How Lucky am I?

I know I say this often, but seriously, how many great things can keep coming my way??

A few days ago, I got an email from a great longarm quilter. She's quilted many a ribbon-winning show quilt (seriously...have a look here), and teaches super design classes on how to design the quilting for your quilts (rather than the "stand and stare" technique). She also teaches Quilt Whispering at MQ Resource, which is an absolute must for any machine quilter. I took the class in the early winter last year, and with her technique and guidance, quilted this quilt. She gently convinced me that this quilt ought to be entered in the Machine Quilter's Exposition in April of this year, which reluctantly I did. It turned out winning the Rookie of the Year Award. Total shock. So, she knows what she's talking about. Anyhow, she emailed this weekend to see if I might be interested in quilting a quilt she'd originally been slated to do, but couldn't because of an injured elbow. Holy cow! Turns out that this is not just any quilt. It is fairly high visibility. It is a raffle quilt for the Folsom, CA quilt guild show, to be held in February 2011. I looked a little bit, and this is a 3 day show, and similar sized guilds in that area have netted several thousand dollars for their raffle quilts. It sounds like it is nearly as large as the Maine Quilt show. I am most honored to have this privilege and responsibility passed onto me. More than that, I am shocked and delighted that she thought I was worthy of it. Wow, in a word. Wow.

And on a lesser note, but still a good one, I got a call last night letting me know that my Olivia quilt won the Project Linus 2010 Book-Blanket Challenge. That's 3 for 3 for me (and yes, that's a slightly happy, slightly smug grin on my face). I won a $25 gift certificate to a local quilt shop. This is good timing because I need some background fabric for the Sea Glass quilt I want to start later this year, and I may need more of a couple of Stonehenge fabrics for this quilt. I keep modifying the outer borders in EQ7. I have not been completely happy because I wanted it to have a more mosaic-y feeling, as well as feel like the many colors of fabric are cohesively blended throughout the quilt. I am much happier with this now, so much so that I have started on that mosaic border, consisting of nearly 2000 3/4" squares this afternoon! I heard this morning that the parts ordered for Mr. LA might not arrive for me to pick it up tomorrow (very grumpy sigh), and that if I want it, I'll have to bring it back to have them installed when they arrive. I may get it and coordinate the parts while I am in Utah next month. I am feeling tense about getting started on several custom quilts that are awaiting my attention. I should be quilting, rather than tweaking EQ7!

Have a good week-