Whew!

Well, our Cobblestone Quilt Show 2008 has come and gone and I would say that it was a wonderful success. Sometimes it seems so wierd that you can work and work in preparation for someting and then, almost in the twinkling of an eye, it's over. I guess it's kind of like getting ready for a wedding. My own tasks for this one weren't so difficult, but there were many who put in untold hours in order that our show should be great--June Bohac, the chairman, had a particularly difficult time this year because the entire method of setting up and taking down the show changed from previous years. What a challenge that was! It all worked out though--and that's what is important.

I was excited to learn that my Swamp Hibiscus quilt won Best of Show. There were so many truly wondeful quilts there that I was especially honored to have received it. I spent about 2 1/2 hours standing by the quilt on Sunday and really enjoyed talking with people who came by. When you hear people comment about your work, it can help you to see it in a new way. Everyone was so gracious and I really appreciated all of the comments. One thing that a couple of people told me was that they had seen this quilt on my blog and had NO idea how big it was! They suggested, and I agreed, that it might be good to include the dimensions in the future. I was really pleased to hear so many people say that they follow my Blog. I had no idea. Well, I hope you're not disappointed!

I also won a first place ribbon for my Althea's Waltz Quilt and I won a 3rd for Hidden Potential. I really enjoyed making both of those quilts and they both are a departure from a pure depiction of a realistic image. Although I have thought that most of my quilts are unlike from each other, one person told me at the show that she can now identify a "Judy Heyward" quilt. Well, how about that?

Before the show, our judge, Anita Shackleford, spent several days teaching classes. I took her class that was on needleturn applique. I went because we were encouraged to boost the numbers on the poor signup statistics, but I'll have to say, I was very happy to have gone. I came away with two significant things to improve my hand applique and that's more than enough to have made it worthwhile. The first thing we learned was how to make the sections of a ribbon or other like shapes come together without bulges and bumps where the two different fabrics touch. The other was another method to make narrow stems and then to stuff them to give some dimension. Both of those things were areas that had given me some difficulty and I was excited to have a solution. As you can see, we also made a ruched flower. That was fun. Anita was a very low-key teacher, very encouraging and just generally nice. Two of us took her out to dinner afterwards and had a nice time learning about her home in Ohio and her love of gardening.

So, that's just about all about this past week. I have also pin-basted two quilts. The one shown here is a Wheel of Mystery that is from a class I took with Lyn Johnson several years ago. I finally got the blocks joined and borders added and it is now ready to quilt. At present, I am quilting my Tumbling Blocks scrap quilt that I pieced when I ran out of projects here. I have dug a pretty deep hole for myself in that I chose a method of quilting that is ridiculous--way too tight for a quilt I'll probably give away. Oh well--one lives and learns almost everyday--at least I hope so. Now, if those dag-blasted blocks would just stop multiplying while I'm quilting them! I'm going to name the quilt Stumbling Blocks.