CRAFTY | I HAVE SOME NEWS…

The Feather Beast: Slayed

So, something really amazing happened to me this week and I don’t know quite how to say it, so I’m just going to put it out there… I won a blue ribbon.

Yep, you read that right. Me. I won a blue ribbon in a quilt show. I am literally tearing up just typing that.  I can’t believe it.

As some of you will know I submitted my version of the Anna Maria Horner “Feather Bed Quilt” pattern to the Canberra Quilters Annual Members Exhibtion.

I made no secret of the fact that I struggled with this pattern.  (It kicked my butt!) It just ate too much of my too little and too precious fabric stash (might be a better thing to do when I’ve been quilting for years and have oodles of fabric (and cash) to spare!) and the cutting and piecing was just way harder than anything I’d done before.

I had seen this pattern on Anna Maria Horner‘s website and I had fallen in love with it. Totally gone; smitten to the point of envy. I still see her version of this quilt and swoon for it.  I just didn’t think I did it justice and it hurt.  It hurt me to think I’d failed and it hurt to think that I had so far over reached.

When I took it to Raylee I was so embarrassed about it and I found it so hard to look at it. I remember standing with her and talking about possible quilting designs (she came up with the idea to quilt it on the diagonal instead of on the vertical or horizontal!) and just thinking to myself is it even worth spending all this effort on a quilt that I couldn’t even bring myself to look at?

Raylee and I talked often over the time she had it and we swapped ideas about how it should be quilted and in the end Raylee just went for it.

I hadn’t seen the finished quilting on the quilt until the week before they were due to be handed in but when I did I was BLOWN AWAY by the amazing job that Raylee had done.  (This photo doesn’t do it any sort of justice!)

In the lead up to the Judging I thought that we might have had a shot at possibly nabbing a Highly Commended. (I felt so bad even hoping for that!) I was convinced that it would be Raylee‘s quilting that would get the quilt noticed and not my quilt making.

When I found out that the quilt had won the Blue Ribbon for the Commercially Quilted Category I couldn’t believe it.  I actually had to do everything I could to not burst in to tears on the spot. I was convinced that the only reason the quilt won was because of Raylee‘s quilting job.  (I’m telling you, it’s sublime!)

When the quilt then went on to win the “Best Use of Colour” Award it was like I had won something. It made me actually think that I had had a hand in the quilt winning.

I still can’t believe that a quilt I conceived of and had a hand in making has won anything let-a-lone a blue ribbon.  I truly believe that I share this win with Raylee and I couldn’t think of a nicer person to share it with.  If it wasn’t for her skill and talent the quilt wouldn’t be half of the thing of beauty that it is.

I don’t really know what to say in some ways.  I’m just so honoured and thrilled that someone thought my quilt deserved to be acknowledge and to be acknowledged in such a massive way.

I enter the show primarily to try to inspire and encourage other people to try quilting.  (I think there’s no higher honour than having someone look at my quilt and think to themselves “I can do that” and then to have them go away and do it.)  But I also enter to make myself be better at this craft.  I’ve only been doing it for about 18 months and I failed Home Economics in high school.  (Wish my Home Ec teacher could see me now!)  If someone had told me that I’d one day be a quilter I would have told them they were certifiable.  But here I am making quilts and trying so very hard to get better at something for the first time in my life.

This little ribbon has made me admit something, both to myself and out loud, I want to be a good quilter.  I want to be a person that makes quilts that inspire others.  I want to be someone who takes pride in their craftmanship. I want to be known as a quilter.

This craft matters to me; I am a quilter.

I feel really funny telling people that the quilt won something.  I’m still embarrassed about it in some ways but it’s given me such a huge amount of encouragement and made me think that it might be possible for me to be the quilter that I aspire too.

I think the lesson in all of this is this; try it! Seriously, if there’s something out there that you want to do but you’re letting fear get in the way be brave.  Make the decision to try and let yourself fail – you never know where it might take you!

And yes, I’m already planning next year’s Exhibition quilt!

[I will post better images of the quilt and all the details of the quilting later on… promise!]