In between

This post comes to you from the darkened cabin of a Qantas 380 Airbus high above Western Samoa. Finally I have time to exhale, count my blessings, and catch up on some sleep!

 

I'm one finger typing on my DiPhone, on my way to Savannah, Georgia, and  Quiltcon East, via Florida where I'm excited to be meeting up with Linda Hungerford (Flourishing Palms) for some adventures. 

It's a strange feeling, after dreaming of making this trip for so long, and I can't believe I'll be landing in LA in just a few hours.

 

My Quiltcon entry, Levitation Fascination, wasn't one of the 400 or so modern quilts accepted into the show, but I'm OK with that since the standard was very high. It's already won me a rosette for Viewers' Choice at the Modern Quilt Show Australia last November, and I hope I can enter it in a few more shows yet.

Isn't that the cutest rosette you've ever seen? I'm looking forward to spending my prize, a $50 gift voucher from My Sewing Supplies, when I get back home.

 

 

There will still be thrills ahead for us, and a potential prize winner, since one of Linda's three Quiltcon entries was selected for inclusion. Yay!

Also on our itinerary after Quiltcon is AQS Quilt Week at Daytona Beach, Florida. This time I'm extremely happy to tell you my other rosette winner from last year, Out of the Square, has been juried into the show, along with several others from Aussie quilters. There will certainly be plenty of quilty eye candy for this shutterbug to photograph, so watch this space!

 

Those fabulous rainbow shades are all from Karen Lewis' Blueberry Park range, and I love how they worked together.

 

Out of the Square won the award at the Sydney Quilt Show for Best Modern Interpretation of a Traditional Quilt, sponsored by Melinda Smith of Quiltsmith, and I've already spent some of my $500 worth of gift vouchers on those glorious solids I used in Levitation Fascination. 

As an aside, the wool batting I used in Out of the Square was Nu-Wool,  of my Sydney Quilt Show prizes for Taking Liberties, my 3rd placed wall quilt from the year before. One quilt's rewards contributing to the creation of another - I love that! 

If you're not a follower of my posts on Instagram you'll be reading most of this news of last year's awards for the first time. I certainly had some catching up to do! 

For a litttle fun, here's a computer-generated pattern from www.makelight.com showing the colours I used in the quilts I posted on Instagram throughout the year.

You're probably surprised at the amount of yellow, but I'm finding myself adding a little (or a lot!) of this sunny colour to most of my quilts these days.

 

At the same time I'm looking forward, hoping for a year of creative satisfaction - not necessarily involving awards!

How's this for creative satisfaction: my baby granddaughter, Princess 2, joyfully tossing around some of my pretty fabrics. I hope to make a quilter of her one day.

 

 

Last year I chose JOY as my Word for the Year. It didn't go too well. In my humble opinion, joy is something that has to be sought. It's there to be found, if we only approach what happens to us with the right attitude, and I confess I fell into the trap of negativity far too often last year.

So I'm once again making JOY my Word for the Year. Yes, I'm giving it another go, because it's worth finding.