IT'S MY FIRST TIME . . . PLEASE BE GENTLE

Nearly a year ago, good friend, quilter, pattern & block designer extraordinaire, Kathy Tolbert, (designer of the block I used in my "Santa Fe Daydreams" quilt) challenged me to enter a quilt in a show, as I had never attempted that before. A few months ago, she was a bit more specific (and a little more insistent) and pushed me to enter the 2019 Northwest Quilting Expo in Portland, Oregon on September 26, 27 & 28.

And after a little hemming and hawing . . . I agreed it was finally time.

(I'm so thankful I have all these pushy quilters in my life. I really am!)

Challenge accepted!

I entered my submission earlier this week.

My choice was an easy one. My most personal and favorite quilt of my life . . . .

MOM'S CLOSET #1

It was completed in March of 2017, after acquiring much of Mom's clothes after she moved into a nursing home a few months earlier. The original quilt that I made for her some 30+ years ago was lost (or stolen) at the nursing home, and from that misfortune, MC1 was born. Made entirely of her many colorful, multi-textured fabrics, it was a pure labor of love.

It was one of my more challenging quilts, made with cottons, knits, woolens, synthetics, silks, lots of stretchy black velvet, reptile skin & rhinestones (from two small handbags) and adorned with buttons, clasps and epaulets I chose to leave in place for extra . . . MOM stuff. It's some of her most personal clothes ever. Not only does it include ALL the dresses she wore to all of her 4 daughter's and granddaughter's weddings . . . but the whole quilt itself began with her wedding dress smack dab in the middle!

I loved it SO MUCH . . .

I decided to keep it, lol!

(*don't worry, I quickly made another one with the same fabrics but a different block pattern, and delivered it to her on Mother's Day a couple of months later)

Today, I received this;

I couldn't possibly be more honored!

So, at the end of September, you'll find me down in Portland, beaming with pride to be sharing the spotlight with the best of the best quilters from around the Northwest . . . for the very first time! Excited doesn't even begin to describe how I'm feeling!

The future looks brighter than ever . . .