It’s time to link up with Amy of Amys Creative Side for this year’s Bloggers’ Quilt Festival, a chance for bloggers to feature a couple of quilts they’ve made in the last year. It must be a huge undertaking for Amy although this year it’s gone back to basics, Amy’s words not mine,  and there won’t be the frisson of voting. That’s no bad thing in my book but it is another chance to catch up with quilts I’ve admired over the year and see some new inspiring quilts of all shapes and sizes.

So to my first entry…. no surprises here

This quilt, called Division, was a quilt specifically made for the Festival of Quilts, the biggest quilt show in the UK. Its not the first time I’ve made a quilt that has been in an exhibition at a show but it is most certainly the first time I’ve made a quilt for a competition and where I’d get judges’views. These are shown in all their glory at the end if you want to cut to the chase….  It’s a long time since I’ve had feedback on my performance other than staff appraisals so I have to admit I was a bit daunted…..

That nervousness translated into obsessive attention to detail trying to make the quilt as perfect as possible. That is very counter to my normal style which is laissez faire. What this meant in practice is that normal tasks got squeezed out,  cats weren’t petted, children pretty much neglected and my sewing spread round the house in order to meet the deadline. Of course the quilt isn’t remotely perfect but it is good enough and everyday I see it hanging on our landing it gives me pleasure.

The full blog post is here.

I got some lovely feedback and it featured in the blog of one of the quilt magazines  describing it as being on trend as mid century modern! Well I’m certainly mid century but even my dearest friend wouldn’t call me modern! And my teens would be hysterical at the thought of  their mother being on trend!

Here are the judges’ views for good or for bad.  Whilst I’ve yet to see anybody else’s posted which suggested it is not de rigeur to do this, my blog is my sewing record and you can be very confident if they are not  committed to electronic record these bits of paper will disappear in no time!

I think 3 handwritten notes giving quite a bit of feedback is pretty good value for an entry cost of £12 (I think).  I presume they had more than 3 judges as there were 100s of quilts in the competitions.

I was rather pleased with such kind comments. It didn’t win anything but I genuinely had no expectation of winning.  It reminds me when a rather pushy mother at school asked me whether I thought no. 1 son had done well enough in his first year exams to get into the top set the next academic year. I answered that being realistic if they put him in the top set then something had gone horribly wrong for a number of children. Similarly with my quilt I hoped it would ‘wash its face’ but it wasn’t in the league of some of the top quilts.  Not that I liked every winner I hasten to add but you never do do you.

The reference to it ‘meeting the remit’ is that it was judged as being modern. According to the judges, this section contained the most misplaced quilts that  should really have been entered in other sections. Mindyou it is confusing in that they have a Contempory quilt section and because you can only enter one quilt per section that also blurrs the line. I  think at QuiltCon, the Modern Quilt Show, they switch your quilt if you’ve got the category wrong and of course under the generic heading of Modern Quilt  there are a number of categories.

I picked up the quilt at the end of the quilt show and got the judges slips which I read on the way back to the car.  I was so pleased with them that I wasn’t too aghast at my car being missing from where I’d left it in the car park. By the time I’d got back the car park was pretty much deserted and I could see from a distance that the car had gone.  I really can’t imagine what possessed me to walk the entire length of the car park to look at an empty space. But on that long walk  I did reflect on whether car thieves would really want a large, dark grey estate car, the sort of vehicle owned by someone who wants safety and size to fill with children and clutter over excitement and glamour. I was right of course, I’d got the wrong car park and my car was waiting for me fortunately ignored by the criminal classes of Solihull!!