There is nothing quite like the thrill of entering a quilt into a fair for the very first time, and this video captures that happy, nervous excitement beautifully. In this lovely show and tell from Chorus Girl Quilting, she shares her very first fair entry and the wonderful surprise of taking home Grand Champion, walking you through the quilt and the whole heartwarming experience.
The detail that makes this quilt worth studying is a decision about size. She needed a finished top made for a smaller bed to fit a larger one, and rather than adding a border evenly around all four sides, she worked out how the quilt would actually hang once it was on the bed, then added the border only where the quilt needed it, cutting the extra length from a strip of the border print she already had. She carried the same thinking to the reverse, designing it rather than just backing it, with one panel supplying the extra length and another the extra width, and everything left over from the front used to fill in around them.
Here is why this one is worth watching:
- A genuine, joyful moment. You cannot help but delight in seeing someone celebrate a first entry and an unexpected top prize, the kind of story that makes you want to cheer along.
- A close look at a winning quilt. She shares the details of the quilt itself, so you get to admire the work that caught the judges' eyes.
- A reverse that was designed, not backed. The back of the quilt was planned as carefully as the front, and it was that considered reverse that let her enter the same quilt in more than one division.
Have you ever entered a quilt into a fair or show, or is it something you dream of doing one day? I would love to hear your own entry stories, whether it is your first time or your fiftieth.
