Exciting news!

MQS was in Wichita this past weekend and I went up to see the show.  For those of you haven't been before, it's a show highlighting machine quilting, most (although by no means all) of the quilters who enter are professional longarmers.  The quilts are just outstanding, machine quilting (and piecing/appliqueing etc.) like you would not believe.  I'm always in total awe, and this year was no exception.

Anyway, they do have a small division called Just For Me for non-professionals who enter, and this year Seymour won best of show in that division!  The prize was a new Bernina 450 kindly donated by Midwest Sewing Center in Wichita.  I've never owned a Bernina before and I'm super excited.  Since it doesn't have a very large space under the arm, it won't replace my beloved Janome 7700, but I'm thinking about getting the embroidery unit for it and trying my hand at machine embroidery.

It was so cool to see Seymour hanging there on the row of "big winners".  He looks so small as all the other winning quilts were huge and gorgeous.  There were six big winning quilts, I couldn't get a picture with all of them at once.

I guess next year I have to move into the bottom of the professional division!  In other exciting news, Seymour is going to be part of one of the Special Exhibits at IQF Houston this fall, so keep a lookout for him if you're there.