The Quilt Show

My quilt guild's annual quilt show completed a few hours ago. It's a "showing" not a contest. There are no prizes.

I entered 4 quilts in the show. Two of them are older - items I had completed before even moving to Kansas City. I entered these to makes sure we had enough for the show and to encourage other quilters. These quilts, wall hangings actually, are not going to win any awards, they are rather plain. I love them nevertheless, and they were fun to do.

Which is the point of a hobby anyway.

Another one was finished earlier this year. I gave this wall hanging the title "Carolina in my Mind." My friends from North Carolina made the quilt top before I moved and the design included a North Carolina Star block, and simple square-in-a-square blocks depicting symbols of North Carolina: lighthouses, the state flower, the state bird, the state freshwater fish, the state reptile, the state insect, etc.

The state insect of NC is the honey bee, in case you were wondering.

I did the quilting on this one. I quilted it by machine, incorporating feather designs, stippling, outlining, and a few meandering loops.

The fourth entry was a large wall hanging for my mother. She had picked out the fabrics and the quilt design. I applied the fabric selections to the design. It is machine pieced and hand quilted. I started it in...get this...2001. I remember because we bought the fabrics on a weekend we visited Mom and Dad in September 2001. Right after "9-11." We had gone up to spend a long weekend and go to the football game between University of Virginia (where my parents live) and Penn State (my alma mater). Because of 9-11, the game was cancelled. We went to visit, anyway.

So, instead we decided to take a day trip to see the quilt museum of Virginia. After seeing the displays, we went to a Mennonite community shopping area to a fantastic quilt and fabric shop, in Dayton, VA. That is where we bought the fabric. A project was born.

I had not worked on the project for 7 years straight! I took breaks, got bored, got laid off from work, tried a series of jobs, went to nursing school, moved across the country, etc. etc. I completed many other projects in the meantime. I don't know why I was able to finish it now.

Anyway, back to the quilt show. I am humbled by the quilts next to which mine hung. Mine are so amateur! The colors so outdated! There are some really talented people in our guild. I use these people to inspire and motivate me.

It is an enormous weight lifted off my shoulders to get this project done! I am free to start new projects again without guilty conscience!