Dimmitt, Texas, (pop. 4,423) really knows how to hold a quilt show. The Ogallala Quilters' Society hosts a yearly quilt festival that truly is a world class event. Well, it's not gigantic like Road to California or Houston's International Quilt Festival, but with over 500 quilts on display, there was plenty of eye candy for quilters who came this past weekend from New Mexico, Texas, Arizona and, amazingly, my old home town, Corona, California.
Yep, it's a small world and when my friend Ann took a Pat Speth (she was the feature teacher) class there and found some quilters from Corona, she mentioned my name. Sure enough, one of the quilters knew who I was. I worked with her hubby and taught her daughter. Weird, huh?
What wasn't weird was this awesome quilt which won Best in Show, called Many Mansions, by Mary Steinhauer from Lubbock, Texas.
According to Mary, after reading a post about these little houses on a Dutch blog, she decided to challenge herself to make one little schoolhouse block each day for 366 days (it was a leap year). What is so cool are the little windows with teeny details in them like flowers, kitties, and a Christmas tree. One of the houses has a photo of Mary smiling at the viewer. The blue border has a gently scalloped edge.
Below is the appliqued and embroidered center of the quilt.
The stitching in the sky reminds me of Van Gogh's Starry Night.
There were many gorgeous quilts, and this was my favorite.
