It's about time I get back to blogging!  Especially since this year has been a fun quilting year.  I have three significant quilts out there.  The first one is part of the Cherrywood Van Gogh exhibit.  When I heard about this challenge I really wanted to do sunflowers, but the fabric was three shades of blue.  Instead, I combined night time sunflowers with the swirls of starry, starry night and made a Starry, Starry Garden.  You can see it whenever the Cherrywood Van Gogh French exhibit is shown.

Next came the National Quilt Museum's New Quilts from an old Favorite.  I've entered this before and been generally successful.  The last two years, however, I have not been juried in, so I was not really planning to enter.  Then I got an idea.  It came and I liked it so much that I needed to do it.  Black Tie and Tails was born.  It is made out of curtain fabric completely quilted prior to adding anything to the surface.  I followed the fabric floral design when I quilted it, and at times, all I could think of was upholstery for a wing back chair. Once that was done, I created the cats using the bow tie pattern.  They are out of Radiance fabric.  Finally, I embroidered their faces and added those little shelves for them to stand on.  I won 4th place and from what I have heard, it has been a very much enjoyed quilt.  I love it and it makes me happy.  It, too, will travel for the next two years to various AQS shows.  I will be anxious to get it back.

Last, but not least is my Back to Bali quilt.  This quilt pretty much designed itself.  I had fabric that contained the birds which are broderie perse.  The leaves, tear drop pieces, and flowers are also from that fabric.  The vines were such a great extension of the tails, and the central medallion  was taken from the Milifieori quilt.  I loved how it was turning out!  Then I started on the border of stars and gold.  What a challenge that was.  I think I had to 'fix' it several times before I was pleased with it. It also has some thread work on the vines, beads, and a few crystals for bling. The quilting went well and I especially love the basket weave around the border.  All of this is hand done and my trials and tribulations were rewarded with a 1st place at Paducah this year.  How exciting!

Now that I am back, I hope to be more regular, but it might be hard to top this last month!