This afternoon I'm sharing part 2 of the quilt pictures that I took at MQX East a few weeks ago.  

Today's showcase starts with Andrea Brokenshire's "A Passion for Purple".  Andrea, who hails from Round Rock, TX, was the Featured Artist at MQX last year so I got to see a bunch of her fabulous quilts and she truly is a fabric and thread visionary.  Her masterpieces look like real life flower.  This entry won her the Best Machine Quilting Sit Down ribbon as well as the Second Place Solo Artist ribbon.

The details that Andrea puts into her quilts is mind boggling.

This is the winner of First Place Solo Artist "Journal of My Journey" by Terri Cherne of Henniker, NH. 

This quilt is my personal favorite this year.  I love the stars, I love the colors, I love the layout.  It is "Under the Big Top" and is pieced Dee Levgold, quilted by Page Johnson of Mendota Heights, MN.

The center of the stars is actually a striped fabric that is pieced to resemble a Square in a Square block.

The quilting details incorporated suit the piecing well.

First Place Computerized Quilting was won by Peggy Marquardt of Rhinelander, WI for her "Almost Black & White".

I love how the quilting on the quarter circles resembles fans.

This beauty is Janet Sturdevant-Stuart of Fort Worth, TX's "A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That" and it took the Third Place Solo Artist ribbon.

Janet used hand dyed fabrics for this quilt.  And the intense detailed quilting doesn't disappoint.

Her work is exquisite.

This fella "Le Coq" by of Laura Di Cera of Italy is wonderfully created with fabulous details. It won a Faculty Award ribbon

"Trying to Find My Way Home" is by Irene O'Brien of Anchorage, AK and it won for Second Place Computerized Quilting.

The feather work in the contrasting thread works well to "frame" the stars.

Debbie Treusch of West Des Moines, IA created this "Way Too Many Circles" and it won a Faculty Award ribbon.

This beautiful "Mathilda" is by Jocelyn Atkinson of New Zealand and it also won a Faculty Award ribbon.

The friend I was walking the show floor with at the time didn't care for it, I guess because of the very subtle colors used, but I do appreciate all the wonderful detail quilting that it had.

Jocelyn used vintage Battenburg lace effectively.

I would have never thought of using lace as a part of a border but on this quilt it works.

This is "Vermont Cabins" by Rose Orr of Colchester, VT. 

I was amazed to read that Rose quilted this on her domestic machine.

So that's all for today's show.  Stay tuned....there are 2 more "episodes" to come.

As promised, though a few days later than I had originally planned, I'm sharing my pictures I took of the quilts seen at MQX East this year.  The work this year was just spectacular.  I hope to one day be lucky enough to have a quilt hanging at this show.

As I've learned and gained experience as a quilter, more and more I'm gaining insights into how these gorgeous quilts are created.  I may never be as good as some of these quilters, but I certainly have something to aim towards.  While I didn't take pictures of every single quilt at this show, I did take plenty so I've had to break it down into 4 posts.  This is part 1.  Enjoy!

Why not start off with a truly stunning masterpiece.  This is "Celestial Sedona", pieced and quilted by Norma Ippolito of Chester, VT.  As you can see, it won not 1 but 2 ribbons - First Place Emerging Entrants and Embroidery At It's Best.

For many of the quilts, I was able to capture some of the fabulous details to share with you.

 She said that it was a 2012 Quilt Show BOM and it took her 3 years to complete.

Wow.  Just wow!

This "Flea Market Quilt" was pieced by Darlene Roger of Canada and it was quilted by Diane Carson.  It won a ribbon for Best Scrap Quilt. I love the outer border design.

"Geometry" was a winner of 2nd Place for Emerging Entrants.  It was pieced and quilted by Caroline Thompson of Haverhill, MA.

I like the use of the multitudes of thread colors. It is very effective on this quilt.

This quilt by Debbie Siccardi of Chester, NY is titled "Dreaming of Alaskan Glaciers. 

This striking design was created by Suzanne Munroe of Barrington, RI and is named "Soul Shine"

I love Red quilts with a small bit of White so this "Christmas Snowflakes" by Kelly Neeley of Portsmouth, RI caught my eye.  I'm finally making plans to make my own Red and White quilt.

Many people have made the City Sampler blocks from Tula Pink's 100 Modern Quilt Blocks and it was great to finally see one in person.  I've been pondering starting one of my own and seeing this gave me the little push that I needed. This one is titled "A Rainbow of Colors" and was made by Sherre MacClellan of Freehold, NJ.

Before I even looked at the card to see who made this quilt, I gasped in awe of the fabulous work.  What a thrill it was to read that it was made by my friend Sue Bishop of Queensbury, NY.  Sue was my roommate last year at MQX so I felt like I already "knew" her granddaughter McKenna who is depicted in this quilt.

The quilting is exquisite and truly looks like real hair until you get up close to it.

"The Paisley Peacock" by Bethanne Nemish won the 1st place ribbon for Wholecloth Large.

The details in this quilt are amazing and the pictures don't do it justice.

Just look at this fabulous border. 

This quilt is another double ribbon winner.  It is Margaret Solomon-Gunn's "Bouquet Royale" and it won First Place Custom Heirloom Show and Best Machine Quilting Stand Up (a machine on a frame for those unaware).

Margaret always does such intense intricate quilting and her hard work does turn out beautifully.

The fact that the ribbons are free flowing softens the edges of the center design well.

And last for today but certainly not least, this is one of my favorites from the show and it won Cindy Erickson's Judge's Award. This "9-Patch Windmill" with it's totally irregular shape is eye catching and the use of a rainbow color scheme is of course one that appeals to me a great deal. 

Pieced and quilted by Birgit Schueller of Germany, it truly is breathtaking.

