I had such a fun day yesterday! A few weeks ago we had to take our daughter to tour a university and I had to sacrifice my scheduled outing to a large craft convention. I was very disappointed to miss the festival but family first, of course. When we got home I received an email from the organizers with a list of the vendors...and realized I had my dates wrong on the calendar and could attend after all!!
I thoroughly enjoyed my morning, visiting several of my favourite on-line sources for supplies and meeting my contacts in person - putting a face to the name and voice is so nice! I picked up my pre-ordered Aurifil thread so I can quilt my Spools quilt and impulsively treated myself to a beautiful neutral set. I adore Aurifil and one can never have enough selection!
Since I wasn't rushed I was able to spend time trying the longarm machines and sit-down mid-arms at all the various booths. I tried the Tiara II from Babylock (very, very nice), a 16" arm on a sit-down table; the Sweet 16 (a very similar, if not identical set-up) from Handi Quilter, as well as the Avante - an 18" stand up machine & frame. This would have been my first choice had I had $10k in my pocket. However, and this is why actually TRYING machines is so important, another on-line contact of mine just became a Gammill dealer for Canada. My heart has always wanted a Gammill but because there would be no easy service point and purchase in U.S. dollars was so much more, I gave up on my dream of a Vision 18". I tried the machine in his booth and 'she' and I bonded instantly! What a beautiful machine! It was like butter quilting on it and it is a perfect fit for me. I will definitely have this one day and can imagine quilting such beautiful quilts. It is so fool-proof with channel locks, stitch regulation, and the smoothest ride ever, that I would have no qualms being a quilter-for-hire with this set-up.
I also scored some awesome quilting books which I will share later, a ruler I've been after, and then I made the most amazing find ever. I've buried the lead in this post! A couple years ago, I took Libby Lehman's circle class and became a fan of hers. Of course, I wanted her book too but it was out of print and rare copies were very expensive. Well, I was visiting a booth at the show and they had several boxes of old magazines, used pattern books, etc. and I started mindlessly flipping through the contents. Nothing much of interest to me when lo and behold, there was a single copy of Threadplay with Libby Lehman!!!!! I grabbed it, so excited to finally find the book I'd wanted for so long. Discovering this copy is even more meaningful to me now that Libby is recovering from her massive stroke last Spring. As I went to pay for my book, I opened it up to discover the icing on the cake: Libby herself, SIGNED the first page. I just feel the many paths leading up to me attending the festival were meant to be and the luck I had in being the person to end up with this edition of Threadplay is a sign I was supposed to be there! I had the most wonderful day that ended up like Christmas!
Libby is still struggling and fighting her condition. She unfortunately had to be moved to a nursing facility after spending some time at home. You can visit her page at the Caring Bridge website to follow her progress. My thoughts are often with Libby and her family and I'm so sad that there will be no new gorgeous works of art from her at this time. I will review more of Threadplay in another post. The pages are filled with the most stunning art quilts full of colour and movement. Libby's words are funny and real - I can hear her voice as I read the instructions. I am SO thrilled to own this treasured book that will forever be a prized item in my workshop.