Life...in which you should always expect the totally unexpected

Okay. I've made 2 different posts about the Fat Quarterly Reader Competition and how it inspired me to pick 2 projects from the fantastic issues of FQ that I bought and downloaded sometime toward the end of last year.  If you are a quilter and you don't subscribe to Fat Quarterly, you must go forth and check them out!

Last night I had an email from Fat Quarterly with some utterly unexpected news! (stand by)

First here are some photos of the entry that I didn't finish in time to enter the competition.  This quilt top was done, but I just couldn't get it quilted and bound by March 31st. I finally took the top outside and snapped some photos early this (grey overcast) morning so I could do this quick post during my lunch break today.  This one is based on a Flying Geese pattern - but I don't have the FQ issue in hand right now to tell you which one or the exact name of the pattern.  My interpretation of it was to add the alternating diagonal sections of warm, cool, and dark neutrals across the quilt to add more motion to the quilt.  I like it!  The fabrics are mostly from Moda Wee Woodland by Keiki with some additional prints thrown in to round out my color needs.

Can you feel the movement?  I hope so.

This was my first time with half square triangles (HSTs) - I can see why some quilters get addicted to these. There are so many different ways they can be arranged - I think that doing the flying geese in this non-traditional way gave even more movement to the alternating colorways.  To be honest, when I was working close up I wasn't sure I'd like the combination of fabrics or the colors...and then I couldn't get a sense of whether my concept would work until it was all pieced together.  Now I wish I had more time to quilt it - I'd like to do a zigzag echo type quilting I think.

Piecing triangles like this was a challenge to keep all my points and line them up. Overall, I'd give myself an A- maybe, or maybe a B+. You can see several spots with misalignment, but overall I managed to stay "on point" (hehe)

Okay - now for the unexpected you've all been waiting patiently for. My Circular Logic pillow was the winner of the category 2 entries in the Fat Quarterly Reader Competition!!  Since I got the email last night I kept thinking "no, there's been a mistake...the most I even aspired to in the beginning was MAYBE a runner-up".  But today they posted the results - and there it is!!  I am so honored and flattered - there were 20 fantastic entries and I can't even imagine how the judges were able to pick a top 3.  Please go and take a look!!

Friday edit: go check out Sarah's Whoop Whoop linkys for the week!