I hope you've enjoyed this view into the absolutely stunning quilts at this year's MQX East.  There is much more to share over the coming week.

Someone is actually in the process of making my Castles on the Horizon quilt that was featured on the Moda Bake Shop in November.  My online friend Lesley of The Cuddle Quilter is stitching up this one.  Lookie at the pic she just shared with me.

What a whirlwind the past few weeks has been!

 But I'm happy to report that all of the tax returns are done and filed.

And Girl Scout cookie season is over.  All I have left to do for that is to print out the reports and turn in my paperwork. I tried to do that last night but I ran out of paper for the printer.  I'll be picking some up in the next few hours and getting that crossed of my To Do list.

MQX East was a blast again!  I loved all but one of my classes and I'm already excited about next year.  I have a ton of quilt pictures to share with you but I need to find time to sort through them and I'll also share some thoughts on the classes that I took.

In the meantime, I'll show you my loot.  I felt I was pretty restrained overall but I did go with a list of things I wanted to buy.

Wednesday night when the show opened for the preview, I got these pantos from Anne Bright Designs. More and more when locals find out that I have a longarm, they ask if I'm taking customer quilts and I've continued to put that off.  Well I think the time to change that is coming soon and so I need some good pantos to have to offer, designs that I'm not comfortable doing freehand yet.

I had no fabric on my shopping list, instead planned on getting whatever struck my fancy and this ended up being the only thing that caught my eye.  I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do with it but it is surely destined to become a wall hanging.

One of the things I want to start trying is ruler work and so rulers were on my list to check out.  I ended up getting this straight ruler from Judy Madsen of Green Fairy Quilts. I found that I really like the overall size of this ruler and for me the handle helps keep my hands from cramping.

Of course I had to stop off at the Fil-Tec booth and get some more Glide thread.  Oh how I wanted it all but I only brought home these colors.  As I get more into quilting for customers, I'm guessing that I'll end up buying many more of the colors that they have available.

These Tahana Caramels are sooooo good.  I'm addicted and for that I directly blame Mary Schilke.  If you haven't tried these to-die-for goodies, you should order some right NOW!

During my class break on Thursday I did a bit more buying, this time at the Willowleaf Studio booth.  I picked up this group of pantos to add to my collection.  Now I feel I have a decent selection to offer to future clients.

Thursday afternoon's class with Karen McTavish was just fantastic and I look forward to taking more classes with her in the future.  Of course I had to get the new edition of her book (my friend Liz Haskell has a quilt in it too).

Karen even autographed it for me. The best part of that evening is that she had dinner with our group.  She truly is hilarious and real pleasure to know.  Sometimes I think that us newer quilters are in awe of the famous folk and Yes I am one of those people but it is wonderful when you get to meet them in person and see that they are real just like you and I. 

On my shopping list were also some notions but I didn't actually buy these at the show.  One philosophy that has always stuck with me from my years in retail is that "I have the right to pay a reasonable price and you have the right to make a reasonable profit". Reasonable being the key word here. I do prefer to support the LQSs and small business owners but when you are charging between 50-100% more than I can get it online, I don't call that reasonable.

I had some Amazon gift cards that I received at Christmas so I just ordered these once I was home.  I also got the Clearly Perfect Angles by New Leaf Stitches that you see below.

The similar but smaller product that I was originally looking for is no longer available but when I found this one, which is bigger and will attach to the bed of my machine better, into my cart it went. It will be great not having to draw the lines on my squares when making HSTs any more.  

MQX 2016 is already on my calendar and I'm already forming ideas on who I'd like to take classes from, if they will be teaching next year that is.  If you haven't been to MQX yet, you really should go.  It is totally worth the trip.

Guess where I will be by dinnertime today?

MQX here I come!

I am so looking forward to this bit of Me time and the opportunity to learn lots of new things. Plus I have some serious shopping planned.  I've been a really good girl and have not bought anything other than sewing machine needles in many months so now's the time to indulge.  Some of it is necessary but some of it will be just because I want to. :)

My class schedule time wise ended up being almost identical to last year and I'm looking forward to each and every one of them.  Here is my lineup:

E100 Secondary Quilting Designs - Judy Madsen

!142 Feather Variations for the Timid - Angela Huffman

E160 Custom Quilting - Judy Madsen

E210 Easy Border Designs the Write Way - Angela Huffman

E260 McTavishing - Karen McTavish

E316 The Joys of Free Motion Quilting - Judy Madsen

E338 Easy Textures and Background Fills - Paige Johnson

E352 Modern Quilting Meets Traditional - Judy Madsen

E414 Fabulously Detailed Feathers and Motifs - Judy Madsen

Yes I am going to be a Judy Madsen stalker dedicated student this year.  I so love her work and who knows if she'll be back to MQX or not in the future.  I didn't want to miss my chance to learn all that I can from her. I'm also looking forward to the classed with Angela Huffman.  I enjoy the quilting videos she posts on her blog and expect that I will come away with a bunch of new skills.

If you are at MQX and see me, please say Hi!  I really love meeting quilters face to face and making new friends.  If you are in any of the same classes with me, don't be shy.  

As far as seeing all the gorgeous quilts, I'm sure I will be speechless as I was last year.  How can one not with all the fabulous work that will be on display?  I promise to share pictures as much as possible.  You can follow me on Facebook and I'm on Instagram too @crayonboxquiltstudio.  I haven't been posting much lately due to Girl Scout cookie season but that is almost over and I'll be back to sewing up a storm by Sunday.  I have a bunch of projects to get finished in the coming couple of months.

I expect that I'll come home filled to the brim with inspiration and wanting to try out all that I've learned but work will get in the way a little.  But that is life.  One day I won't be working any more and will be able to quilt as I wish but that day is a long way off.  Until then, I'll take what I can get.