AQS Charlotte Show

I had such a great time at the AQS show in Charlotte NC this past week! First of all many thanks to my wonderful friend Robin who put me up in her home and fed me. I forgot to get a picture of her.


The show was held in part of the Charlotte Convention Center. Parking was expensive, and Friday I had to go back and forth to the car since I had a bad case of forgetfulness. My feet hurt badly at the end of the day. I did not make the best choice in footwear, choosing my "confidence shoes" which have a bit of a heel.


So many beautiful quilts, innovative ideas, and vendors galore. It was a bit overwhelming. I have a bunch of photos of individual quilts, but I need to go through them before posting and make sure I have the names with them to give them credit.


I met Bonnie Browning and she agreed to a photo op with me. I also met AQS editors, Elaine Brelsford and Michele Duffy. I attended three lectures which I really enjoyed. I also took a class by Michele Scott, below.


Author of "Bobbin' Quiltin' and Fusin' Fun", she led a class of intermediate and better free motion quilters to explore using thicker threads either through the needle, in the bobbin (working with the quilt upside down), or using couching. She was a ton of fun and very funny and frank. She also took some time to give me some encouraging words on my quilting adventures.


I've had far too many thick threads that I had been meaning to do bobbin work with, but never actually did. Michelle's class was just the thing to get me going! (My sample above.) We used brand new Janome 8900's in the class and it was nice to use a machine I was already familiar with from working at Sew Simple.


Look at all the thread yumminess that she provided! Below is a close up of some of the fibers with which we played. Couching yarns at the top left and hand dyed threads for the bobbin. I also got to see some of the beautiful hand dyes threads that Laura Wasilowski makes.


I also met up for lunch with Susan from the Bored Zombie. Again, forgetting to take a picture. Robin took a lecture with the talented Sharon Schamber and had Leah Day as a classmate. I never did see either one of them.

I stopped at the APQS booth to chat with Angela Huffman, a talented and friendly long arm quilter from MQResource.com, a forum that I'm on occasionally. I also fondled George, the sit-down machine from APQS. I love George. He's like a good looking country boy. Works hard, gets the job done, but not too flashy.

I tried a few other sit-down quilting machines. Found one that was extremely affordable, but it didn't include a needle up/down function, which is a deal-killer for me. It, and at least one other machine like it were so, um....what's the word, I want to be kind.....functional. Huge and ugly, zombie-like, but functional. It made the Artistic 18 look so much better to me. (Review on it later this week.)

As a quilter who moves the quilt, not the machine, it's very appealing to see these big sit-down machines, but they're really not in my budget (other priorities come first) and I also don't want folks to think you need to spend a lot of money in order to do great quilting.

More on my shopping at the show later this week also. I wasn't too wild with the spending though.


14 comments:

  1. Wow Amy, sounds to me like you had a great time! I'd love to get a sit down quilting machine. Glad you're back!

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  2. Hi Amy, oh my, that was such fun to read about your adventures! So exiting to meet all those people!!! I wish was there too!!!
    I have ordered lots of rulers and templates from Fine Rulers and the special sewing foot (ruler toe) is also on its way from the UK. It was hard to find a "local" supplier as nobody knows what you can use it for. Weird right? Can't wait for all of the goodies to arrive!
    Have a great day,
    Esther

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    1. I'm doing my best to spread the word! I will be trying to investigate which machines can use which ruler feet when I have an opportunity, but there are a lot of machines out there! I found out at the show that some brands, like Pfaff have many different feet that only work on certain lines of machine. I will be dependent on my readers to let me know what works on their machines in many cases. I have even set up a spread sheet to help me.

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    2. I would be interested in the ruler toe Esther ordered from the UK. Maybe they have toes for other brands of machines.

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    3. I think Esther is getting a Janome foot. Essentially, there is only the Janome foot that is considered a ruler toe. Many folk have used this foot on other brands of machine, including Juki (But I’m not exactly sure of which models). Bernina seems to be the most problematic, but I have hopes that they’ll come out with a ruler toe eventually. Babylock and Pfaff don’t seem to be compatible with the Janome foot.

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  3. Hi Amy, Glad you had a nice time and learning experience. I will get back to you about my Juki. I'm not convinced the feet that come with Juki will work for ruler work since the height of their feet may not stop me accidentally slipping over ruler. I promise to let you know my findings.

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  4. HI Amy! So sorry I missed you. I took that Sharon Schamber class, and sat next to Leah Day, great class!! I took classes with Jamie Wallen, Pam Clarke and Gina Perkes.
    Carole @ From My Carolina Home

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    1. I really wanted to get into that class, but it was full long before I registered. We'll just have to plan ahead to meet up next time!

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  5. It was awesome to meet you! I'm certain we could have lots of quilty trouble fun. Next time you're this way, be sure to holler! :)

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    1. You bet! I’m keeping my eye out for things I want to attend in Raleigh!

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  6. I missed you too. Had a quilt in the show and was there on Wed for a class with Gina Perks. Love Michele Scott. She is a trip isn't she:)

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    1. I was kicking myself for not emailing to see when you might be there, or if. I took a pic of your quilt though, looked fabulous!

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  7. It's nice to see pictures of that show. I have a modern quilt that's been touring to all the AQS shows for the past year, and Charlotte was the last place for it to appear. I should be welcoming my quilt home again soon. So glad you got to meet Michele Duffy. I'm a freelance writer for "American Quilter" magazine, so I have the pleasure of working with her, including being at the AQS show in Paducah. Sounds like you had a good time in Charlotte.

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