Another Festival Come and Gone

Another festival in the books and man, oh, man am I exhausted.  My little legs did more running this weekend, sadly than they have done all year.  This is a view of our guild's quilt show from the floor of the craft show.  Each year the local college allows craft vendors to set up in the floor of the gym and the guild to host a quilt show in the area above.  I don't have an official count of how many quilts where entered, but I'm guessing it was in the 75-80 range.

This is the view of the show as you come through the front doors.  I only got to pop into the show twice this weekend, but both times I'm happy to report there was a flow of people walking around checking out all the beautiful quilts.  All the way in the very back, tables are set up with items for sale donated by guild members.

David bought himself a little red hen pincushion and a "fill a bag" of fabric and we each took chances on a pretty cool quilter's basket of goodies being raffled off.  

The charity raffle quilt, Irish Pinwheels, was on display for the first time.  The guild will sell chances on this quilt at various events until December, at which time the winner will be drawn. 

So how did I do in the show?  I always stress about figuring out what to enter.  The maximum number of items a person can enter is five, so I entered five things. David entered three as well, but I will let him tell you about his experience.  

First was Star Thistle, a block I pattern tested for Jayne at Twiggy and Opal, landed in the house hold items category as a table topper.  I had hoped to enter it in the miniature category, but technically, it did not fit in the definition of miniature, as a scaled down version of a larger quilt.  In the hustle and bustle of talking to people, I completely missed getting a picture of this one hanging with all of it's friends.

Next is My Pet Hamster, pattern by Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts, in the Medium Wall-hanging Category.

These adorable little balls of fluff earned an honorable mention ribbon.  Don't you just want to reach out and pinch their cheeks??

Autumn Blooms (an adaptation of the Watermelon Taffy Block) a quilt I created for the Autumn Abundance blog hop competed in the Large Wall-hanging Category.  It received a 2nd place ribbon.

Next is a quilt we haven't talked about on the blog yet, but I promise we will be soon.  I entered it into the baby quilts category and it also took a 2nd place ribbon.

And last but not least, is Zentangle, my free motion whole cloth entered into the Amateur/Non Longarm Category.  I was very happy to discover it too had placed 2nd in it's category.

So three 2nd place finishes and an honorable mention, not to shabby if I say so myself.  I've said it before and I'll say it again...I feel weird entering my work into judged shows.  There is a vulnerability in sharing something so personal and opening it up to criticism.  Kinda like wearing a bathing suit in public.  But the more you share your work the easier it gets, I guess.  And it is always great to read the judges comments to try to learn things that you can improve on. 

So after three days, the show had to come down and life return back to normal.

Thankfully, our guild is made up of many hard working people that make the show run very smoothly.  From getting quilts registered, ready for judging, watching over the show and take down/clean up, they make it look easy.  Without the volunteers, the show wouldn't be possible.

I think we were able to get everything down and ready to be returned to their owners within about an hour.  I think that's pretty impressive.

After the show was over, in talking with David, I made a few observations about the quilts we entered.  Of the eight total quilts (between the two of us) four of them where original designs by both David and I.  The other four quilts, the patterns were designed by talented quilters, we get to call friends and communicate with on a semi regular basis (Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts, Sandra at mmm!quilts, Jayne at Twiggy and Opal and Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs) how cool is that???  I think that is pretty darn cool.  Also all of the quilts where pieced and quilted with Aurifil thread, but if you have been to my blog before, that's probably not a big surprise.

I think I will pose a challenge to my fellow guild members, that everyone enter at least one item in the show next year.  A quilt show can't be a show if it doesn't have quilts.  As quilters and artists we should be proud of the work we do and build each other up.  There is much beauty, even in imperfection.  My quilts are far from perfect, but that doesn't mean I love them less or that they do not bring me happiness.  Love those stitches, even the wonky ones and the piecing lines, even if they are only straight-ish.  Be proud of the work you do, because you did it.

That's my weekend wrap up.  Hopefully, I will be able to pop back in on Wednesday and talk about the QAL's.  It seems like I just started some of them and they are already wrapping up.

Today I'm linking up with Main Crush Monday.