Last week was a lot of fun for me. I attended the Home Machine Quilting Show in Salt Lake City. It is a national show that comes in May every year and I have attended the last three years. I love to volunteer and help the judges judge all the quilts. It is fun to hear their comments and see all the awe inspiring quilts. I mostly enter mine because if everyone waited to quilt prize winning quilts before they entered, there would be very little to look at, so I enter but never hold my breath.
This year I entered a quilt challenge. A quilt challenge works several different ways, but this one was sponsored by Sew Batik Fabric. The sponsor furnished the fabrics and the pattern and everyone had to piece the same exact quilt. It was about 39" x 39". Then each quilter got to quilt the piece any way she wanted. I thought the fabric was beautiful and so quilted it quite simply to enhance the fabric and not use it as an opportunity to showcase my quilting. My belief as a quilter is that my job is to make the quilt look the very best that I can, and so that is what I set out to do.
Then Thursday when the show opened, I headed for the exhibit to see what everyone else's quilt looked like. There were 18 of the exact same quilt, but what a difference there was. Wow! Did they ever go all out. There were elaborate borders and crystals and all sorts of things. I looked at them and figured that my chances were just blown out of the water. Oh Well.
Thursday evening was the awards ceremony and I was totally floored when I won first place. I couldn't believe it! I got to go up on the stage and claim my ribbon and the whole thing! Amazing! I guess the sponsor appreciated being able to enjoy the beauty of the fabric. I'm glad that the sponsor was a judge and not a quilt judge as the quilt definitely had some weak areas in that regard, but it was certainly exciting to be able to bring home a ribbon.
Here is a detail of what I quilted. You can see that it was quite simple. It was the first time I ever quilted feathers. Some of them turned out pretty nice and others looked like they could use a little help. I guess we are out own worse critic. Lee said it was an amazing quilt. Needless to say, he is my best fan. It must be one of the reasons that I love him.
2 comments:
Ok, I saw the quilt too. I think the quilting was beautiful. I am sure that you were picked because you chose to showcase the fabric and not your quilting. It was so so so nice!!!!! I am proud of you!
family looked at it this morning and agreed that its awesome!! Holly said "I love gramas quilting, its awesome!"
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