This past Thursday I had the pleasure to go to my first big quilt show, Pacific International, in Santa Clara, CA. WOW, it was amazing! My sweet husband took me for my birthday (this coming week). He brought 2 books, an audio book, snacks, because he thought he would be bored after an hour or so. He was also amazed at the talent in that show. He let me stay all day, without a word to rush me. I stayed to the end!! I could easily have gone the next day too. My only frustration was that I could only buy a few fat quarters, no extra money these days. If you ever get a chance to go, do it! The one thing that was kind of sad was how few quilts were hand quilted. I understand why, I hand quilt and I know how many fewer quilts there would be if they all were hand quilted, but I hope we don't stop entirely. The ones that were had quilted were exquisite. Of course the machine quilting was too.

I'm so glad you got to go! What a special Qubby you have to have done that for you!
Happy Birthday!

You are so lucky and your DH is a 'keeper'! Mine is like that too so we both got lucky!!

I am a hand quilter, so I hope the art does not die out. Most of the quilts I see at shows are machine quilted.

I also hand quilt. I,ve been doing it for about 5 years. I watched Simply Quilts and heard Alex Anderson say that we should learn to thumb quilt, so Idid and that's the way I quilt.

You have a very dear, sweet hubby!!! A great way to spend an early birthday!!! Happy Birthday!!! :D :D :D

Okay, what does thumb quilt mean? Does it mean that you use your thumb to push the needle? I do that when I have to go in an awkward direction, but I use my thimble on my pointer finger usually. Do I need to get a thimble for my thumb?

Shemjo, Yes, I use my thumb to push the needle away from me toward the front, where most quilters are pushing the needle either to the left or toward them if they are right handed. I use a black leather thimble on my thumb. I never could get used to the medal ones. If you push the end of your needle with your thumb too much without a thimble, it will get sore. You could use several wrapings of masking or painter's tape, or those little stick on pads you get at your LQS to try. Alex Anderson said that the muscles in your thumb are stronger than any of your fingers, and that is why one should try thumb quilting. If you can use both your finger and thumb to quilt, the idea is that you don't have to turn your quilting so much. I hope this answers your questions. IF you have more, I will try to answer them. :) Janis

Thanks for the clarification. I guess I do tha as well. I have a small metal circle with dimples that I can use on my thumb.

That'll work!! I hope you like hand quilting like I do. I think that's the part I like best about quilting.