Blurry photo of me taken at the 2010 Houston International Quilt Festival
2010 was a very good year. I entered my quilt, Kaaterskill, in several quilt contests and it did very well. In August 2010 it was juried into the Houston International Quilt Festival, and in September I found out it won a cash award.
This was the second time I got the “call.” I regretted not going when Pocantico won 2nd place in hand quilting, so we made the trek to Houston to accept the 3rd place award in Handmade Quilts.
One thing that the Houston show is famous for is being hard on the feet. My quilt was displayed at the end of the aisle and right across from it was a bench – which became my favorite perch whenever my feet gave out. I’d gaze at the quilt, redesigning it in my mind. Not that I would ever redo it. Perish the thought.
That was the last time I saw Kaaterskill.
It came back from Houston, and I opened the box to take out the ribbon and then sent it to Quilters Newsletter in Golden, Colorado. They wanted it for photography. Talk about floating on air – this was the most prestigious quilting magazine in the industry, and while it had lost some of its lustre when it went corporate, it was still a highly regarded publication.
I was stunned when they called with the news they wanted the quilt to be on the June/July 2011 cover.
Given the quilt’s success, I went ahead and entered two more shows, Indiana Quilt Heritage and the AQS show at Paducah.
Quilters Newsletter held on to the quilt for a long time. My husband was nervous about it, but I felt the quilt was in good hands. Finally in February they shipped it back, UPS Two Day Air. It was due on Friday, February 18, 2011.
It never arrived.
We don’t know what happened, but we have our suspicions. In the end, it wasn’t the worst thing that happened to me. 2011 was a shitty year. I was very happy when 2012 was rung in.
So sometime in 2012 I revisited those redesign plans, because going back to a color palette and design I loved working in was the only silver lining I could find. I hand pieced, hand appliqued and hand quilted the successor. The quilt named itself – Cauterskill Rising.
Right now it’s at Houston, fortunate to be high and dry in spite of Hurricane Harvey. I hope to hear this week whether it has won an award or not. I’m not holding my breath, but it sure would be fun to go back to Houston and celebrate.
Cauterskill Rising
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