"Balanced negative space was achieved"

First irritation about that statement- passive voice. Second irritation- who makes a statement like that about a modern quilt?!

Let me back up. The Iowa State Fair had a modern division for the first time. I decided to enter because I figured if there were many entrants then they would keep the division. I had no delusions of winning. I knew that several of the ladies from the Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild were entering so there would be some really nice quilts. Well, the division didn't turn out exactly how I expected. There were a couple quilts that I thought were robbed of ribbons, but that's ok; judges' prerogative. What I am irritated about is that they didn't seem to understand the category and went through a checklist of what they thought the category was. Hence the comment, "Balanced negative space achieved".

Anyway, I LOVE this quilt. The pattern is from Modern Quilt Relish and the fabric is Dear Stella. I love the pattern. I love the fabric. I love the colours. Jenny did a fantastic job quilting it and again was able to interpret my chicken scratch on a piece of paper.

Using my time wisely

I work crazy hours during the summer so to keep my sanity I try to keep up with hobbies. I don't really like quilting during the summer because it takes large chunks of time rather than being able to leverage 20-30 minutes here and there. I've been doing cross stitch this summer and pretty much kept up with the Woodland Sampler. My plan is to cut them apart and turn them into garland or Christmas ornaments. Any suggestions on how to do that? Stuff them? Use interfacing and fray the edges, but not have a back?

I've signed up for their Halloween Sampler. It looks cute in the preview. They suggested (and I followed) using Weeks Dye Works floss. I had never heard of it before, but supposedly it is hand dyed floss which gives a variegated effect of sorts. I ordered the floss and was looking forward to using it, but after reading the instructions for the pattern it said I should make each 'x' individually to get the gradation effect. That I am not looking forward to. I like to count once and be done. It is also a waste of floss in my opinion. Need to figure out a way to work around that suggestion. I made my own sparkle aida for the sampler! The picture doesn't really show anything, but in person it looks pretty good. My fabric is gray and I used diamond sparkles. I don't know how much it is going to stay on. I was a little heavy handled with the paint so even if the majority falls off there will still be plenty of sparkle.