A good month at the shows

The quilt shows come in bursts.  Because I have six quilts made over the last 2 years that I show, I am able to send several quilts out at a time.  I posted a couple of weeks ago that Zen Garden and Rainbow Nouveau both took 1st place at the Minnesota Quilt Show.  I was shocked.  Zen Garden is my favorite quilt, but has this insane history of earning honorable mentions.  To date, it has earned 4 HMs I think!  While I love the quilt, I have become accustomed to not expecting it to win, so this was a moment of pure glee!  

Wednesday evening was the awards for the NQA quilt show in Columbus, OH.  I have my 2013 quilts there: Big Bertha and Kaleidoscopic Calamity.  Despite no monetary awards, this is a huge quilt show with an incredible talent base.  My large quilt, Big Bertha, took a 3rd in the large applique category, and Kaleidoscopic Calamity took 1st in the small pieced category.  This was phenomenal news, considering the plethora of big names at this show.  My client Jeanette (go back 2 posts) entered 2 quilts, one of which I quilted.  Both of her's took honorable mentions.  Very wonderful news.  

Last night was the champagne & chocolate preview for the Vermont Quilt Show.  This is the oldest quilt show in New England.  I have entered quilts the last 3 years.  Though the quilts entered run the gamut of style, it is regarded as fairly traditional.  My sense is that the judges here have a definite preference towards the more traditional, even conservative quilts.  Saying that, one of last year's top winners (not best of show) was Marilyn Badger, and her Superstar quilt is far from conservative or traditional.  Knowing that, I expect that the hand quilters will have an edge, and feel like quilts like my Rainbow Nouveau (painted, bold and bright, lots of crystal) may not do as well.  It was mostly coincidence that I sent "Meet Me at Giverny" to this show - had to do with timing of when I had quilts available, and the fact that VQF only allows quilts made within the past 15 months.  This one squeaked in, barely.  Historically, at the shows it has been either hot and well received with the judges, or cold and harshly critiqued.  It has earned a couple of 1st place finishes, and even a best machine quilting award at none other than NQA, but then it has been to at least 4 shows that it got nothing.  I just never know when I send it out!  I caught the trail of news after the awards on facebook last night, and learned that it took Best of Show at VQF.  I nearly fell over with shock.  Never once saw that coming.  Here it is, below, with lovely color-coordinated rosettes, and flowers.

I finished up a few quilts this week while my 2 youngest were off at Nana-camp.  I have a great lone star to share later this weekend.