Exciting News!

It was a very exciting day here at The Quilt Connection yesterday. I received a phone call in the morning from the organisors of the Quilts Across Queensland exhibition at the Ekka to tell me that my quilt ‘Solutions 1’ had won 1st place in the Professional Small Quilts category. A blue ribbon….. I’m stoked!

‘Solutions 1’ is one of a pair of teaching samples created in preparation for the New Zealand Machine Quilters’ Conference in Cambridge which I attended earlier in the year. Both ‘Solutions 1’ and ‘Solutions 2’ are examples of thinking ‘outside the square’ in terms of planning the quilting. I applied very different machine quilting to a very basic piecing design which resulted in two unique and very individual quilts. Unfortunately, I was unable to complete ‘Solutions 2’ before the cut-off for entries so only ‘Solutions 1’ will be on display, but WOW, it will be on display with a big blue ribbon on it!

Second phone call for the day was from one of my favourite customer/friends, Barb McIntyre..... the red and purple one, and her husband David, who by the way, poses as my part-time business manager occasionally giving advise such as, “definitely with the stippling, not without” and “white, not red thread will give a better result on that red and white quilt”.

They rang with the news that Barb’s quilt, “The Torch of Lady Liberty” had won the red ribbon in the Collaborative - Commercially Quilted - Any technique Class 7 also in the Quilts Across Queensland competition. How ironic is that, a new red ribbon to dress up Barb's red hat. (VBG)
Congratulations Barb......Woo Hoo!

As if that wasn’t exciting enough, later in the afternoon, another much loved customer/friend, Lorna Haigh, rang to say her quilt ‘Morning Light’ had won the Blue ribbon in the Class 7. Congratulations Lorna.
I’m very excited for you both.
In fact, I am just over the moon, not only is it just the best feeling ever, to know that as partners in quilt-making we are obviously getting it right but also so good to be rewarded for our efforts.

All this excitement will make it difficult to focus today, but preparations need to continue for activities planned at the end of the week. Machine Quilters have flown down from the Atherton Tablelands and others, more local, who have recently purchased a machine for their own use or to enter the business of machine quilting, are attending a longarm workshop I am running here on Friday. Then, on Saturday, people from all over Queensland will come here to attend the next Queensland Machine Quilters’ Gathering. So off to work I go…… Whistling with joy all the while.

Congratulations to all other winners in the Quilts Across Queensland exhibit at this year’s Ekka.

I'll post some photos in a couple of days.