got caught up with others that I see so rarely. I even Kay Bell, a fabulous quilter from Scotland that I've e-mailed with and her roommate from South Africa.

I took so many really good classes. When I start browsing the catalog looking for classes, I'm drawn toward the ones that offer creative fills. I get so tired of using the same ones. My first class was with Sue Heinz of Kismet Quilting. She was offering a class called Fill Harmonics that was so great! We learned to take a gridded pattern and do it in the round. That class, alone, was worth the trip.

This is the first example and the most basic one we drew. It is based on the clam shell design, and once we got the hang of it, it was really quite simple.

This one is a tad more elaborate! I'm going to have fun with these!!

I wasn't disappointed with a single class this year; something that is rare. I did have one instructor that wasn't prepared (apparently, that's her teaching style), but I still learned something from her. It wasn't a total loss.

And the quilts! Oh, my...the quilts entered were so incredible. I think I'm doing well with my quilting until I go to one of these shows. Then I see what a piker I really am. However, I'm not giving up. I'm going to practice and practice and I even have an idea for a wholecloth quilt that is percolating. I am not one to do the typical wholecloth; I don't want to design 1/8th of the top and then repeat it around. I want a specific design (probably horse related) and then I will fill the outside with quilting. That's what rattling around in my head right now--who knows where that may lead.

Below are some great pics of designs I learned as well as bits of quilting in the show quilts that I photo'd.  More to come later after I've downloaded everything from my camera.

I love this design and hope to do it on my next quilt with stars!

The "e"s and "l"s exactly opposite each other really appealed to me in this one.

There were several similar designs like this done in this quilt. I loved how unique they were.

I loved the secondary design and the thread colors used in this one. What do you think?