This past weekend one of the guilds I belong to, Empire Quilter's, held their bi-annual show: Urban Inspirations 2011. I was lucky enough to have two quilts in the show. In the Spotlight and A Blaze of Glory. If you remember, these are the same two quilts that were juried into the Mancuso, Virginia Quilt Fest. Well, In the Spotlight won an Honorable Mention, in the Art Quilts category.... WooHoo!!! Blaze of Glory was in the Wall Quilts category... I really chuckled when I read the judges comments, because if you remember I felt kinda bewildered after reading the comments from Va Quilt Fest. But thankfully, these judges gave both compliments as well as suggestions for improvement,... like on Blaze, here are two of the comments: 1) Scale of quilting is perfect for the design of the quilt, and 2) When using flange on a quilt try to make sure it is the same size all around the quilt. Boy, I couldn't agree more and remember considering taking off the binding when I first finished the piece to try and fix the piping. Compare those two comments to the comments from the Va show: 1) Your quilting was all the same size, flattening the otherwise very daring composition., and 2) Like the use of piping. So I guess as the saying goes, take a judges comments for what they are worth and move on :-). And that is what I am going to do. I submitted both of these quilts and a third in another show at the end of April. I don't know if they will be accepted, but it will be interesting to hear what those judges have to say. Anyway, for some reason, the colors and quality of my photos from the show aren't great, so I am only going to share those that are half decent. Enjoy.... I love the beading on this piece. The bodices on the dresses as is the bottom border are hand beaded! The center applique figure is a pattern, which the quilter embellished with bead work. Believe it or not, this was a Kaffe challenge. All the skirts are made from Kaffe fabric. I find this peice visually striking and her detail is exquisite! Too bad I didn't get a close-up so you could appreciate the quilting. Sorry :-) This piece reminds me of many of my doodles, that have yet to be turned into a quilt.... oh well ... The quilting really enhances the effectiveness of this piece. Well hope you enjoyed the show! I have pictures from two more shows that I have to share... AQS Lancaster and Quilt Fest NJ. Since I am traveling, maybe the nights in the hotel room will let me catch up. Cheers!