My Proud Moment

It's the little things in life that make me happy. But I finally, after 11 1/2 years of designing patterns had a "big" proud moment this past weekend while visiting the Plainfield Quilt Guild show.

You see, I've been to many - many - quilt shows and seen 1,000's upon 1,000's of quilts on display.  I've even seen our own pattern designs made up and hanging so beautifully on display and really enjoyed it, but felt a little let down each time.  Why?  Well, because even though it had been our quilt design it had never had one of those beautiful name tags hanging on it proudly stating who designed the quilt or where the pattern design originated from.

My wait is over - look -

Sandy - thank you from the bottom of my heart for stating where the pattern came from.  I can't tell you how much that meant to me.  I stopped  and almost tripped someone by stopping so suddenly when I saw the quilt.  It brought tears to my eyes when I read this label - seriously I had to hold back the tears, because the flood gates had opened.  I stood there and admired Sandy's talent. Her piecing is beautiful, her fabrics were gorgeous and her quilting - wow - I want her to quilt one of my quilts!  I took pictures and walked on to the next quilt display.

Then I came back to look again....

Yep, the quilt was still there and so was the name tag.  I hadn't imagined it.

Look.....

I have a confession to make - I kept going back and looking at that quilt.  6 times total and each time I got a little thrill.  Each time someone was there admiring Sandy's work.  Each time they where delighted by her quilt.  Each time I was so happy that Sandy had purchased our pattern and thought enough of it to proudly state on the name tag on this quilt who designed it.  I'm proud of you to Sandy.

So here's a little reminder to everyone.  When you submit your quilts to shows of any size, please state where the pattern design came from or originated from.  You cannot imagine the feeling the designer will get if they stumble upon it and you just never know who might be viewing those quilts at the quilt show.  The same goes for stating whomever quilted your quilt - Long-arm quilters deserve recognition also!

I can still remember the first time I saw a model of one of our pattern designs hanging in a quilt shop.  I cried.  And still today I'll see things in random quilt shops and my eyes will tear up.  The most recent time was when I was in The Back Door Quilt Shop in Indiana.  My daughter was with me and caught me tearing up - I got the "Mommmmm" warning and then she said "Mom - isn't that one of your patterns"  and I said "Yes, isn't that cool"  Her simple "Yeah, that is" made my day and we walked on. Then she asked "Does this mean your famous".  It was cute - it was very cute coming from my 12 year old.  I said "No, not at all" and she replied "Yeah right Mom" and rolled her eyes.

I can't explain the tingling feeling you get when you see something you worked really hard on, then put it out there in pattern form and hope for the best and then one day walk upon it in a quilt shop or at a show.  It's awesome, it's exhilarating and it makes you want to work even harder to make sure you have more "sitings" in the future.

Thank you quilt shop owners for purchasing our pattern and making the models and hanging them in your awesome shops and selling our patterns. It really means a lot to me.

Thank you to people like Sandy that bought our pattern, dug into their stashes of fabric and took the time to make the quilt or project.  Then took the time to fill out the form her guild gave her when submitting her finished quilt to their show.

Thank you!  You made me day - week - month and year.  This is one of those moments I will not forget.

I'm off to long-arm quilt today.  Working on a hexagon quilt that I pieced on the machine way back in December of 2008.  It's all Blackbird Designs fabric and it's so pretty.  Can't wait to finish it up so I can show you!

I'm also busy uploading the pictures from this past weekends quilt show. Those will either be ready this evening or tomorrow.  I'll try to get a link posted for you!