May 11 2010 - classes with Judy Allen/Ronda Beyer and DeLoa Jones

8 am - noon - My first class at MQS was with Judy Allen and Ronda Beyer http://rondabeyer.wordpress.com/.  The first half of the class was with Judy, lecture style, the second half was with Ronda Beyer using the Judalator rules for curve cross hatching.  We were using Gammill longarm machines.  I don't for certain, but I have a feeling the one I was using was new because it was like driving a Mac truck, very hard to maneuver.  Then again, I own a Nolting so it was a very different machine.  But, I did learn a lot and had a blast!!  Both ladies were great to take a class from.  Now to finish my class sampler!!

Me and Ronda

1 pm - 5 pm - My second class was with DeLoa Jones.  http://www.deloasquiltshop.com/  For my birthday Glen got me a set (6) of her longerm rulers.  Three of them are made for curved crosshatching but I also found them VERY useful for quilting continuous curves!!  What I like about them is that the curves are the same on either side of the rulers so they can be flipped.  I emailed DeLoa in March and told her how much I loved these rulers and wished she would make them in smaller sizes.  We emailed a couple of times, she telling me that she would see what she could do.  Imagine my excitement when I walked into her classroom and on her merchandise table were 2 smaller rulers!!  Of course I had to buy them immediately!  In fact, she sold out the next afternoon when the opened up the vender mall, she had to have more shipped in for Friday.  Now to find the time to work with them!!  Her class was also hands on.  This time we used an A-1 machine.  It ran nice and smooth, I was having more fun with this machine.  But, I didn't like that the rollers sat on top of the rails because I moved the machine once and it came off the track and sat sideways on the table.  LOL  DeLoa would draw out how to do a feather technique and then we would go to the machines and stitch them out.  Then we would sit down and she would draw out another feather technique...  It was great!!  I love doing feathers and am always looking for new ways to use them.

Me and DeLoa

My days started at 5:45 am.  (I'm not the best morning person normally)  My first morning was getting my registration pack and then sitting and having a few small pastries and meeting a few ladies.  With the hour lunch break, I met up with Kim and Betty and we had sandwiches at the convention center.  They were ok, nothing to write home about.  When I left DeLoa's class, I met Karen McTavish in the walkway between the convention center and the hotel.  We had become facebook friends a couple of months earlier.  She recognized me right away and gave me a big hug.  She is so sweet!!  She was setting up for classes so I told her I would see her the next morning.  For dinner we found a Panera Bread close by, tried to find the mall but didn't (found out a few days later we were going the wrong direction) and then settled in for the night.

My first day at MQS was amazing!! My classes rocked!!  Next up, 7 hours with Karen McTavish....