mpspeedy

I just returned from the annual Quilt Odyssey Show held in Hershey, PA. It is a little over an hour and a half drive for me. My husband was kind enough to share the driving. They had one large room of quilts that were entered in the show from all over the U.S. The lighting was rather poor but I know how picky professionals in particular are, about exposing their quilts to a lot of light. I ran into several of my guild members from each of my two guilds. I also recognized the names of some of the quilt makers as women that I had been co-members of mine when I belonged to the MasonDixon Quilt Professionals Network. There were some very lovely quilts. The workmanship was outstanding. I was not surprised to see how many were longarmed or at least machine quilted. The handquilted ones were mostly the antiques.
I really go to these things for the Vendors Market. I needed some new leather thimbles and was on the lookout for some large quilting stencils to use in finishing a raffle quilt that I am handquilting for our local Linus Project Chapter raffle. I was able to find my thimbles and purchased three. The stencils were not there. I was amazed by how many different long arm machines are now avaliable from how many different companies. I even tried using one. They are still not for me even if I was willing to spend that much money. One of the vendors tried very hard to talk me into purchasing her long arm machine. Between my carpal tunnel, my bad back and my poor feet I just was not interested. The machine would take up a lot of room and I couldn't watch TV while running it. I am afraid that I would soon feel like a factory worker in a sweat shop if I started doing quilting for others. I will stick with my handquilting.

Just wondered if anyone else got to the show and what they thought.