Winning, Sewing and Planning

Though I have another of Erin's great applique quilts to show, I'll do that tomorrow or on the weekend.  They are both ready to send back, and it's time for me to dig into the boxes of another prolific applique client of mine.  I think she sent four!  First, though, I will leave you with my week's bit of awesome news.  I sent two quilts to the AQS Lancaster show, which is on right now.  One of them is bringing home a wonderful 1st place ribbon!  It was such a complete shock to get the call.  I still think of this quilt as the Problem Child because of the bleeding issues I had 9 months ago as I was trying to finish it up.Vicki Welch is at the show and was nice enough to send me this truly awesome picture.  She, incidently, it the reason that the quilt has no visible dye on it now.  She was a tremendous help suggesting what to do when it initially bled.  Since the 1st place prize is that good (if you get my drift), I have decided to take half of it to fund my trip to Paducah next month!  I'm so excited...two quilt shows in one month.  First MQX, then 2 weeks later Paducah.

 The last 2 days I have been doing a bit of mind-clearing, sanity building piecing.  I'm gearing up for the next wind of intense quilts I will do, but sometimes if I allow myself some time to make progress on my own projects, the quilting is more enjoyable.  I nearly have this ready to put the "big pieces" together.  Unfortunately, I made a big mistake trimming the corners of the green.  Now I get to wait a few days for another piece to arrive.  The mosaic sections are all done, and if I do say so, took FOREVER.  It is about 750 - 1/2" squares!  I'll show another picture in a couple days - it looks much different with the gold finished out!