31 Days - Day 19: Prize winner

In 1998 I spent a weekend at a quilt retreat in Door County, at a private church camp on the bay side of the peninsula north of Egg Harbor somewhere.

The only thing I did all weekend was machine quilt on this Christmas tree skirt.

This was about four months before I upgraded my sewing machine, and it may well be the last quilt made on  my old, trusty Kenmore.

What may not be evident unless you click to enlarge the picture is that the whole thing is quilted with gold metallic thread.

The basic unit here is an arrowhead. You can see one if you look at the white piece on the lower edge of the picture just right of center. Three of these were joined to form an equilateral triangle - look at the lower right corner and you should be able to pick out a triangle with one red point and two green ones.

Who said geometry never comes in handy?

The green, red and floral sections are quilted in an echoed line pattern, while the white is filled with a puzzle meander. Metallic thread was not known for its ease of use, but once I started with it, I didn't want to take the time to tear it out. Truthfully, by the time I finally finished quilting this piece, I had using the wretched stuff down pat. Metallics have improved greatly since then, and my current machine has a host of options for dealing with recalcitrant fibers. Still, the lessons learned quilting this come in handy from time to time.

The last year it was eligible for entry (any entries have to have been completed within three years of entry date), I decided on a whim to enter it in the State Fair.

Um, yeah. In spite of the bad picture through a glass case, you can make out that it is a first place ribbon pinned on the tree skirt. In addition to the ribbon, I won a whopping $10 ($6 profit, when you deduct the $4 entry fee).

There wasn't a whole lot of competition in the "Christmas" category that year, but it was still a thrill to win a ribbon.

I haven't entered anything since; why risk defeat?