Stepping Out of the Comfort Zone

Most of the past 20 yrs I've participated in an online art quilt challenge.   Once created the quilts are displayed in a special exhibit at one or more of the major quilt shows back on the east coast.   Because they are in a special exhibit, there is no judging.    

And I've never entered a quilt into any other show.....the net result is that I've never submitted a quilt for judging in all of my years of quilting.

Back in August of this year, however, I received an email from the Road to California quilt show that talked about due dates for quilt entries into the show.  And since this I've debated about whether to submit one to for jurying into the show.  And this week I received a reminder email about the due date for entries which is October 2.   

I think I'm going to step out of my box and enter a quilt to see if it'll be accepted into the show.  It has to be one finished since 1/1/16, so most likely the art quilt one to the right here (the river & canoe).   I finished that one for the art quilt challenge in 2017.

I'd like to enter the lady bug one I completed this year, but won't have it back from all the shows that it was in over the summer in time to get a close up picture of it.

So what have you done lately to step outside of any box you've found yourself in?

Gratitudes:

1. My needs are always met by the one who holds me in His hand.

2. For the commissioned work that is coming my way.

A few thoughts on the Dallas Quilt Show

I went to the Dallas Quilt Show this past Saturday and enjoyed my time there, but I came away with some thoughts about it and what I saw there and how it relates to quilting.   Quilt pictures will be coming later because I haven't been able to do any work with them.  =)

The show is one of the largest, all volunteer produced shows here in the US.   And the Dallas Quilt guild really does do a great job at putting the show on.  There were lots of great quilts entered and a lot of vendors, not all from TX.

The show:
1. Lots of quilts in a lot of categories.   Some I liked, some I didn't.   Over all tho, more that I liked than I didn't.  The vast majority of which were not modern quilts like those at QuiltCon 2 weeks ago.  Group, individual, junior, senior, art, pictorial, 2-person, and master class were some of the ones at the show.

2. The quilts displays were in two different rooms - the ones entered for judging were in the same room as the vendors and were totally surrounded by the vendors.   There were special exhibits that were in the room with the food vendors.  I almost missed them because I wasn't buying any food at the show.   As it was I didn't look at them like I would have liked because of my back and legs hurting.  

The vendors -
1.Total different make up to the vendors than was at QuiltCon.  There was only on manufacturer there instead of multiple ones.  The one that was there had to do with cutting templates, but for the life of me I can't remember the company name.

2. Many of the booths that had brought fabric mainly had quilt panels - lots and lots of them!  Made me wonder if panels are really that popular these days in quilting.  More panels than regular fabric in most of the booths that had them.  Not as much in the way of fabric as I'm used to seeing at shows (and now I wouldn't have been shopping it anyway).

Takeaways -

Got lots of inspiration on what I can do with some pre-fused scraps of fabric.  Just need to think about what I want to do.  And yes, I did buy a bit of fabric - two panels of sayings and some light colored batik FQ's and remnants.

Gratitudes:

1. My new sewing machine made it here to work today - woohoo..........

2. Sun is peeking thru the clouds outside.