Here is my offering -
I made this quilt back in 2008 for the NQA show in Columbus,Ohio. It is based on a pattern by the talented Bonnie Hunter. I have a rather large stash of brights. Not bragging but a "rather large" stash is a polite understatement. I have a LOT of fabric, in fact on numerous occasions friends have brought their spouses into my studio to show them my stash and in EVERY case the spouse has turned to the quilter and said "I'll never complain again about the size of your stash." So I figure that my purpose in life is to keep the peace in other quilter's homes. LOL! Amy asked a question about how many yards of fabric are in your stash -ummmmm.... I don't know how much I have and I don't think I want to know.....ignorance is bliss!
Anyway this quilt was made using fabrics I already owned. I auditioned a lot of fabrics so that I could get the transitions to be as smooth as possible. There are LOTS and LOTS of dotty fabrics. There are over 250 different fabrics in this quilt. When I started sewing I was just going to sew different colors together but after the first panel I knew I needed to give it some structure so one color didn't run into itself from panel to panel. I was very happy with the way the piecing turned out but when it came time to quilt it I was at a loss as what to do. Finally, I decided just to do it as simply as possible. There are swaths 7 squares high that are done in parallel lines to accent the peaks and valleys and in between I did some random free motion stippling all with a variegated thread. The binding is an orange KP Kids fabric that had multi-colored snakes on it and I cut it to take advantage of the diagonal motion of the snakes.
Well a group of us always go to Columbus on the opening day to shop the vendors and see the quilts. Notice I mentioned vendors BEFORE the quilts. My group believes that you must have good vendors to make a good show and you need to get in and shop those vendors first because the good stuff will go fast, annnnndddd... the quilts aren't going anywhere. They'll still be there when you finish shopping and they give you time to mull over all your purchases and think about the items you didn't buy and then you can go back and buy them before you leave. Its all about the shopping!
So it takes about 90 minutes to get to Columbus from Cincinnati and for the ENTIRE ride up to the show I complained that the quilting on this quilt wasn't good. In fact, I had convinced myself that when I got the quilt back I was going to pick out all the quilting and send it to my long arm quilter. During the ride I got a call from my friend who is a quilt judge asking me where we were and when was I arriving. We were still at least 30 minutes away. We got the show and again my phone rings and my friend asks me when I am - "Shopping the vendors" was my reply. Well she insisted that I come and look at my quilt right now. This was out of character for my friend who is very sweet and easy going so I trotted my butt to the front of the hall and there was my friend standing in front of this quilt and the quilt had a big ribbon on it! OMG!!!! I was in shock, I never in a million years thought I'd ever win a ribbon in a quilt show. This quilt won 3rd Place in the Scrap quilt category. My friend had known of my win but couldn't call and let me know since she had helped out with the judging of the show and they are sworn to secrecy. Needless to say this quilt is very very special to me. I love how the colors played out. It is a bright and happy quilt that makes me smile. Hope you like it too -
Happy stitching!
carol fun
