Daniel and Erika and the Adam and Eve Wedding Quilt

This cute couple are my Son Daniel and his new Wife Erika.
They got married last June.
 

 

Before they got married, Daniel had a great idea for his Wedding Quilt. He wanted it to be Adam and Eve.  Much discussion was made over this quilt, from what should be in it to how it should be constructed. My kids thought it would be funny to do it 3D, and be able to lift up the leaves. However, since I am the quilter, I voted for 2D. Not that I can't do 3D, I can, but .... well.... Lets just say I'm more comfortable with 2D.

 

We started with Daniel and Erika laying down on butcher paper, and I drew a very loose sketch of them, just like you'd draw around your own hand. The quilt is life size! Then we pulled out the camera and took some pictures of them laying down. After that, 3 months of painting started!

 

I painted the quilt with Tsukineko Inks, then thread painted as I quilted. This is only the 5th quilt I've quilted with my long arm, so it was interesting to do the thread painting! One thing I learned was that you can't start at the top and work to the bottom when you thread paint. I didn't baste the layers together before I started, so the back was puckered when I got done, but the front looked AWESOME!

(next time I'll use wash-away thread to baste the quilt!)

 

I wanted to enter the quilt into the HMQS quilt contest, but wasn't quite finished by the time the entry deadline came. I was sad, but accepted it. Much to my surprise, they extended the deadline by one week, which allowed me to finish the quilt, enter it, and drop it off! I figured that was a sign that this quilt should be in this show!

 

This is me in front of the quilt.
YES! that is a RIBBON on the Quilt!!!!

This is a couple members of my family that came to look at the quilt! My oldest grandchild is standing by Brad, and my oldest son is by me.



My quilt took "BEST OF SHOW - ROOKIE"

Can you believe it!?! I was totally shocked! I got a phone call three days before the show opened, from someone who was judging the contest to see if I really was a rookie quilter. I told them I had been long-arm quilting less than a year, and that this was the fifth quilt I had quilted. (All the others had just been overall quilting).

I got another phone call two days before the awards ceremony and they told me that I should come to the Awards Ceremony. That I "should really be there". I wasn't planning on going, but I decided that I should go. So I went with my mom, Daniel and Erika, and my youngest daughter Sara. We sat through the whole awards ceremony, and my name hadn't been called. My kids actually leaned over to me and said that if they called me just to have people at the ceremony and were wasting their time, that they would be mad. I was starting to wonder myself!  Finally, they got to the last page, and as they announced "best of show - rookie" they said my name. Wow!
As I got up, I started crying because of shock/disbelief/gratitude. Then I walked up to the stage, and as I passed in front of the stage, my youngest daughter stands up and yells while pointing, "That's my Mom!" It made me laugh. (Is this how they feel when I do the same thing to them at their performances????)

I never expected to win something like this! I was even more shocked to find that it came with a $1000.00 check. I am still amazed that I won. But grateful to Daniel for his idea. I shared the money with Daniel and Erika and gave them a "modeling fee", then used the rest of the money on some new accessories for a new Bernina 830. Brad bought it for me when he found out I had won. I didn't expect that either! But again, was very grateful. Grateful for his generosity, and grateful that I had a machine that I could embroider on again. (My current machine at that time was a Bernina 180E (7 generations older) and I was fighting with my computer that I had to keep on windows 98, so that the software would run! )

I think I'll be doing more painting of quilts! It was a great experience!

As soon as I find my close-ups, I'll give more details on the quilt and the symbolism that it contains! There is a lot!