I'd like to thank the Academy...

There were no speeches at the Harvest Quilter's 27th annual guild show yesterday, but I did get a blue ribbon for Portrait of My Mother as a Young Woman. I got completely choked up about the whole thing, too. I am hoping this is the start of something good in my "quilting career," and I'm really trying not to get a swelled head about it. I'm going to have to do at least one more portrait quilt, to see if I can do as good a rendering on someone else before offering to make any for strangers for money. Bisa Butler, the woman who taught the class on her style of applique quilting came to the show and complimented me on it, too.

But it sure feels good to have a real blue ribbon to hang on the wall next to (or covering) my "participant" ribbon from the Quilt Guild of NJ show last year.

Here is my award-winning quilt :

Other quilts that won prizes or that I simply thought were awesome:

This quilt won Best in Show, and Best LargeQuilt - 25th Anniversary Quilt by Karen Hochman. This took 6 years to complete, and I believe it's all hand made. My photo does not do this quilt justice.

This quilt won a prize in the Art Quilt category, but I don't remember which prize it won (not first, because that's below). Trees by Paula Pearl. all the trees are painted with thread on hand-dyed fabric.

The first prize in the Art Quilts category was Tumbling Blocks by Lori Suchomel. The most interesting thing on this quilt, to me is the "floating" binding. The pieces of the binding hang off the edge of the quilt and are attached in the front and back. And the 3-D applique work on this one is just great. Another "I wish I had thought of that" moment, for sure!

There were over 100 quilts and fabric art items for view at the show, as well as some vendors with interesting stuff, some great "church lady" food (food vending provided by a local church group), some door prizes, and raffle baskets bursting with fabric, books and notions, and the awesome raffle quilt (which I didn't get a picture of for some reason) - I didn't win any raffles, by the way. The raffle money is going to a charity - I'm not sure which one at the moment.

I spent most of the day ensconced in the "Things Mom and Dad Made" - which displayed all sorts of artistic creations from guild members' parents, grandparents and other ancestors. There were quilts, embroidery, stained glass, some sculpture, clothing, and knitted items. I worked on a sweater I started over a year ago, which has been sitting in a bag for the past year, and made some actual progress on it.

I was also surprised by some old friends who just showed up out of the blue, and the other friends who came out to see the quilts and support the guild.

I was also able to finally take some better photos of my quilts, and I'll leave you this week with the "good" picture of Sunrise: Winter Solstice, and Yellow Submarine.

'Till next week - keep on quilting!