This gorgeous quilt, called Nebula, was created by Barbara Daly Blanchard who took my class in Lancaster in 2010.

Here’s what Barbara has to say about creating this beauty:

“Nebula was created for a fabric challenge. I’d wanted to do a quilt with a collection of intersecting circles for some time, and thus Nebula was created. I began by drafting the circles before I worried about filling them, which was comparatively easy. The circles of flying geese and spirals were a further attempt to add complexity. The entire quilt was pieced, with the exception of three center circles, two in the top two stars, and one in the bottom star – piecing them was simply out of the question. The squares were drafted last as an attempt to add some color contrast and geometric diversity.

The most interesting challenge turned out to be working with so many small pieces and still getting a flat quilt. It would have been far easier with larger circles, but the fabric challenge had a limit of 120″ on the perimeter.”

This complex quilt is only 25″ by 35″! Barbara also shared that she has entered the quilt in two different shows and received quite different comments from the judges.

“I entered it in one quilt show and it got absolutely brutalized by the judges. I’ve never seen so many picky comments and excessive fault-finding. Talk about quilt-Nazis! So, I entered it back into another quilt show and got a totally different set of comments, which were more positive and constructive.”

I think all of us who have entered our quilts in competition can relate to what Barbara experienced. We shouldn’t let critical comments hurt our feeling or impede our creativity, but we should try to learn what we can from them. On a personal note, I have been asked to judge a number of shows and I can tell you from experience how hard it is to choose between the many beautiful quilts on dispolay and to put my personal preferences aside while judging.

Good luck to all who enter their quilts in shows! Thanks Barbara, for sharing your beautiful quilt with us.