Top honors

It turns out that I took quite an array of prizes: my “Black Jewel” and “Ocean Sunset” shawls took first and second place in the accessories division, my “Lava Flow” scarf won second place in the neckwear division, and my wedding-dress won…ta-daaa…Best in Show in the Fashion Show!

I can’t resist sharing some photos of the winning pieces.  The ribbons, which are amazing, were woven by the equally amazing Lillian Whipple, Mistress of Fine Threads:

"Black Jewel" shawl - first place, accessories division

"Ocean Sunset", second place in the accessories division

"Lava Flow", second place in the neckwear division

I am very proud of having won ribbons with everything I entered, and of course “Best in Show” for the dress.  More important, I think people really appreciated the dress…I saw a lot of people oohing and aahing over the exhibit, reading my little one-pager about the dress, or reading the photo book on the making of the dress.  And at times it felt like every single person at the conference had stopped to compliment me on the dress!  I must say, it was wonderful (if a little overwhelming) to get so much positive feedback on the piece.

The curator of the San Jose Quilt and Textile Museum was also at the show – I asked the folks at the SJQT Museum booth to ask her if she’d be interested in the dress after the dust settles, haven’t heard anything, may try to find her at the show tomorrow if she’s there.

Finally, I got a chance to see Kati Meek’s new printing of “Warp with a Trapeze and Dance with Your Loom” (an excellent book, incidentally).  She had asked me to write a blurb for the back cover, and I was of course honored to do so.  But I didn’t realize she’d actually printed it!

"Warp with a Trapeze", with my blurb on the back cover

Finally, here’s a gallery of (a) my little wedding-dress exhibit (amazing how much better the dress/coat look when properly mounted!), and (b) the many amazing pieces at the show.