Finding My Way . . . and Showtime

Here it comes, ready or not! When I sew on one more label, I will have completed all my entries for the show. We are allowed only two per category, and I have entered eleven pieces in five categories. Whew! Glad to have everything finished. Well, almost everything--still need to turn in a piece for the silent auction. An interesting aspect of our show will be the Miss Hattie's Hat Challenge sponsored by the Hattiesburg Convention and Visitors Bureau. Below is their logo (which I have permission to use), but I will wait until after the show to post a picture of my challenge piece.

I pulled out from a closet a mariner's compass project I had started about 12 (?) years ago and finished it this summer. I had designed an expanded compass for the center in a Judy Spahn class years ago and added 8" compasses all around on a black sugar-dot background. It was hand-pieced, with a hand-pieced border around the octagon shape, squared off with four large corner blocks and more 8" compasses. My husband kept saying it was too beautiful to stop before full bed quilt size, so I kept trying to elongate the design without liking the results, hence the reason it lived in the closet for so long. Finally I saw that I needed to follow my own creative instincts and finish it in the way I was visualizing it. All this thinking brought about its real name--no longer just "the Mariner's Compass Quilt," but "Finding My Way." It's 65" square.

Center block is approximately 20" across; round blocks are 8".

We wanted to grow to a bigger show, and, working with the Hattiesburg Convention and Visitors Bureau (http://www.visithattie.com/) and the Hattiesburg Convention Commission, we will display almost 500 quilts on October 10-11-12 at Lake Terrace Convention Center at the intersection of I-59 and U.S. Hwy. 49.

In addition to the 480 judged show entries, we will have a silent auction of wall quilts plus a special exhibit of 12 of Vicksburg master quilter Martha Skelton's quilts. The new book, Martha Skelton: Master Quilter of Vicksburg (by Mary Elizabeth Johnson and MQA, through University Press of Mississippi), will be available during the show through Main Street Books.