AQS Lancaster - Quilts bring home big wins

I received word last night from AQS that my quilts entered at their Lancaster, PA show had done very well. It is always exciting to see the caller ID listed as "Paducah, KY" near one of their shows, because I know that they don't call just anybody for no reason.  I knew it was a good call.  Seriously, even a 3rd place at their shows is a very sweet check.  The call was a good call indeed.  She starts the conversation, "Margaret, are you sitting?  You might want to be".  Oh my, I thought, could this really be happening?  It was happening. Both of my quilts took top-tier awards at their show.  Zen Garden won the best Longarm Quilting award, while Big Bertha won Best Bed quilt.  I had hoped and thought that Bertha would ribbon, but this was most certainly beyond my wildest dream.  It is still surreal.

 It's no secret that these are two of my favorite quilts.  But Zen Garden didn't start out as such a show-stopper, or winner is perhaps a better word.  I love the quilt, but the first year I started showing it, I think the quilt got 3 honorable mentions, and a couple of 2nd places at smaller regional shows.  I just wasn't convinced it had what it took to play with the big dogs.  Shows like Lancaster have very big dogs.  Last year, though, Zen Garden started to show it's worth, from being on the cover of a magazine to several first places, acceptance into Paducah, and a couple Best of Shows.  I am glad I kept showing it, despite its slow start.  This is its last year of show eligibility with many of the major shows, so it will be busy on the road this year.

Big Bertha, well, it just surprised me right from the beginning.  It has done well pretty much everywhere it has gone, except for Houston.  I look at Houston as just a small blip on the radar.  Getting into that show was it's point of fortune, but it's hard to compete with a room full of top dogs.  This was a quilt that almost didn't happen.  I started it in the summer of 2011.  In the fall of 2012, I was looking at all the unfinished projects in my studio, searching for a quilt that I "should" finish.   This one was the closest to being ready to quilt.  I had set it aside because soon after I had most of my Dresden blocks hand pieced, Dresden quilts started popping up everywhere on quilty-blogland.  I hate making anything but original quilts, and to think that hundreds of others were making their own scrappy Dresden plate quilts was annoying.  Mind you, I'm not the trendsetter, as they weren't copying me.  It was purely coincidence.  As a result, I tried hard to find an original setting for the plates.  Hindsight will say that I really dislike how I quilted areas of this quilt, but I had a judge tell me that the originality and different quilting was a catching feature.  Live and learn.

So, if you are in the Lancaster area, be sure to go to the show.  As I knew when the list of accepted entrants was announced 2 months ago, this is a show of pure delight.  The field of talent is deep and strong.  The winners are here.  Likely because AQS changed their rules allowing previous ribbon winners to re-enter their shows, this show is stacked with great quilters.  I know many of the names, and some people personally.  I am so touched to have been recognized so immensely by the judges.  Remember, I have been making show quilts just a mere 4 years, or more like 3 since the first quilt I made for show was purely accidental.  If I can do it, so can you.  Keep dreaming.  Keep quilting.