Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Northern Star Quilt Show 2012 - Ribbon time :-)

So as always, the first weekend of May means the Northern Star Quilt Show in Somers, NY. 

This year, besides the normal show entries there was a special dedication to Mrs. Rose, the women the quilting world owes their gratitude to for the show "Infinite Variety:  Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts"  in NYC last March.  The guild had a red and white challenge, that resulted in an exhibit of 95 red & white quilts.  Our exhibit was hung similar to the way Thinc Designs hung the show at the NYC Park Ave Armory, with the quilts suspended and backed by other quilts.  It was a wonderful tribute.  I am just sorry that I missed the presentation by Mr and Mrs Rose and Tom Hennes from Thinc on Saturday.  But it was my birthday and my family had tickets to the Gladys Knight concert, featuring special quest Brian McKnight, at Foxwoods that evening, with dinner and an overnight stay in Connecticut planned.

But thanks to my friends, I didn't have to wonder as to how my quilts did in the show. :-).  Between Facebook posts and text messages, I knew that one of the two quilts I submitted had won a ribbon.  I didn't know which quilt, nor what ribbon until I got back into town late Sunday afternoon and made it to the show.  Yes, Ashante Rhythms won a 3rd Place Ribbon, in the wall art category of  "people, portraits, animals of other recognizable forms"

 It is always nice to win a ribbon, but this year, it was the judges notes on my comment sheet that really made me smile.  My quilt was held over for 'best machine quilting' judging....!!!!  While I totally understand why I didn't win (the quilt that did was exquisite) it was good to know that my quilting is starting to get recognized, not just the visual appeal my pieces have due to the vibrant colors.  I also appreciated the comments underneath the notation....  a few short thread tails on the back...  a skip an area thread not trimmed.... and lint on the back of the quilt.  (Black...  I lost points in the judging because of lint on the piece...  need to be more mindful of that in the future).  But notice the comments...  nothing about equal or un-equal stitch lengths, nothing about the regularity of the quilting, nothing about the density of the quilting...  NOTHING to indicate I needed to improve my machine quilting.  WOW was I excited.  All the comments were on the attention to detail, after you finish a piece.  OMG!!!! I can easily fix those problem :-).  Oh yes, I know that even if I didn't have any of those issue, I still would not have won. Believe me the quilting on the one that did, was absolutely breath taking.  But just to know that for once, the judges did not have a negative thing to say about my machine quilting.  In fact they thought it good enough to be held over for machine quilting judging.  Oh YES, I am happy :-).