My QuiltCon fabric challenge quilt is currently on my longarm. If you pay attention to shows, you will quickly understand one thing — if it’s still on my longarm, then it’s not finished, and if it’s not finished, then I wasn’t able to submit it as a QuiltCon entry this year. I have a lot of feelings about this, most of which I shared in an impromptu Instagram reel…but I wanted to capture here on the blog as well.
First, I’m bummed. I’ve been fortunate enough to have a quilt juried into the show every year that I’ve attended, dating back to 2018. I’ve also made and entered a quilt in the fabric challenge category each of those years (and all but one were juried in). I’m a challenge person, and I’m also a bit of a “streak” person, and I’m sad that my streak of entering the fabric challenge has ended.
My streak of having a quilt accepted, period, is also likely at an end. I entered two quilts this year, but both have been turned down at least once. This year’s jury might feel differently about them and offer them a spot in the show, and that would be wonderful! But while I love them, I also recognize objectively that they are not my strongest quilts in terms of the QuiltCon show aesthetic specifically.
But also, I’m tired. I’m just TIRED, y’all. Life is incredibly busy right now, which is neither a complaint nor a boast but just a fact. Quilting time is scarce — honestly it’s been scarce for at least 2-3 years — and the time I do have is occupied by “work” things like tech editing and pattern writing and usually a single “fun” thing is currently making me happy. For the last couple months, that’s been pantograph design, which I am really enjoying and is also easy to do when I’m worn out and just want to sit on the couch instead of stand at the longarm.
I was ambitious with my quilting plan — in retrospect, clearly overly ambitious for making the QC deadline. It’s a fairly big quilt; at 80″ tall, it’s larger than any show quilt I’ve made in the past. And while the quilting is not a complicated motif at all, there are literally hundreds of stops and starts and thread burying. I didn’t fully recognize this when I started, and the starts/stops/pulling threads to the top/burying the ends is taking much, MUCH longer than I anticipated. Lesson learned there for sure! Could I have done something different with the starts/stops? Probably, but I also don’t regret the choice I made because I’m very satisfied with how it’s looking.
So most of all, I’m relieved. The October 31 deadline was a Saturday, and I made the call on the previous Monday that I would not be killing myself to make the deadline. I felt such huge relief by not having to rush it, or fill every spare moment of the last week of October with quilting!! I was able to be more present for everything else in life, and far less stressed than I would’ve been trying to meeting the deadline. All too often, I fool myself into thinking my personal quilting work needs to be done on a strict schedule, and that’s just not true. It’s supposed to be fun!! There are other shows, and other quilts, and it’s just never as serious as I sometimes make it out to be.
So! Quilting continues, and I will be excited to share the finished quilt with you sometime soon.
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