Quiltcon Together awards ceremony

 Well Quiltcon sure does look different this year. In my continued effort to create community during the virtual event. I organized a zoom party for several friends last night during the awards. Of course, Texas being the mess that it is, our power was in and out all day yesterday. A friend who had steady power and internet invited us to bring our technology to her house and watch from there, so we did (we being hubby and I).

Don't you love my fancy setup? One laptop for zoom party. A second laptop for the awards ceremony. Phone for texting friends, oh and fancy mask for safe social distancing. All set.

It was so much fun to chat with friends before the presentation and then watch together. Several friends could not attend due to power outages and the like (seriously Texas, get your act together!) and we missed them. Partway into the awards this happened.....

My quilt, Urban Emergence, won first place in the group/bee category! Most of the girls on the call had contributed blocks to the quilt. You can see their delighted faces on the screen when they heard the news. So much fun! Since they called the winners ahead to video our reactions for the show, I already knew. That was a hard secret to keep!!! 

Another fun thing that happened is that Urban Emergence was featured in the gallery section of the new Quiltcon magazine! So, also, my first published quilt....

You can order a copy of the magazine here.

So that's the exciting news from here! Life has been a whirlwind, celebrating a big birthday, a big quilt show win, a huge winter storm and failed utilities, and, oh yeah, there's still a pandemic, isn't there? 

Here's a bit of sunshine that will be coming my way soon....

an outdoor photo shoot

 Is anyone else desperately missing their quilting buddies? Our improv small group has been meeting on Zoom since March but it's just not the same. Since the Texas weather is finally cooling down (hooray for fall!) we decided to do an outdoor quilt photo shoot at a nearby park. We met at the park in the morning on a perfect, cool and cloudy day and got some beautiful photos of our quilts.

Five of us met, we all wore masks and social distanced to keep each other safe. There was a pretty gazebo that served as a nice backdrop for most of the quilts.

This is a charity improv quilt we made as a group last year.

There was also a beautiful bridge over a pond where we got some gorgeous pictures! I love the way the quilt reflects in the water in this shot. This gorgeous quilt was made by my friend Chris.

There is an old train car at the park and it was a great backdrop for groups of quilts.

Many people wandered by to see what we were up to. It was fun to chat with them and share our work. A mini outdoor quilt show!

I think this is my favorite photo of the day, another one of Chris's quilts

We got a great shot of our guilds charity quilts that are ready to be donated to the kids at CASA in December.

It was a wonderful day and a safe way to spend time with friends! Do you have a favorite spot for quilty photo shoots?

Quilt Plano 2018

Yesterday, my friend Bonnie and I went to Quilt Plano, an annual quilt show that is held nearby. I had entered my very first quilt in a show! My Try All The Things improv quilt was entered in the modern category.

Imagine my surprise when I learned I had won a second prize ribbon in the category!

I was thrilled enough to have a quilt hanging in the show. I never expected to win a ribbon!

And guess what? Bonnie's improv quilt won  second place ribbon too!

Bonnie's quilt was made at Debbie Jeske's workshop just like mine.

Because of the sizes of our quilts, we were forced to enter them in different categories. Mine was just barely big enough to enter in the Modern category. Bonnie's was smaller so she entered it in the small quilts category.

It was so awesome to see so many modern quilts throughout the show. This has been a very traditional show for many years. I love to see ALL of the types of quilts, the workmanship is amazing! What a fun day!