Well I'm excited to attend this show again. Last year was the best time and tiring all at the same time. So much was learned and I have learned alot through experience since my last visit to the show. I didn't take too many classes this year but some lecture and demo classes that I think will be helpful.
I plan to relax just a little bit more this year. I want to see all the latest inventions and quilting tools that are coming out and I plan to spend more time looking at the award winning quilts. I flew last year but this year I'm in my large van so if I decide to shop over the top I should have some room to just take it home with me.
The Longarm Quilting profession is changing all the time and it is getting harder to keep up with it all. I am the toy junkie you might say and early on thought I needed every tool available to execute my job as a longarm quilter. I have learned to be patient and evaluate tools that are considered useful and those that will be sitting on my shelf after the newness wears off. I'm probably like alot of beginners who are eager to learn and fit in and well be a really good quilter. Since the first of the year I have taken a few steps back in my Quilting simply to pause and get a handle on the direction that I want it to go. My husband is always encouraging but he says and I quote, "It doesn't matter what you decide as long as you move in the direction that you want to go and not the direction that others thing you should go". Once in a while I can hear him telling me that like the little devil is just sitting there on my shoulder or something.
I took a digitizing Class with Suzanne Moreno and a Whole New world was opened up. Digitizing is hard work but not nearly as difficult as I thought it was. I have digitizing every since my class in between quilts and managing my family. I look at drawings so different than I did before I took the class. My skills are becoming really good and the creativity now that I can use my own designs in my quilts is even more rewarding. Although my class time is up Suzanne seems to be the committed teacher offering help whenever I have needed it. For those of you interested in learning to Digitize using Autosketch you should contact her. She now has the means to do it via Internet and wow you don't even have to leave your home. Also the privilege of One on One and even teaming up with a Buddy has it's advantages. I think that is really cool.
Hopefully I will have some of my designs online to sell soon. I have put that off as I have not been completely sure that I would sell my designs. So many wonderful Designs for our Computerized Systems are now available and well I'm not sure another one is needed. I'm just the everyday quilter who doesn't have the Blue Ribbons YET!
I have designed a wonderful wholecloth (in fact 2) and I will be starting on it when I return from Kansas. My first Show entry as I had wanted will be in my HOMETOWN quilt show. After that I plan to enter alot in the next two years. I have stopped taking customer quilts for the most part. I quilt for my local quilt shop and I enjoy doing a charity for a local cause or needy child. It keeps me humbled and gives me great joy. I really love quilting and I love the company of other quilters. There is not a local Longarm group as of yet in my community that I am aware of anyway, but one just over an hour's drive for me. I have found it difficult to make time to participate even at only once a month. I hope to find balance so I can spend more time with other longarm quilters.
I have a small fortune in training classes since the purchase of my machine and I have found that in most cases my money was well spent. I am blessed that my husband doesn't mind that part of the business and he knows that I am wanting to become a seasoned quilter. I practice everyday in some form or another. I mean everyday I go to my machine and freehand something. Of course I'm not home at the moment so I am drawing and designing when I'm away, but practicing has proven to be the key to mastering techniques that a year ago I thought I could never do. I not only can do them but I have added my twist to the technique and found better ways of achieving things or should I say ways that work better for me. I know my machine very well and I test it all the time.
Guess I should say goodbye for now. Sorry such a long post. I just rambled on and on. The photo at the top is me showing my granddaughters and they loved it. They quilted for along time very seriously I might add. I have a natural on my hands. lolol
God Bless,
Grammie Tammie
I plan to relax just a little bit more this year. I want to see all the latest inventions and quilting tools that are coming out and I plan to spend more time looking at the award winning quilts. I flew last year but this year I'm in my large van so if I decide to shop over the top I should have some room to just take it home with me.
The Longarm Quilting profession is changing all the time and it is getting harder to keep up with it all. I am the toy junkie you might say and early on thought I needed every tool available to execute my job as a longarm quilter. I have learned to be patient and evaluate tools that are considered useful and those that will be sitting on my shelf after the newness wears off. I'm probably like alot of beginners who are eager to learn and fit in and well be a really good quilter. Since the first of the year I have taken a few steps back in my Quilting simply to pause and get a handle on the direction that I want it to go. My husband is always encouraging but he says and I quote, "It doesn't matter what you decide as long as you move in the direction that you want to go and not the direction that others thing you should go". Once in a while I can hear him telling me that like the little devil is just sitting there on my shoulder or something.
I took a digitizing Class with Suzanne Moreno and a Whole New world was opened up. Digitizing is hard work but not nearly as difficult as I thought it was. I have digitizing every since my class in between quilts and managing my family. I look at drawings so different than I did before I took the class. My skills are becoming really good and the creativity now that I can use my own designs in my quilts is even more rewarding. Although my class time is up Suzanne seems to be the committed teacher offering help whenever I have needed it. For those of you interested in learning to Digitize using Autosketch you should contact her. She now has the means to do it via Internet and wow you don't even have to leave your home. Also the privilege of One on One and even teaming up with a Buddy has it's advantages. I think that is really cool.
Hopefully I will have some of my designs online to sell soon. I have put that off as I have not been completely sure that I would sell my designs. So many wonderful Designs for our Computerized Systems are now available and well I'm not sure another one is needed. I'm just the everyday quilter who doesn't have the Blue Ribbons YET!
I have designed a wonderful wholecloth (in fact 2) and I will be starting on it when I return from Kansas. My first Show entry as I had wanted will be in my HOMETOWN quilt show. After that I plan to enter alot in the next two years. I have stopped taking customer quilts for the most part. I quilt for my local quilt shop and I enjoy doing a charity for a local cause or needy child. It keeps me humbled and gives me great joy. I really love quilting and I love the company of other quilters. There is not a local Longarm group as of yet in my community that I am aware of anyway, but one just over an hour's drive for me. I have found it difficult to make time to participate even at only once a month. I hope to find balance so I can spend more time with other longarm quilters.
I have a small fortune in training classes since the purchase of my machine and I have found that in most cases my money was well spent. I am blessed that my husband doesn't mind that part of the business and he knows that I am wanting to become a seasoned quilter. I practice everyday in some form or another. I mean everyday I go to my machine and freehand something. Of course I'm not home at the moment so I am drawing and designing when I'm away, but practicing has proven to be the key to mastering techniques that a year ago I thought I could never do. I not only can do them but I have added my twist to the technique and found better ways of achieving things or should I say ways that work better for me. I know my machine very well and I test it all the time.
Guess I should say goodbye for now. Sorry such a long post. I just rambled on and on. The photo at the top is me showing my granddaughters and they loved it. They quilted for along time very seriously I might add. I have a natural on my hands. lolol
God Bless,
Grammie Tammie
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