Brimming with Brightness—and Beautiful Workmanship!

Yesterday, I shared a landscape quilt full of delightful details from our judging at the Georgia National Fair. Today’s quilt caught my attention for a different reason—the workmanship was AMAZING!!

When you closely examine a quilt, you can usually find SOMETHING that could have been done a little better. But this one? I couldn’t find a thing to fault…

Jodi Pirkle of Rome, Georgia, made this quilt and named it “Brimming with Brightness.” It was based on the “Cottage Tulips” block by Victoria Finlay Wolfe…

Untitled design – 1

Please forgive the angle of my photo. The quilt was lying on the judging table when I took it…

Every point was perfect…

Every curve was smooth…

And look at how she matched the stripes…

THAT would not have been easy to do!!

Working with striped fabric adds another layer of care to the piecing, and those beautifully matched stripes were such a pleasure to see.

We had enjoyed so many wonderful quilts during our two days of judging, but this one certainly stood out.

“Brimming with Brightness” eventually received the Best of Show ribbon—a wonderful recognition of Jodi’s beautiful work!

Congratulations, Jodi!!

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Yo-Yos in the Landscape!

Now that the Georgia National Fair is officially over, I can share a little about our two days of judging quilts!

This year, I was paired with Kathy Howell…

…and we had SO much fun exploring our stack of quilts up close while sneaking glimpses of the quilts on the other tables. There was inspiration EVERYWHERE!!

Between our four judging teams, we judged over 400 quilts. As an added bonus, we had two interns who were such fun to work with!

Although we saw hundreds of gorgeous quilts, I want to focus on two that particularly caught my eye—one today and another tomorrow.

Today’s quilt is a landscape made by Wendy Earwood of Perry, Georgia…

There were so many fun touches to discover, but I especially loved her use of yo-yos!

They appeared in the sky…

In the trees…

On the bears…

And even on the frog…

What a playful way to add texture and dimension! Each time we looked, another little detail waited to be discovered.

I also particularly liked the simple quilting in the border. It added the perfect finish…

This quilt was a joy to judge.

Well done, Wendy!!

Come back tomorrow for another amazing quilt from the fair!

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One Winner…

Yesterday I started showing some of the exciting things that I saw while judging quilts for the Georgia National Fair.

Let’s keep going…..

The fabrics in this quilt are so intriguing……

I loved the paper-pieced designs in this quilt but especially the bottom border…..

I was enamored with the border quilting on this one…..

And speaking of borders, isn’t this a fun design……

And, I loved the bright colors of this quilt…..

As we approached the end of the judging process, there was much excitement as we all gathered around to start picking the Best of Show.

Then there were conferences with the organizers…..

….and we announced which quilt was being given this special award……

A few photos were taken with the judges…..

And we were free to leave….but not without checking out some of the other exhibits!

Several quilts were included in a different category, including this “door cover” made from tiny English paper-pieced flowers.

You can see the hole for the door handle on the left side of the photo.

This was a fun fabric rug…..

As usual, there were some gorgeous wooden pieces…..

Just look at the shape of this one…..

Truly amazing!!

It was a super busy and tiring two days, but I have very fond memories of the people that I worked with and the art that I saw!!

Can’t wait until next year!!

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Quilt Judging Fun

Back in September, I spent two FUN days judging the quilts for the Georgia National Fair. Since the fair is now open and the winners announced, I can officially post about the trip!!

First of all, look at this AMAZING sunset…..

This photo was taken from the hotel room on the night before judging started!!

We arrived at the fair grounds on Sunday morning, meeting up with the 7 other judges and all of the amazing staff and helpers!!

I was paired with another judge (Nancy), and we were assigned to a table and team…..

….and we got down to business!!

Nancy and I worked extremely well together, making for a fun and fast two days!!

Here are a few things that caught my eye as we worked thru our stack of quilts….. and I apologize for not being able to give credit, but we couldn’t know who made what!!

This was such a fun bright and fun broken heart….

Look at the wonderful edging on this Double Wedding Ring quilt…..

This was one of my favorites….

It was a sweet design and look at the door mat……

SO well done!!

And, THIS is what a GOOD postage stamp quilt looks like…..

I wish that I had done my “Taxing Scrap” more like this!!

This was the most amazing paper pieced quilt…..

I’ll stop there for today. Come back tomorrow for a few more goodies and the “Best of Show” reveal!!

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Let’s judge some quilts!!

As I have mentioned before, I had the pleasure of helping to judge the quilts for the Georgia National Fair!!

This is an intense two-day process but is one of the most enjoyable things that I do each year.

Join me…..

If you have never done this, check out your local fairs and see if there is a place for you. I guarantee you that you will see some AMAZING work and have a wonderful experience!!

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One of my favorite things about quilting is motivating others and helping them in their quilting journey. As part of this endeavor, I LOVE to present programs and workshops to groups and guilds around the world. All of my programs work well with Zoom meetings, and I would love to speak to your group.

You can find out more at this link…..