Sound of Music Challenge: I Won Third Place!

I just received a phone call that my 'Sound of Music' Challenge quilt "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?" won third place from the Mid-Valley Quilt Guild here here in Salem Oregon!

For someone who made it while only get 3.5 hours of sleep a night in small added total of small 45 minute increments with multiple hours awake during the night  (going on 16 years of chronic sleep deprivation) and who spends so much time helping others, blogging, and doing the crazy things I do, I wasn't sure if I should even attempt to enter a contest in a guild that is primarily filled with really accomplished traditional quilters, who can not only think straight but cut straight besides, but I connected with the theme...and entered anyway :-)

So, but I tried NOT to see it as a problem (like Maria...) just decided to have fun and see it as 'good enough' for my first quilt challenge. I used fabric I had on hand (to save time and feel more liberated) But I had the loveliest spool of  Aurifil thread that I had just wonderfully won in a contest from another super talented art quilter/blogger (Mararita Korioth)  and bits and pieces of leftover craft paint, jewels etc. and combined it with a lot of freecycle finds and then some nice fabric from a local store that ended up working quite nicely. I aged my fabric with paintsticks and dye trying to mute it to the feel of that era.


Now, I'm actually pretty darn tickled!  And the best part..there was only a total of 3 votes between the first, second and third place finishes!

                                                         1st place (Dennison Doyle)

 2nd place (Diane Nordyke)

 3rd place (Michele Bilyeu)

 We are all very different quilters aren't we? And isn't it just wonderful that there is room in the quilting world for ALL of us?
  

Out of hundreds and hundreds of guild members, there were only twelve entries. But hey, 3 out of 12 makes me very happy, actually..I'm just glad I even got it done ;-)

 I'm polishing up my straw hat, twirling my dirndl, and yodeling to the mountains! oh-de-lay-he-hooo! I figured out how to solve a problem like Maria!


Michele Bilyeu blogs With Heart and Hands as she shares a quilting journey through her life in Salem, Oregon and Douglas, Alaska. Sewing, quilting, and wildcrafting, with small format art quilts, prayer flags, and comfort quilts for a variety of charitable programs. And best of all, sharing thousands of links to Free Quilt and Quilt Block Patterns and encouraging others to join her and make and donate quilts to charitable causes.   Help us change the world, one little quilt, art quilt, and prayer flag at a time!