I started out with the Kaffe Fassett 'I Am An Artisan' quilt contest. The fabrics that we had to use were absolutely spectacular. Such a great color palette to work with. The added embroidery designs from Mia and Chantell made the quilt.
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| Blue Plate Special |
Not only did this quilt win the Viewer's Choice Award, it also was published in the 2017 Quilt Festival Quilt Scene magazine, and it was hanging in the Houston Quilt Show. I also just got notice that it will be hanging in the International Quilt Festival in Chicago April 12-14 2018. A couple of the prizes I won have been either mailed or collected. I received my prize fabric in the mail and then I picked up my new sewing/embroidery machine at the local Janome dealer Boutique 4 Quilters. I also took some of the fabric I won and made zipper bags in the embroidery machine for some of my friends. I am calling this success number one for the year!
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| Boutique 4 Quilters |
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Kaffe Fassett Artisan fabrics
Machine Embroidery Zipper Bags
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Next up is the Hoffman Challenge that I enter almost every year. It's a fun contest and the fabrics are usually very interesting and inspiring. This years was especially fun because it just wanted to be made into a Hawaiian themed quilt. It won the Hoffman Choice award! That was pretty exciting but then I found out that Mr. Hoffman loved it so much that he bought it and it now hangs in his office in Southern California. It didn't get to travel with the other quilts this year, but Mr. Hoffman says that he will display it at a few major shows.
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| Aloha Hoffman 2017 |
I have received both my prize and the ribbon from Hoffman which are very nice. This is accomplishment number two! And yes, I do plan on entering in 2018! Thank you Chantell and Mia for your embroidery designs!
Next was the Moda Bella Solids challenge. This was a huge project. One of the biggest quilts that I have ever completed. Unfortunately it was not picked as a finalist for the Moda Bella contest. But the great news is that Bella Windows - Peeks of Nature was a better fit for the 2018 World Quilt Florida competition in Orlando January 18-20, and it is a finalist in their competition! I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will be my first win in 2018!! I still can't believe that Mia drew and digitized 80 different designs for this quilt. And the quilt of course couldn't have been made without Chantell's modified log cabin block!
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| Bella Windows - Peeks of Nature |
Since all three quilts were completed as planned and each one of them has had great success, I am calling my first goal of 2017 complete.
My next goal was to find something 'to do' that would earn a little cash and also share my talent as an embroidery artist. I feel that I have accomplished that goal by teaching many classes at Quilts and Lace. I seem to have become the Kimberbell expert. I have taught many different projects that have required different levels of embroidery skills from beginner to advanced. But the biggest project that I taught was the 'Jingle All The Way' quilt. I think it was my favorite Kimberbell project for the year.
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| Jingle All The Way |
I seem to have caught the 'competition' bug because I went ahead and entered a couple more contests. The first one was a Moda mini quilt competition and the requirements were to use some of the Moda Primitive Gatherings fabrics. I had a few different categories to chose from and I of course chose applique. Everyone who entered ended up sending their quilts to Lisa's shop where she displayed them for the holidays. She just announced the winners about a week ago, and I was very excited to learn that my little Lumberjack quilt won the prize for Applique! You can see the other winners here on Lisa's blog. She has a wonderful shop and sells beautiful things. I just received my very nice prize package and my quilt back. Since the quilt was being gifted to Jackie as part of her Christmas present, it arrived just in time.
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| Lumberjacks |
Lumberjacks Prizes
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The next little mini quilt contest that I entered required a Moda/Aurifil thread combination. We had to use both a precut Moda fabric package and Aurifil threads. I didn't realize at the time that it would not be a 'real' competition. What I mean is that they just threw in a hat all of the names of everyone who entered and picked the winner out of the hat. So it really didn't have anything to do with talent, just perseverance in finishing your mini quilt. But that was ok because I ended up with a really knock out mini quilt! I love it and its going up on my wall! I used Moda Sweetwater Authentic fabric and of course the Aurifil threads.
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| Authentic Stars |
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| Sweetwater fabric and Aurifil thread |
I also completed a few other miscellaneous projects, quilts, and I did a lot of test stitching for Chantell. I even took a few classes myself, after all, there is always something new to learn. I think I am going to call the year a major success! Not only did I complete and surpass all of my quilting goals, but I am now an AWARD winning quilter and I have been PUBLISHED in a magazine! I am thinking that makes for a very successful 2017!
I don't know what my goals are for 2018 yet, but I will really have to work very hard if I plan on accomplishing even half this much next year!
Here are a couple more finished projects:
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| Bubby kitty even got his own quilt this year. |
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| Houses made from Log Cabin blocks |
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