Lancaster show winners announced

Congratulations to all the winning quiltmakers at the second annual AQS Show & Contest in Lancaster, Pennsylvania! A complete list of winners plus photos of the winning quilts are now posted at http://www.americanquilter.com/shows_contests/lancaster/2011/quilt_contest/quilt_winners.php

Best of show was awarded to Cindy Seitz-Krug of Bakersfield, California, for her quilt SIMPLY SANTA FE (photo above). Before starting the day’s tasks, this mother of two and owner of a commercial catfish farm gets up early and quilts from 5AM to 7AM every morning. “Quilting is my favorite part of the quiltmaking process,” Cindy says, “and I start thinking about the quilting as soon the quilt is designed.” As she did in this quilt, Cindy often chooses Cherrywood Fabrics for their rich appearance and how well her quilting shows up on them.

The quilt design is Cindy’s original, as are the feather quilting motifs and the hand appliquéd flowers in the quilt center. The intricate quilted background fillers are adaptations of patterns Cindy learned in classes with Diane Gaudynski and Sharon Schamber. Cindy loves the symmetry of traditional quilts, but admits the colorful ribbon border presented sewing challenges posed by all the bias edges. She quilts on a BERNINA 440 without a stitch regulator, and estimates that the quilting took between 300 and 400 hours.
Congratulations, Cindy, and thank you for entering your quilt in this AQS show.
It's not too early to start sewing for next year's AQS shows. Here are the 2012 show dates:
Lancaster, PA             March 14-17
Paducah, KY              April 25-28
Grand Rapids, MI       August 22-25 
Des Moines, IA           October 3-6