MQX

I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Machine Quilter's Exposition in Rhode Island this past weekend with some quilting friends.

It's hard to know where to begin to describe what an amazing experience it was to see such a display of wonderful machine quilting being done by today's quilters.  I must have said "Wow" about a hundred times.  One of the first quilts I saw had this quilted fish:

I just loved the way the quilting lines made the fish scales and fins look so realistic.  (And this was just one fish among many on the quilt!)

It was great the way the show was set up so that many of the quilts could be viewed both front and back.  By using different thread colors in the bobbin, the patterns on the backside were as interesting to see as the front.  This is a small detail from one quilt back:

I was wowed by some of the beautiful border treatments:

This beautiful border was accented with little crystals.  (I noticed a lot of the quilts had crystal embellishments.)

Here is another one with crystals:

I really loved  the quilting on the background around this hummingbird.  It really created movement.

There was a very interesting display of small quilts called "Neutral Fusion".  Machine quilters were given neutral fabrics to work with and specific size guidelines, but then it was up to the quilter to decide how to quilt it. 

The quilter of this one added little butterflies and bumblebees to her floral quilt:

The "Best of Show" quilt winner was a marvelous quilt called "America, Let it Shine" by Sherry Reynolds:

Pictures of this quilt just do not do it justice.  The quilting and the piecing were flawless.  Here is a closer look at one of the borders:

I found an interview with Sherry where she talks about the making of the quilt, and the symbolism behind it.  See it here.

Our group's little "15 minutes of fame" moment came when we were joined at our lunch table by Karen McTavish.   She had a quilt entered at the show and was also teaching.  She told us a story about her first art experience and had us all laughing. 
There were many vendors for longarm quilting machines at the show.  I stopped and watched this computerized one stitch by itself. 

One item I saw at the show that I had never seen before was flannel batik fabrics.  Aren't these cool?

All in all, a great field trip.  My friend Rosemary at The Knitting Quilter also posted her photos.