Friends–
Exciting news. After three years on the quilt show circuit, this year is turning out really well. Read on… the ball just left the stadium!
“A New England Album” was submitted to the new AQS Fall Paducah Quilt Show– I usually do one of these shows every year just to stick my toe in the water. The Embellished Wall Quilts division seemed perfect to me– this quilt is ALL embellishment! AQS did something else different this year, too– the show book was released early with the names of all my division competitors. Google research revealed some of the quilts and the names of my rivals– people whose work I have loved and admired for a long time, like Ann Horton and Karen Turnbull. I pretty much gave up right then and there!
Because of all the unwanted marketing calls, I don’t usually answer my phone anymore unless I see a local number, or contact’s name on the display…. the marketing calls are usually from random places like “Troy, Michigan”– places you’ve never been, so you couldn’t possibly know anyone there. On Sunday, a call came in while I was driving, so it was my husband who picked up my cell phone, read the screen, and said, “Paducah, Kentucky….”
Because of all the unwanted marketing calls, I don’t usually answer my phone anymore unless I see a local number, or contact’s name on the display…. the marketing calls are usually from random places like “Troy, Michigan”– places you’ve never been, so you couldn’t possibly know anyone there. On Sunday, a call came in while I was driving, so it was my husband who picked up my cell phone, read the screen, and said, “Paducah, Kentucky….”
I almost died right then and there… not from shock or surprise, but from crashing the car!
We were almost to our destination by then, so I opted not to take the call, but to call back. Turns out that Meredith Schroeder called me, herself, and left me a message, that I had won, not honorable mention, not third, not second place BUT FIRST PLACE IN MY DIVISION!
I still have that pinch me, what just happened, there must be some kind of mistake feeling.
If you know about the new Fall Paducah show, they are now opening up the top prizes to online voting… so, since I have won first place in my division, I am now eligible for one of seven viewer’s choice awards. To vote, you don’t even have to go to the show. They are going to be selected on line from the first place winners fifteen categories.
After all the effort that went into my quilt, a little nudge more will not hurt. Telling your friends and family to vote is being encouraged by AQS, and the rock stars of quilting are already marshalling their hordes on social media. Unknown in this crowd, I’ve never felt that machine embroidery gets the attention it deserves… so….
I’d like to invite you to vote and I would be honored if you would consider “A New England Album” as your choice.
My heartfelt thanks to all of you who came back month after month, to buy the blocks that make up A New England Album… your enthusiasm let me know I was on the right track.
Stitch what’s in your heart, and you will never be disappointed.
Let’s do this!
XOX
One Stitch at a Time 
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