Red Ribbon!

My Sticks and Stones quilt (photo forthcoming — I don’t have a good picture of it finished) won a 2nd place ribbon in the “Amateur Pieced Medium Size” division! Woowoo!

The quilt show was VERY good — lots of striking and funky quilts, lots of traditional quilts, and I think the judge did a very good job selecting quilts of both styles for the winners. I went on her walking tour this afternoon where she talked about what she liked about particular quilts, what worked, what didn’t, what could have made a quilt better, etc. It was very interesting. What was funny is that the traditionalists that were on the tour got kind of pissy as we were walking out (they didn’t know I was close or they would have been more careful — the Sticks quilt isn’t exactly traditional), saying snarky things like “It’s verrrrrrrrry interesting which quilts won all the big awards. Verrrrrrrrry interesting.” And then one saw me and started backpedaling: “Well, we like the reproduction fabrics, that’s our thing…” blah blah blah. It amused me. Two years ago, the judge chose very FEW funky or bright quilts and very heavily favored the traditional ones. So I’m glad to see tht the traditionalists are feeling a little put upon this year. Evens things out. But there were lots of traditional quilts that had ribbons on them, so I don’t think their complaints were well-founded.

My mom entered three quilts into the show, and all three of hers had ribbons on them. She got 2 second place ribbons (“Professional Pieced Medium Size” and “Innovative Techniques” — she has to enter the professional division because she has won a “Best of Show” ribbon before), and she won “Martha’s Choice” (Martha being the woman hosting the show, and the woman who might hire me to do her scrapbooks)…

The quilt that won Martha’s Choice is wonderful — Mom hand-drew (with a lightbox) two portaits of her parents, and then had snippits of their love letters photocopied onto fabrics. The letters were pieced all around the photos, and the whole quilt was in the shape and colors of the military service flag (red border, white interior, single blue star). My grandfather served in the army for 39 years, and for 22 of them he and my grandmother were apart (Mom didn’t meet Grandpa until she was Helen’s age because he left for WWII while Grandma was pregnant and didn’t come back until the War was over). So they communicated by letter and saved all of them. I have not read the letters on the quilt — they are so tender and touching that I just can’t get through them. Martha told me that she just stood there with tears running down her cheeks as she looked at it.

Anyway. I’m pleased!

The judge had very nice things to say about Rhapsody, which was miiiiiiiiiiiild and ULTRA-conservative compared to the others in its division. Turns out they combined the amateur and professional divisions for “Innovative Techniques,” which means my mom’s quilt beat mine! HMPH! I’m totally fine with that — most of the women who entered quilts in this division are the teachers who I learned from in order to DO Rhapsody in the first place, so I’m just happy my quilt’s hanging up with theirs, you know?

I will go back this weekend so I can see some of the quilts again (because on the walking tour we moved around pretty fast, looking at all 200+ quilts in 90 minutes, and discussing a large number of them), and I’ll take pictures of my mom’s quilts and the Sticks quilt.